3D Expert Tosten Hoffman Has Mixed Thoughts After MIPCOM

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece about my MIPCOM expectations in terms of 3D. The article was published here at 3DFocus but was also featured on the official MIPCOM blog. Now the dust has settled after the show it is a good time to take stock.

How did 3D fare at the "world’s largest entertainment content market"?

Let's start with the less encouraging take-aways…

I had hoped to see more 3D content being offered by the exhibitors. However 3D remained a niche and only a handful of distributors aggressively marketed it. Some of the larger players told me that 3D is still too small for them or that there is "no significant demand" for stereoscopic content. Clearly the bulk of their TV and VOD revenues are still generated from 2D. But let's not forget that the theatrical landscape relies much more heavily on 3D already. Eventually these titles will appear as 3D Blu-rays, VOD and on TV. But it looks like this will take more time than many (including me) had hoped.

Another disappointment was the special issue "Global 3D Spotlight" published by the event organisers. If I remember correctly the exact same contributors (advertisers) had very similar messages 6 months ago. It is a bit sad to see that the whole 3D industry is being reduced to 2 channels and two technology companies. Personally, I find that a lot of innovation is coming from the "fringes" – smaller producers and start up technology firms. But this is a topic for another day.

It has been relatively quiet on the PR front. Have I missed announcements of larger 3D co-production deals, or did they not happen?

Now let's look at the positive signals that came from Cannes this year!

Most of the first day of the conference was dedicated to 3D, with many great panels and speakers. With the exception of a short "sushi in 3D" demo reel, the promos that were screened were simply breathtaking. There is no doubt, that the filmmakers are learning quickly how to make use of the third dimension. I am seeing more and more sophisticated productions that include high-speed cameras, airborne drones, underwater footage, and a lot of creativity. The latest four films that we signed on for global distribution are of outstanding quality and the bar is being raised constantly by our buyers, too.

While there are still too few 3D broadcasters with large budgets I see a lot of movement from smaller platforms that are building their first 3D VOD offerings.

Another emerging market is live 3D events that are drawing large crowds to movie theatres near you (usually off peak and at premium prices). Typically these events are sports or music/performance related, and it is great to see that we now have the technology to bring these events to many thousands of theatres in real-time at reasonable cost.

What have you noticed? Which trends have I missed? Please let us know
and get in touch.

Torsten Hoffmann, 35, is a recognized leader in 3D content as the distributor of one of the largest stereoscopic 3D portfolios in the world. He tweets @3DContentBlog, blogs at 3DContentBlog.com, speaks at many conferences and is currently Managing Partner at Global Media Consult (GMC) where he also represents 40 international pay TV or Free-to-Air channels.