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BBC: Sky is kicking off the UK’s first 3D channel with a live Premier League football match to be broadcast in nine pubs around the UK this weekend.

The match between Arsenal and Manchester United will be viewable in 3D in pubs in London, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

In April Sky will roll out its 3D channel to hundreds of other pubs. Later in the year, Sky 3D will be made available to all Sky+HD customers with a range of content on offer. This will include movies, sport, documentaries and entertainment. Sky 3D will initially be available as a free add-on for those with Sky+HD boxes. Viewers need to wear a special pair of glasses to watch the content.

There has been a great deal of hype around the technology since cinemas began showing films in 3D. Avatar, shot in 3D, has become the highest grossing film of all time. It is expected that 3D-ready TVs will hit the consumer market later this year.

“People have already embraced 3D cinema and because Sky’s 3D service uses the same kind of technology, we’re confident there will be demand for sport, movies, concerts and drama in 3D,” said Gerry O’Sullivan, Sky’s director of strategic product development. In February, two rugby matches in the Six Nations championship will be filmed in 3D and shown at cinemas around the UK.

The 2010 World Cup will also be filmed in the format. The BBC was the first to show a 3D sports event, broadcasting a Scotland v England rugby match at the Six Nations championship in 2008.

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Which: Sky has stated that it believes 3D TV could become available to UK consumers, ‘any time in the next two years’.

In a report in The Times, Gerry O’Sullivan, director of strategic product development at Sky, said that the launch of a 3D TV service is dependent of the results from ongoing trials and the availability of suitable content.

In December, Sky demonstrated the broadcasting of 3D TV to an imported 3D-ready TV set manufactured by Hyundai.

Such TVs aren’t yet available in the UK, however Panasonic has reportedly confirmed that it will be selling 1080p 3D TVs by 2010.

Sky believes that 3D-ready TVs are unlikely to cost much more than an HDTV to manufacturer, although The Times believes that the cost to the consumer is likely be higher due to manufacturers attaching a premium. 3D glasses will also be required.

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Webuser: Sixty-eight per cent of all UK television sets are now digitally linked via cable, satellite or digital terrestrial services.

Industry watchdog Ofcom said in a recent study that householders are continuing to focus on converting their secondary television sets to digital.

Ofcom’s Digital Progress Report for the first quarter of 2008 shows that the total number of digitally linked sets has grown from 33.5 million to 40.5 million in the past twelve months.

There are over 9.6 million homes with Freeview services on their main television set. Sky grew its UK subscriber base to 8.3 million households. The total number of Virgin Media subscribers is now over 3.5 million.

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Absolute Gadget: Packing your Playstation Plus (PSP) in your holiday bag could have some extra delights this summer.   That’s because Sony and Sky will be launching Go!View, the handheld console’s first official video download service in Europe.  According to the two companies, Go!View will provide a wealth of programming from the worlds of entertainment, comedy, sport and movies. 

PSP owners will be able to create their own individual TV schedule on their PSP – to watch whenever and wherever they choose. 

Programmes will be available on either a subscription or pay-per-view basis, with content is downloaded to the PSP via a user’s PC.

No prices have been released yet for the service.

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Absolute Gadget: MTV - every young person’s favourite pastime – has joind forces with SKy to launch a funky new Multiroom box, making sure families can watch the music channel in more than one room. Now we’ll never miss another episode of My Super Sweet Sixteen.The box, designed to look like an X-ray is produced by Sky and MTV and will give frustrated teeny boppers the chance to watch MTV’s music channels for £10 per month from their prison. Er, we mean bedroom.

“This specially-designed Multiroom box is an iconic must-have for MTV fans and as such, we’re expecting the very limited stock to be snapped up,” said Heather Jones, director of television for MTV Networks UK and Ireland, while checking out her own skeletal structure.

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HDTV News: Sky is extending its HD line-up with three new channels – Sky Sports HD 3, Sky Movies Premiere HD and FX HD. The channels will be launched in March and April this year.FX HD will be a bespoke channel, as opposed to an FX simulcast, and around 90 of its programming will be in high definition. It will be broadcast between 7am and 2am. Sky and FX Networks have jointly selected content for the channel.

The new Sky Movies Premiere HD channel will show major new movies, including a Titanic HD screening. Programming on Sky Sports HD 3 will include European Tour golf.

When the new channels are operational, Sky will show over 6,500 hours of HD programming each month. The company plans to continue its investment in HD content for the whole family.

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Absolute Gadget: The great thing about Freeview is that once you’ve paid your telly licence, there are a lot of channels that you don’t need to pay extra to get. But the trouble is that the selection is limited compared to offerings from Sky or Virgin. But that could all change as Ofcom has new proposals that could increase the number of channels available on digital terrestrial television and perhaps even herald that proper start of high-defition television without a satellite or cable in sight.According to the proposals, an HD service could start as early as 2009, but would require viewers to ditch their current set-top boxes for ones that could decode the new signals.

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Absolute Gadget: You don’t have to have a Sky satellite dish clamped to the side of your house to get some of the broadcaster’s channels – Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Three are all available on Freeview. But if Sky has its way, they could be replaced with the premium Sky One, Sky Sports 1 and Sky Movies 1 channels. For a fee, of course…It’ll have to get past the watchful eye of the broadcast regulator first, though.

Ofcom has just launched an inquiry into the plans, which could also see two third-party channels (one factual, one kids) broadcast during the day.

“Sky welcomes the fact that the process is moving forward,” a company suit said.

The move is all part of Sky’s proposed Picnic service, which will offer a mix of broadband internet access, telephone and digital terrestrial TV.

“Sky believes these plans are a positive step for the digital terrestrial television platform and we look forward to responding to Ofcom’s consultation in due course,” Sky said.

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Absolute Gadget: If you have got a PSP then you should soon be able to watch Lost and 24 episodes on the handheld console. Sony has teamed up with Sky to deliver video-on-demand content to console owners in the UK and Ireland.The joint venture will see the new video download service being made available to 2.3 million PSP users in the British Isles. The two companies are already in discussions with entertainment content providers across Europe to roll out the service to European PSP owners.

PSP owners should be able to download Sky programmes and films though the console’s Wi-Fi connection or by transferring content from a PC to the console via USB. Either way, the service will take advantage of the console’s screen.

The news comes only a couple of weeks after Sony announced a new slimline PSP.

Sony will give out more details on the service at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany on Wednesday 22nd August. Hopefully the company will also spell out details on a cut in price on the PS3.

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AVZombie: Sky has confirmed that it will broadcast the 79th Annual Academy Awards in high definition in the UK.

Both the live ceremony and red-carpet coverage will get the HD treament. Sky One HD’s 90 minute preview coverage will start at 11pm on Sunday 25 February.

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AV Zombie: The number of digital TV homes in Europe and the US will top 187 million by 2010 according to a report by market research firm Datamonitor.

Europe leads the conversion from analogue with 65 million European homes expected to be able to receive digital TV by the end of this year.

The UK is the most developed digital TV nation with more than 50 percent penetration. Datamonitor suggests that by 2010 this will have risen to 95 percent, with Freeview replacing Sky as the dominant digital TV source as early as 2008.

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