TORONTO. Ont. ● It looks like Canadians who bought their 3D TV’s in the hope to catch the London Olympics in 3D will be totally out of luck.
Adam Ashton, president of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, says providing coverage of some of the events in 3D proved to be too expensive.
He also says the number of Canadians who actually own a 3D TV was another discouraging factor.
The consortium will air more than 5,500 hours of coverage — when combining TV broadcasts and online streaming — during the 17 days of the Olympics.
TV coverage will air on CTV, TSN, Sportsnet, OLN, RDS, V, OMNI.1, OMNI.2 and ATN.
In the U.S., NBC plans to air 242 hours of 3D coverage, including the opening and closing ceremonies. The BBC has also announced 3D plans.
“3D is a very expensive business proposition and a tough business model that requires big investment and support by a number of different partners,” Ashton said.
“We did explore it for quite some time last year but it just didn’t make sense for our market at this time.”