3-D Channels to Begin Broadcasting Full Time

Two 3-D television channels will start broadcasting full time in the next week.

According to Brian Stelter at the Media Decoder blog at nytimes.com, Discovery, Sony and IMAX said Thursday that their 3-D joint venture, 3net, would begin televising on Sunday night. That’s one day before ESPN turns ESPN 3D into a 24-hour channel.

Around-the-clock broadcasting is an important step for both channels, but there is still little to watch in 3-D, so the channels will repeat the same shows over and over again.

3net says it will have about 20 original hours of programming in February. On Sunday, 3net will start up at 8 p.m. Eastern Time and show three nature documentaries: “China Revealed” at 8, “Into The Deep 3D”
at 9 and “Forgotten Planet” at 10.

Most people will not be able to watch: 3net will be available only to DirecTV subscribers initially. And of course, DirecTV subscribers will have to have a 3-D TV set and 3-D glasses to tune in.

Read more here.