EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre delivered a keynote speech today at the Prix Italia award ceremony, in Turin, where she questioned the possibility of 3DTV ever becoming the standard viewing format.

Addressing the prestigious event, which takes place under the auspices of EBU Member RAI, Ms Deltenre said that despite massive revenues accrued by 3D blockbuster movies, such as Avatar, 3D television would always be for occasional use, rather than a daily viewing experience.

During the address, titled 3D: future or fashion? Ms Deltenre said: "I have heard 3D devotees prophesying that the messiah of 3D is coming to TV (…) I have even heard it said that in the future all TV will be 3D (...) The claim that 3DTV will be the only shape of TV to come is as fanciful as the claim that broadcasting will be rendered obsolete by the Internet in a few years’ time.  3DTV will be a valuable tool for broadcasters, and an enjoyable feature of some programmes.  But it will be an optional complement to conventional broadcasting – not the standard format."

Her views directly challenge industry predictions that the dominance of 3DTV is inevitable, but Ms Deltenre pointed out that, in response to viewers' demands, public service broadcasters are prioritizing HDTV services before focusing on 3D. 

"A 3DTV programme is two HDTV shots, one for each of the Left and Right images," she said. "It makes no sense for a broadcaster to consider 3DTV when it is still in the transition to HDTV. Don’t forget, you can't broadcast 3DTV until you have the means to broadcast HDTV."

Other factors going against 3D are varying degrees of eye discomfort, the fact that not everyone can actually see 3D pictures and that it is not suited to all genres of programme and all events, Ms Deltenre said.

Click here to read the full speech.