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Nine’s 3D Olympics set for daytimes, not prime time.

Nine will offer up to 5 hours of 3D coverage during its daytime broadcasts of the London Olympics, but avoids any in prime time.

Nine has now confirmed further details of its 3D Olympics coverage, following the granting of a trial license from the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

It will offer up to 5 hours of 3D coverage each day on an allocated 3D channel for viewers with a 3D-enabled TV in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and the Gold Coast.

3D content will commence each day at 11am following London Gold, meaning it will end by 4pm each day despite ACMA not placing any time limitations on Nine during the trial period.

The move away from prime time is strategic on Nine’s part because the allocated channel will not be part of the OzTAM survey panel, so a prime time offering may have diminished the audience numbers where the most advertiser dollars are being spent.

3D coverage will include the Opening Ceremony and events including the Swimming finals, Gymnastics, Athletics, Canoe Slalom, Synchronised Swimming and Diving, and concludes each day with a one-hour highlights program.

“Wide World of Sports continually employs state-of-the-art sports broadcast technology to provide the best television event for our audience. The addition of a 3D package to the Nine Network’s coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games ensures Australians will get the very best television coverage at no charge to our viewers,” Managing Director, Jeffrey Browne, said.

Nine will now have almost 24 hours of continuous daily coverage across Nine, GEM and the dedicated 3D channel.

11 Responses

  1. Nine’s 3D Trial broadcast for the Olympics has started on LCN 95.
    I’m thrilled that unlike the 2010 trial, my Beyonwiz PVR is able to correctly playback this signal.
    Also looks like there will be a proper EPG this time, unlike 2010.
    More info at nine.com.au/Olympics3D

  2. We all know 3D is a waste of time.HD will always be number 1 choice.About 2 months ago a huge place in Japan that sells everything electronic decided they will no longer sell 3D televisions because no one wants them….3D is on the way out that’s for sure

  3. Clearly I’m in the minority but I’m actually looking forward to seeing how the Olympics look in 3D.

    My LG TV has 3D and smart TV functions. We make a lot more use of 3D than the Smart TV – there are a lot of recent movies in 3D. The passive 3D glasses are great – got plenty from trips to the cinema so it’s easy to invite friends and family around.

    The only hitch may be that my Beyonwiz PVR may struggle to play the 3D broadcast if they use the same MPEG4 format they did in the 2010 trial.

    Might have to transfer recordings or use the TV’s recording capability or even just fallback to live TV.

  4. 3D television is one of the biggest gimmicks of this century. It’s no wonder they’re not even bothering with Canberra, Newcastle and any other places which have affiliate stations.

  5. “Wide World of Sports continually employs state-of-the-art sports broadcast technology to provide the best television event for our audience”

    I guess that doesn’t apply to HD coverage of any Rugby League events. Or is SD state of the art these days?

    Do we know how many TVs are 3D enabled? While most of my friends and family have an tv that does HD, I don’t know of any that have a 3D enabled TV.

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