MSG: 3D Hockey Telecast Offsides For Other Distributors

Timing Didn’t Work For Other Carriers As Cablevision Exclusively Presented 3DTV Feed of Rangers-Islanders Game

By Todd Spangler

Cablevision Systems and MSG network touted the first-ever live 3D sports telecast to home viewers — the March 24 New York Rangers-Islanders hockey game — which was available exclusively to the cable operator’s New York-area customers.

The enhanced game feed wasn’t offered to telco competitors while other cable and satellite TV operators either didn’t have enough time to accommodate carriage or, in DirecTV’s case, opted not to offer a “one-off event.”

MSG Media president Mike Bair said the network approached other distributors, including DirecTV and Time Warner Cable, about carrying the game in 3D, but that the project’s quick turnaround made it logistically impossible to execute.

“We just announced this two weeks ago,” he said.

MSG’s 3D telecast dropped the puck on a flurry of sports activity in the nascent TV space. CBS, LG Electronics and Cinedigm Digital Cinema are set to present the Final Four, the national semifinals of the 2010 Men’s Division I Basketball Championships on April 3, as well as the final on April 5 in 3D, to 100 theaters around the nation. For their part, Sony Electronics and Comcast will deliver  back-nine coverage of The Masters from Augusta National Course on April 8-11 in 3D HD, as well as the Par 3 Tournament on April 7,  to the top operator’s residentiial customers with the requisite equipment.

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