What Consumers Think of 3D

http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/node/771

 

2008 March 02

 

Two new studies strongly suggest that most consumers are embracing 3D enthusiastically and that the need to wear glasses to enjoy 3D content is not a big obstacle for most people. The studies also show that the more people know about 3D the more they like it, something that holds true for 3D in movie theatres, video games and in home theatre.

The first study, released jointly by the Consumer Electronics Association and the Entertainment and Technology Center at USC, offers a comprehensive history of 3D technology, a look at where that technology is going both in movie theatres and in the home and offers the results of a survey that wanted to find out what average consumers think about 3D. 

That study was supervised by Shawn DuBravac, economist for the CEA and an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Business and by David Wertheimer, executive director of the ETC.

The second study comes from the group Meant to be Seen, which bills itself as “the foremost authority group on stereoscopic 3D gaming and home entertainment.” Their report, which tilts heavily to the gaming community, nevertheless dovetails in some ways with the findings from the CEA and ETC.

The CEA-ETC study “set out to gain a baseline understanding of consumer interest in and attitudes towards 3D,” with a particular emphasis on how soon people might be introducing 3D technology into home theatres. A national sampling of just over a thousand adults was surveyed by telephone last December. Here are some of the highlights.

Overall awareness of 3D is still low; just 40 percent of people in the top 20 media markets reported that they’d seen or heard information about 3D content. But nearly a third of the people who were aware of 3D had already seen a 3D movie in a theatre and of that group more than have say they’ll watch another 3D movie in the next 24 months. While these numbers might b discouraging to some, the CEA-ETC study notes that they compare favorably with numbers that were gathered in a 1998 about digital TV; today more than 60 percent of households have digital TV and adoption is proceeding steadily.

Of the people who have already seen a 3D movie in a theatre almost 40 percent say they would prefer a movie in 3D compared to the same movie in 2D. And more than half of US adults said wearing glasses is not a problem.

In a result that is encouraging for the home theatre market but needs to be fully understood by exhibitors is the fact that of the people who saw a 3D movie in the past year 60 percent said they would pay more to have a 3D television at home and 19 percent said they would spend up to 25 percent more for that television. 

Finally and not so surprising is that the study found that 18-29 year olds appear to be the prime audience for 3D. The survey concluded, “Overall, 3D content could be on the cusp of becoming mainstream. Interest grows with each 3D release in theatres.”

The complete study is available free to CEA member companies. Non-members may purchase the study for $999 at http://ce.org.

The Meant to be Seen study concluded that the majority of misconceptions about 3D are not as rampant as some people have suggested. 

In the MTBS study customer opinions were captured in two separate online surveys.  One was for traditional gamers who don’t yet own 3D display equipment, and the other was for experienced stereoscopic 3D gamers and consumers.  Each respondent was required to answer 26 multipart questions, and there were well over seven hundred surveys collected (60 percent 2D, 40 percent 3D gamers), with each taking as long as ten minutes to complete.

MTBS chose to promote survey participation to gamers because recent studies demonstrate that over 50 percent of adults play video games.  Gamers are also technically savvy enough to understand both cinema and gaming markets equally well and are most likely to be able to answer questions in an informed manner.

The MTSB study found that almost 70 percent of the people they surveyed said they would not mind wearing glasses to watch 3D on television.  The numbers were even better if 3D games were the activity.