Not easy getting 3D in the home

Not easy getting 3D in the home
by Robert Briel

The road from HD to 3D is “a harder mountain to climb”, according to the US based research institute NSR, because “equipment required to bring 3D from the cinema into the living room is neither on the shelves, nor on wish lists of the general viewing public.”

For a DTH operator in the US or UK, the question of whether they should launch 3D services almost seems like a no-brainer. A quick look at the recent past reveals that as subscribers have moved from SD to HD, DTH operators have steadily grown their ARPU numbers. Over the past decade, since the introduction of HD in these mature markets, subscribers have steadily added premium options to their subscriptions. The “idiot box” got smarter with PVRs, and picture quality went from SD to HD, taking ARPUs from $50 (€34.5) to $80 levels.

As of the end of 2008, premium subscribers in North America numbered nearly twice their basic counterparts, and the recession only made more people stay at home and watch television. NSR expects these 24 million premium subscribers as of the end of 2009 to grow to about 38 million by 2018. However, NSR said it is in no hurry to adjust these numbers to account for 3D subscribers.

Read the whole story here: http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2010/01/ … -the-home/

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