Showtime, Starz Being Cautious With 3D, Executives Tell Conference
Showtime Networks was an early supporter of HD but is “being a little bit more cautious” with 3D, CEO Matthew Blank said at the Future of Television conference in New York Friday. Blank sees 3D as more of “a theater experience” than a “living room experience” for now, he said, responding to our query about Showtime’s position on the technology and its 3D plans.
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"We just don’t see a lot of benefit in being out there in front of the pack at this point in time,” Blank said. While he loves the experience of seeing a 3D movie at an IMAX theater, he said, when he comes home after work to watch TV, he’s “usually lying on my back on a sofa,” which doesn’t lend itself to properly viewing a program in 3D. He also said only a “relatively small percentage” of TVs are now “HD-connected,” he said.
But Blank said “we certainly won’t be left behind” on 3D at Showtime. “When the content is there and the demand is there,” Showtime will support 3D, he said, without projecting when that may happen.
Discovery Communications, on the other hand, continues to see “a lot of promise” in 3D, said Kelly Day, its chief operating officer of digital media. The company was an early HD supporter and “we believe in 3D” also, she said. Discovery teamed with IMAX and Sony on a dedicated 3D TV network that will run content around the clock when it launches in the U.S. next year.
Also taking a wait-and-see stance with 3D is Starz, but for a different primary reason. Starz is “pretty excited” by the technology, but “give us one standard” first, said John Penney, Starz executive vice president of strategy and business development. It’s still “early stages” for 3D TV, he said. Glasses-free 3D solutions are “probably the most intriguing” way to approach 3D TV, he added.
A&E Television Networks, meanwhile, sees promise in 3D, but Dan Suratt, executive vice president of digital media and business development, predicted it will be a “long evolution” before 3D becomes prevalent in living rooms. There’s a long window before many consumers are going to replace TVs they only bought two or three years ago with new 3D models, he said. A&E’s History channel in July offered its first 3D program, the season five premiere episode of the TV show The Universe, titled 7 Wonders of the Solar System. It aired on DirecTV’s new n3D 3D channel.
Day said her company was “absolutely evolving into a technology company,” saying it was something it had to do because of the growing alternate methods of distribution, which include smartphones, iPads and many other devices. Suratt said his company had to do the same thing, telling the conference there was “no way that a media company can not be a technology company” anymore.
Blank, Day and Suratt said they saw the importance of interactive gaming to their businesses. It’s a “very important part” of Showtime’s digital strategy, said Blank. While the company has no plans to make games, he said the connected videogame consoles can all be components in that digital strategy. Even if a small number of console owners are connected, that’s still a sizable audience, he said. Discovery, meanwhile, has been licensing its TV properties for games on multiple platforms including Cash Cab and Deadliest Catch for consoles, PCs and mobile devices. It will continue to be active in the games category, Day said. A&E is being “aggressive” in the category and plans to release several social games in the coming months, said Suratt. A&E is also “looking at all kinds” of applications for Apple and Android devices, he said, later saying his company now has to optimize its content for those devices, along with Windows 7.
It’s “way too early” to conclude how significant the number of people who are “cutting the cord” is, Blank also said. There has, however, no doubt “been a lot of share shifting” between the various distributors of TV programming, he said. Showtime is especially keeping a close eye on how 18-34-year-old TV viewers “will behave” as a result of all the new digital options for viewing TV programs, he said. It’s becoming increasingly easy for viewers to access TV shows via connected game consoles, Blu-ray players and other devices, he said. Separately, Comcast buying control of NBC Universal “will create a very powerful company,” he said. But he said, “It’s not easy to integrate these big companies,” and predicted it “will make for some interesting theater."
Verizon meanwhile is “seeing explosive growth in volume and demand” for mobile content, said Maitreyi Krishnaswamy, director of interactive video services. The content purchase business model is “not as cost-effective” for Verizon as the rental model, but the company offers both choices to meet consumer demand, she said. One barrier for the industry is that it is “difficult to navigate” all the content rights involved, said Joe Bilman executive vice president of global products for the Fox Mobile Group. It’s “as complicated as it’s ever been,” he said. Krishnaswamy agreed. The market is also very “fragmented” now due in part to the growing number of mobile devices, Bilman said.