Sky to broadcast preview 3D TV service this weekend

At the start of the week Broadband Genie reported on the news Sky was hoping to broadcast 3D Premier League football matches by the end of the year. However, the wait is shorter than first expected. Today, Sky officially confirmed it will launch Sky 3D, Europe’s first dedicated 3D TV channel in April 2010.

Preparing consumers for what’s to come Sky has also announced it will be previewing the service with a world first this Sunday (31 January 2010). With this preview broadcast it looks set to become the first TV company in the world to broadcast a live 3D TV sports event to a public audience.

The first match to be aired in 3D will be the Premier League’s game between Arsenal and Manchester United. This will be shown in nine selected pubs around the UK and Ireland, each kitted up with some of the first ‘3D Ready’ TV sets to reach UK and Ireland.

The hope is, once 3D TVs become more widely available (from the likes of Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic), Sky will expand its service to broadcast in hundreds of pubs from April. Then, later this year, Sky will make the Sky 3D channel available to all Sky+ HD customers.

Sky 3D will work with all existing Sky+HD boxes at no extra cost to customers who already subscribe to Sky’s top TV package and the Sky HD pack.

In order to obtain the 3D sports content to broadcast to the public, Sky Sports intends to product two edits of its live coverage of Sunday’s football match – one for the HD channel feed and another for the dedicated 3D coverage. There will also be a dedicated commentary team to support the 3D edit.

In separate Sky news, the provider has just released its half-year results taking into account financial figures until 31 December 2009.

It managed to maintain a steady broadband business with 101,000 additional broadband customers taking the total ISP subscriber figure to 2,404,000.

Bundled deals proved popular as Sky confirmed 18 per cent of its customers have chosen to sign up to TV, broadband and telephone.

For more information on Sky’s broadband products, including TV, Phone and Sky HD+ bundles click here.