To help show off its 3D product line, Sony is sponsoring a 3D video version of Sports Illustrated’s new Swimsuit Issue.
The half-hour “Swimsuit in 3-D” video will be available for consumers to rent or buy starting Feb. 15 through Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Bravia web-enabled, 3D-compatible TVs and Blu-ray players.
The video isn’t going to be a huge moneymaker because not that many people own 3D TVs yet. That’s part of the point, according to Sony, which has been one of the most aggressive marketers of 3D TVs.
“There’s sort of a chicken-and-egg problem going on right now, where the device penetration has been fairly low, so the studios have been fairly slow to release 3D content,” said Michael Aragon, vice-president and general manager for global digital video distribution and operations at Sony Network Entertainment. “Our expectation and our road map on this whole thing has been that this is going to be a little bit slower adoption than HD. While we might not be making tons of money on the 3D content, it seeds a universe of product that we have in 3D.”
Lackluster sales for 3D TVs have recently sparked arguments that the whole home 3D push will be a grind at best, and hardly the next big thing any time soon. Last year manufacturers shipped 1.6 million 3D TVs to retailers in North America out of 42.5 million flatscreen TVs shipped overall, according to DisplaySearch, a research and consulting unit of The NPD Group.
Traction is coming slowly partly because the necessary glasses are too expensive for anyone to supply, say, their guests at a Super Bowl party, said Michael Pachter, a managing director in equity research at Wedbush Securities. And different formats mean friends couldn’t bring glasses from home even if they owned their own 3D sets unless they were all from the same manufacturer.
Content is the other problem: Studios aren’t releasing enough movies in 3D to make 3D sets important for regular viewing, Pachter said, though sports content is increasing, particularly in sports like football.
But there’s limited bandwidth, Pachter said, and not enough room for more than a few networks to add 3D channels. “The migration of content is going to take a long time,” he said.
Sony actually argues that 3D gaming is going to be a key driver of 3D TV sales, but it’s planning to be patient in any case. “We’re in this for the long haul,” Aragon said.
The “Swimsuit in 3D” video is part of a bigger Swimsuit Issue pact between Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated and Sony, which will also sell and rent 2D swimsuit videos and photos through its networked devices.
And it’s OK if the 3D piece isn’t huge yet, Sports Illustrated agreed. “As far as 3D TV goes, the distribution is growing, but it’s not at scale at this point in time,” said Mark Ford, president of the sports group at Time Inc. “But when it is, we’re going to be there as well.”
The 3D video is expected sell for $7.99 and rent for $4.99. Its 2D equivalent is expected to sell for $6.99 and rent for $3.99. Sony plans to stoke demand with a free three-minute version.
To read the original article in Advertising Age, click here.
