Virgin Media is planning on producing its own 3D TV content, around such live events as the V Festival, to populate its new 3D on demand service.
The TV company announced at the beginning of this week that it had launched a 3D Movies On Demand channel, three days ahead of Sky’s own 3D channel going live, which has launched today.
Currently, there is just one movie on offer,StreetDance 3D, which costs £5.99 for a 24-hour rental. The company will be scaling up its 3D content, but the service will remain on-demand (as opposed to live-channel), so it will not screen sports events in 3D.
However, a Virgin Media spokesman told The Telegraph, that service will move beyond just offering films and that the company will be investing in original content. “We can confirm we’re looking at producing original content in 3D…. it makes sense for us to look at things like live music with the Virgin Media V Festival,” they said.
Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, explained that movies in 3D would remain available on a paid-for basis, but Virgin Media customers, with the right technology, would be able to access other 3D content, such as TV shows, for free. She confirmed that the company has already secured the rights of a couple of TV programmes to be shown in 3D, but could not name them yet.
“The bottom line is we have high value people on our customer base, who have invested in a 3D TV, and we want to make sure we are super-serving those high end customers. And we also want to create a market for 3D content,” she told The Telegraph.
The BBC, meanwhile, is yet to be fully converted to the case for 3D and is still experimenting with the technology. A spokesman confirmed that there would not be a BBC 3D channel appearing “any time soon”. The corporation is, however, considering a modest series of trials in the lead-up to the 2012 Olympics.
It is not yet known how many people nationally have bought a 3DTV. However, just two per cent of UK consumers plan on buying a 3D TV over the next 12 months, according to recent Deloitte research.
By Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor
Published: 7:00AM BST 01 Oct 2010