Regional sports network YES and pay-TV operator DirecTV
announced a 3D programming initiative Wednesday (May 5).
DirecTV is launching four 3D channels, including ESPN 3D, in
June, and had already said it will air the 2010 All-Star Game in 3D, in
partnership with Fox Sports.
Wednesday
it announced that it will team with YES Network and FSN Northwest to present
the first-ever Major League Baseball telecasts in 3D on Saturday, July 10 and
Sunday, July 11 when the New York Yankees take on the Seattle Mariners at
Safeco Field in Seattle.
DirecTV
and Panasonic will be presenting sponsors of the two 3D telecasts, which will
be made available to DirecTV HD customers who have 3D TV sets and live within
the YES "home team footprint," which includes all of New
York State and Connecticut, north and central New
Jersey, and northeast Pennsylvania.
The 3D telecasts will also air live within the FSN Northwest footprint,
including the entire states of Washington, Oregon, Alaska and parts
of Montana and Idaho.
The
Saturday, July 10 game telecast will begin at 10:00 p.m. ET, and the Sunday,
July 11 game telecast will begin at 4:00 p.m. ET. YES and FSN
Northwest will both also produce their traditional HD telecasts of both games.
"We're extremely excited to enter
into this partnership with DirecTV," said YES Network COO Ray Hopkins, who said
the companies have been in discussions over a 3D production for several months.
Hopkins said the
3D effort is a natural followup to the interactive TV initiative that YES and
DirecTV teamed on in 2006.
The two games will be produced
separately from YES' normal HD coverage, with 3D camera rigs from 3D specialist
PACE and NEP Broadcasting's SS3D truck. That is the same technical set-up that
supported ESPN's 3D production of The Masters golf tournament last month, which
was carried on a special channel by Comcast and several other cable operators
and also made available as a live Internet stream to 3D-capable laptops and
PCs.
Hopkins said that the 3D broadcasts of the
Yankees will also be made available to other YES affiliates, though he provided
no details about other potential carriage deals. He added that Panasonic will be
coordinating public viewing events of the games but that it is unlikely there
will be one at Yankee Stadium. That makes sense, as the Yankees have a close
business relationship with rival set-maker Sony Electronics and Sony HDTV
monitors are installed throughout Yankee Stadium.
Fox Sports already shot some test
3D footage this spring in Anaheim with some high-school baseball players,
noted Eric Shanks, EVP of Entertainment for DirecTV, and the YES production and
All-Star Game should provide further guidance as to how to regularly produce
baseball in 3D. Shanks said he was impressed by the visual effect 3D's depth of
field gave in the test footage.
"There are some interesting shots
from the center-field camera, looking at the runner on second base," he said.
"You actually feel you're in the stadium looking at that shot."
Shanks didn't announce any
further MLB 3D broadcasts past the All-Star Game, but said that early 3D
adopters could expect a steady flow of 3D sports content on DirecTV, with much
of it coming from ESPN 3D.
"Through the course of 2010,
2011, there's probably not going to be a week that goes by without some 3D
sporting event for our subscribers."
