Disney’s ESPN launched a 3D channel three years ago that let viewers witness golf balls arcing toward them at The Masters and college football players practically bursting through the screen. Unfortunately for ESPN, there just haven’t been enough viewers who wanted to feel like they were right in the action and the channel will be shuttered by year’s end, according to Reuters.

USA Today's ForTheWin.com calls ESPN 3D “one of the biggest busts in recent sports television,” along with Fox’s NHL glow puck, Dennis Miller and Tony Kornheiser providing commentary on Monday Night Football (another Disney product), and virtual ads, among others, since not one of the sports junkies employed at the site (nor anyone they knew) had ever actually watched anything on the channel.Continue reading...

Comcast Corp. may be the largest US cable provider, but it still has some work to do on its digital side. After this year, critics may not be saying that anymore as the company is rolling out a cloud-based interactive TV guide, a voice-activated set-top box, and the ability to watch programming on tablets and smartphones and then move it to larger television screens at will.

The cloud-based X2 TV guide that will come out later this year will help viewers find content they desire faster by segmenting it into different groupings, such as kids, movies, sports, and recommended, Bloomberg reports.

Also, for Comcast subscribers who don't want to bother pushing a bunch of remote buttons, the company has come up with a new set-top box that allows users to push one button and speak commands, Bloomberg reports. To add to the interactivity, the box will also give access to “Facebook, Pandora and other online media” as well as provide reviews of movies by Rotten Tomatoes and the ability to see what people are tweeting about a show as it happens, USA Today notes.Continue reading...

After 8 years, Microsoft's Xbox announced it’s newest gaming console—Xbox One. The new console has taken the initiative to bring gaming back to the living room—a feat that faces some steep challenges in the name of smartphones and tablets. 

However, the most significant reveal ties into a top-of-mind trend that is impacting television broadcasters and mobile carriers across the board: second-screen. At the reveal, General Manager, Phil Spencer stated, “We believe that the television screen remains the most relevant screen in the home.” Microsoft understands that users are sitting in front of the television with tablets and mobile phones and has used this fact to bring back the focus to the television screen, allowing users to seamlessly toggle between surfing the web, watching television and playing a game in a feature called 'instant switching' on the Xbox One.Continue reading...

Roku has sold 5 million of its video and music streaming set-top boxes since launching in 2008, totaling 8 billion pieces of content streamed. That's an impressive performance for a little black box. 

As more and more reports swirl around the fact that consumers are turning away from traditional TV and cable, Roku claims that 25 percent of its customers use the device as their primary way of viewing television. 

"The milestone is significant, since it indicates that there’s a very real and growing market out there for a device that essentially just acts as a service layer for bringing web-based content to televisions, independent of what TV manufacturers themselves are doing with their own built-in Smart TV services," notes Tech Crunch.Continue reading...

“The Hispanic community is rapidly becoming the most influential voice in pop culture, business, and politics; their trendsetting impact will make or break the success of those seeking to gain brand popularity, market share and / or win the next election,” Forbes reports. 

And nothing demonstrates the cultural prowess of the demographic like the upcoming TV upfronts, broadcasters' annual dog-and-pony show where networks tout their upcoming lineups to advertisers. Both Univision—the No. 1 Hispanic network—and Telemundo, coming off its highest-rated January in network history, will hold upfronts on May 14. Univision’s newly rebranded UniMas, formerly TeleFutura and Galavision will also hold their upfronts that day, while Hispanic broadcaster Azteca has slated its presentation for May 13.

A step ahead of the game, Univision announced Mary Kay, MetroPCS, State Farm and Western Union as sponsors of the original web series, Arranque de Pasión, La Historia de Ela, which premiered April 1.Continue reading...

Oprah Winfrey remains a force of nature, but as she struggles to right her eponymous network, readies launch of an organic brand (also eponymous) on her Maui farm and prepares to address a comparatively small (for her) audience as the speaker at Harvard's 362nd commencement, her latest foe is the CRTC.

Canada’s TV watchdog has put OWN and Corus Entertainment (Canadian licensee) on notice for not fulfilling its educational mandate and has issued a mandatory order to ensure OWN in Canada "complies with its nature of service definition."

"Oprah Winfrey may have taught millions of followers the importance of self-esteem and the value of a good book, but the Canadian broadcasting regulator ruled on Friday that her fireside chats with other celebrities don’t qualify as educational programming, spelling the end of the Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada) as it currently exists," notes The Globe and Mail.Continue reading...

It's withdrawal time for millions of viewers of the wildly popular Downton Abbey, the British series that just concluded its second season on PBS. The period costumes, the two-track intrigue of the nobility and working class, the witty dialogue delivered in delicious British accents — all contribute to a success on American television not seen at this level since British classics such as Upstairs Downstairs and All Creatures Great and Small had their lengthy runs on PBS.

As fans anxiously await Season Three of Downton Abbey, however, another Anglophile-wooing TV channel is trying to take advantage of the the hiatus and the halo effect of the show: BBC America.Continue reading...

McDonald’s pulled in more than $24 billion in revenue in 2010, but it is always looking to sell more Big Macs. The company is introducing a new in-store television channel in California that will spread nationwide if it succeeds, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Restaurants with the channel will have large-screen televisions that are visible from 70 percent of the seats, airing content that is “customized to specific communities around the individual restaurants, and will include local news and entertainment features, such as spotlights on upcoming films, albums and TV shows,” the Times reports.Continue reading...