ESPN Soccer Study Finds Consumers Prefer ‘More Goals’ to 2D or 3D

ESPN Research + Analytics released results Thursday of what it called “the most extensive body of 3D research ever done,” conducted during ESPN’s telecast of the 2010 World Cup soccer matches from South Africa and comprising more than 1,000 test sessions at the two-year-old Disney Media and Advertising Lab in Austin, Texas.

The study used scientific research methods, including perception analyzers, measurement of eye gaze, and biometrics to study 3D viewing of live and delayed sports programming and commercials during the FIFA World Cup soccer matches and telecast over ESPN 3D, Duane Varan, the lab’s chief research officer, told a New York media briefing. Varan, a professor of new media at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, said the study was designed to measure viewer reactions to aspects of 3D TV viewing including enjoyment, effectiveness of 3D TV advertisements, preference for active versus passive 3D glasses, depth perception, fatigue and other health effects, ability to perceive differences in upconverted content and on-screen graphics.

Although participants showed a 5 percent higher level of enjoyment moving from 2D to 3D viewing, content remained the decisive factor in the 3D experience, Varan told us. Participants said the main determinant of enjoyment was “number of goals scored.” Fans’ sense of “presence” at the event jumped from 42 percent to 69 percent when viewing in 3D, he said.

A surprise finding was that worse real-world depth perception led to a better 3D experience, Varan said, noting that real-world and 3D depth perception are very different. Viewers with good real-world depth perception have trained themselves effectively to converge and diverge the eyes to see objects that are further and closer behind. The conflict in 3D is to focus and fixate on the screen, he said. Instinct says to converge or diverge the eyes, but if you know how to rely more on visual cues, “you have to reverse-engineer the process,” Varan said. The finding that people with poorer depth perception have a better 3D experience is “the opposite of what most people assumed,” he said.

Regarding negative experiences associated with 3D, the study found a fall-off effect after the first day of testing. Varan described the fatigue or dizziness reported by some people going to movies as a “one-off” experience. “That’s not enough to learn how to accommodate that conflict in the mind,” he said. The study showed that ill effects lessened over the study’s five days. Headaches and eyestrain were the only health issues reported, he said, and discomfort was related to eye strain. “It’s not nausea or dizziness,” Varan said. Breaks, he said, “were a really good thing.” Discomfort increased over the course of a game, he said, but after a 15-minute break, “it was almost liked you reset the clock.”

ESPN wouldn’t disclose the five brands of TVs used for the study but said the three major TV technologies -- plasma, LCD and DLP -- were represented, and there was a high degree of variability in glasses used. The study found no difference in 3D impact on viewers based on the use of passive or active eyewear, but said participants felt passive glasses were more comfortable and less distracting and they reported a “minor, almost not present” incidence of headaches with passive types. Varan said no advantages were reported in using active glasses.

In viewing ads from Gillette and Toy Story 3D, along with ESPN house ads, participants showed a much higher “arousal” level with 3D ads, according to the study. Cued recall was said to rise from 68 percent to 83 percent when viewing 2D and then 3D ads, purchase intent on average went from 49 percent to 83 percent and “ad liking” rose from 67 percent to 84 percent, ESPN said.

In Q & A after the event, Bryan Burns, vice president of strategic business planning and development, discussed recent reports that ESPN might abandon 3D. Regarding published reports that monetizing 3D remains an issue for ESPN, Burns said one of the ESPN engineers speaking on a panel in the U.K. “got into the business side and probably shouldn’t have.” He said the 3D network is “right on track, headed in the right direction and doing very well for us.” Plans still call for doing 100 live 3D events the first year, he said. ESPN 3D launched in June. ESPN hasn’t made a definite commitment to ESPN 3D beyond June 2011, Burns said, but “we have some affiliate deals that go farther than that.” Planning is evolving “as we go,” he said, “but we don’t have any stop signs in the desk that we're ready to pull out.” He said revenue and income from both the affiliate and advertiser sides have “given us the resolve to go forward -- a little better than we thought."

ESPN 3D is available to 62.5 million households through agreements that ESPN has signed with Comcast, DirecTV, Verizon, and AT&T -- but Burns wouldn’t disclose how many of those households can actually receive ESPN 3D from service providers as they roll out the additional ESPN channel. The base of potential ESPN 3D subscribers has grown “significantly faster” than with HD, he said. It’s not uncommon for customers to have staggered access to supplemental ESPN channels such as 3D, ESPN U or Classic, he said. “It takes a while for them to get it to all their subscribers,” he said, adding that any delay “has nothing to do with 3D and is no different from what we do with any of our channels.” In the context of being “way ahead” of tracking at this point compared with HD, he said, “Frankly, I'm thrilled. I didn’t dream that we'd be this far ahead as where we are today.” He couldn’t quantify the 3D sets receiving ESPN 3D. He said it’s “going to take a while” for both CE companies and our affiliates “to report back to us.” Artie Bulgrin, senior vice president of ESPN Research + Analysis, said it took almost a year to get a “really good handle” on those figures during the 3D rollout. “The really good news,” he said, “is that the price of entry is a lot lower.”