May 16, 2011

French Open Tennis in 3D

Press Release:
Virgin Media is bringing live 3D tennis to millions of fans’ living rooms for the first time in the UK. Virgin Media will showcase Eurosport’s live and exclusive programming from centre court at this year’s French Open tournament.

With Rafael Nadal defending his title against Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer and in-form Caroline Wozniacki taking on returning champion Francesca Schiavone, Virgin Media’s pay TV customers1 will be able to enjoy every big forehand, backhand, volley and smash from the centre court at Roland Garros, Paris, in glorious 3D.

Live action will be broadcast in 3D on Virgin Media channel 523 as the tournament opens on Sunday 22nd May and concludes with the final on Sunday 5th June. Tennis fans wanting to relive the action will also be able to watch top matches on Virgin Media’s ground-breaking 3D on demand service2.

Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, said: “We’re delighted to be adding one of the year’s most prestigious sporting events to our calendar and giving our customers more of those ‘wow’ moments in breath-taking 3D. With Sky Sports, Eurosport and ESPN all available in HD and SD and a great choice of sport on demand, Virgin Media is the perfect choice for sports fans everywhere.”

Jean Thierry Augustin, Eurosport’s Managing Director, Distribution, Rights Acquisition and Development said: “This agreement with Virgin Media will enable UK sports fans to experience Grand Slam tennis as never before. The iconic clay courts of Roland Garros are the perfect stage to demonstrate the progress being made in 3D sports broadcasting. It will be the first time an entire Grand Slam event has been accessible in 3D to viewers at home from the opening day to the final and it reinforces Eurosport’s commitment to innovation and new technology.”

Virgin Media is showcasing Eurosport’s 3D coverage of the French Open. Live action from the tournament will also be available on Eurosport HD (Virgin Media channel 522), British Eurosport (channel 521) and British Eurosport 2 (channel 525).

More than 1.5 million households already have a 3D-ready Virgin Media set-top box at home3.  Virgin Media offers a choice of 3D content to its TV customers for no extra monthly fee4.
 
1 Eurosport’s 3D coverage of Roland Garros is available to Virgin Media’s M+, L and XL TV customers for no extra fee

2 Selected 3D matches will be available on demand as part of Virgin Media’s XL TV pack

3 VHD, V+ HD or Virgin Media TiVo set-top boxes receive 3D content. Customers will also need a 3D TV and 3D glasses to watch in 3D

4 All Virgin Media TV customers can enjoy a taste of 3D for no extra monthly fee. A range of 3D documentaries and animations is available to Virgin Media’s XL TV customers for no extra monthly fee and 3D movies on demand are available as 48-hour rentals

5 comments:

Erich said...

Very nice. VM showing some initiative and bringing exclusive(ish) sporting content to their platform gets a big thumbs up from me.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Nice to see some exclusive content,Just wish they would invest in new channels as opose to 3d content

wickywoowoo said...

I noticed Sky broadcast the FA Cup final in 3D via ESPN. The Virgin boxes being capable of 3D had no such capability, despite ESPN being totally free and a good partner for Virgin.

Virgin really seem to randomly pick things to promote and already seem to be focusing on 3D as opposed to securing a top class HD service (still some HD channels to get to match Sky's offering).

OLU said...

just start to see Chicago Code and i think its OUTSTANDING

American's dont like some thing then F**K the whole WORLD.
unfair ;-(