ESPN Aims To Launch 3D Network, Blow Minds

Move over, humanoid Pandoran blue creatures – ESPN is getting into the 3-D game, launching the first all-3D sports channel starting with a World Cup match on June 11.

ESPN has dabbled in 3-D broadcasting before (and the press release says the network has been testing the format for two years), but it’s hard to believe the timing of this announcement doesn’t have a lot to do with the blockbuster 3-D success of James Cameron’s Avatar. But this is sports, not a move theater, leading to the logical question, posed here: “Do you care?”

The World Cup match should be a good barometer of whether people do, in fact, care, since the Avatar madness will have died down by June and won’t be an influence. But even if that broadcast succeeds, what of the other 85 or so 3-D events that follow throughout 2010 and 2011? The buzz will be hard to sustain across an entire year, so the 3-D element better really make for an improved viewing experience. Based on Avatar’s mostly glowing reviews, it just might.

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