Compare 3D TV

Television has evolved a long way since the first broadcast from Alexandra Palace in London more than 70 years ago. Broadcasts have switched from black and white to colour, fuzzy analogue pictures to high-definition digital screens, a single channel to hundreds of them.

The next step, the TV industry says, will be programmes transmitted in three dimensions, raising the prospect of sofa-bound sports fans ducking to avoid the football that just leapt out of the screen.

Sky said yesterday that it has developed the technology and infrastructure to beam 3D images to a television set. The company will continue to develop the project over the next few years, while the TV screens required to handle 3D television become more affordable and readily available, and programme makers and broadcasters film more of their content in 3D.

“We’re just exploring right now, but the next step is going to be to find out whether 3DTV is something people are going to be interested in,” Brian Lenz, the company’s head of product design and innovation, said.

If there is public appetite for this new experience, Sky – which is part-owned by News Corporation, the parent company of The Times – will roll out the service over the next few years and is likely to be the first broadcaster to offer channels with full 3D coverage.

The broadcaster demonstrated clips of sporting events filmed in 3D, including footage from a recent rugby international and Champions League football match.

The matches were shot using two cameras filming the action side-by-side. The new technology allows these two images to be merged and played out simultaneously on the same TV screen. Viewers wearing polarised glasses will see a different image with each eye, tricking the brain into believing that it is seeing a three-dimensional image.

Sky says that it will eventually be able to film and broadcast events live and in three dimensions.

Worldwide, there are similar moves to switch from 2D to 3D TV. An NFL American football match was recently broadcast live in 3D to a selection of audiences at cinemas across the US and in Japan, where 3D-capable TV screens are already readily available, cable stations are showing 3D programmes four times a day.

The race is on to create an affordable TV that can handle the 3D signal. Hyundai has released a model that works with polarised glasses and costs £2,500, about 25 per cent more than a comparable flat-screen television. Philips has created a 3D TV that does not require glasses, but it costs about £7,500.

The technology developed by Sky only works when viewers are wearing glasses.

In the meantime, broadcasters are hoping that studios will start producing more films and programmes in 3D. The signs are encouraging. Pixar, the animation studio that made Toy Story and The Incredibles, has announced that from next year all of its films will be rendered in 3D.