TOKYO: Japan’s Fuji TV has what’s being held as the first 3DTV drama queued up to start Jan. 19, The Wall Street Journalreports. Fuji collaborated with Sony on the creation of 10 episodes of “Tokyo Control,’ about the city’s air traffic control center.
The 3D version of the series will be carried on cable; Fuji will broadcast it over the air in 2D. There was no mention of plans for an over-the-air 3D broadcast. Sales of 3DTV sets in Japan last year was not spectacular, the Journal said, quoting a national agency there that said just 131,000 3DTVs shipped from April through September of 2010, totaling less than 2 percent of all flat-panel display shipments.
DisplaySearch forecasts worldwide 3DTV shipments for 2010 at 3.2 million. The absence of 3D content has been considered an impediment to wider adoption, but so have the glasses necessary to view content in 3D on a stereoscopic TV set. Despite this, DisplaySearch of Santa Rosa, Calif., is predicting shipments of 3DTVs will reach 18 million this year as manufacturers incorporate the stereoscopic feature into more of their models.
-- Deborah D. McAdams
