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THE PRINCE of Wales press secretary Patrick Harrison has confirmed the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton this April will not be broadcast in 3D after months of speculation and confirmation from both Sky 3D and the BBC that talks of a 3D royal wedding broadcast were in progress. The additional camera footprint in the Abbey, the small audience for 3D, and the desire not be distracted away from negotiating and facilitating the optimal 2D, radio, photographic and online coverage of the day were reasons underlying the refusal.

ACCORDING to research from Japanese firm BCN, there are now more 3D Blu-ray players in homes across the country than non-3D players. It reports 57% of all units sold in the run up to Christmas were 3D-enabled, an sharp increase from just 6.7% in September 2010.

WITH the addition of 3,000 units, a total of 11,000 Blockbuster Express rental kiosks will be in operations by the end of this year, according to an executive from the video chain’s company’s owner NCR Corp. Initial tests of premium-priced movies ($2.99 for the first night) of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment titles in four markets “surpassed all of our expectations.” NCR projects Express kiosks to generate from $175 million to $200 million in revenue in 2011 with pre-tax earnings from $10 million to $20 million.

RESEARCH from e-commerce platform and strategic consulting firm Elastic Path Software has revealed that a surprisingly large portion of online video viewers (75%) are willing to pay for certain content, while 40% have paid to access online content in the past year. Gen Ys (18 to 34 year olds) are an excellent target for media providers, as they are the most active demographic online and are willing to pay for most types of content.