Three longtime figures in the TV and film industry recently announced plans for a new 24/7 3D TV network to be launched in the first quarter of 2013. The channel, called A3N, has licensed technology for a glasses-free 3D transmission technology. It is thought that programming will consist primarily of movies - one of the principles, Elvin Feltner, spent decades amassing a private collection of more than 4,000 independent films and TV shows.
Looking into the Feltner collection, however, raises some concerns about the content and its viability for 3D. Press reports claim that much of the Feltner collection was "rescued" in 2010 by Film Chest, a company that specializes in film storage, restoration, and digitization of films. Film Chest claims it also owns the rights to the rescued films. In addition, few of the independent films of the era were available in 3D, and its unclear whether the Feltner archive owns those versions or the standard versions. It also seems unlikely that if and when Feltner acquired the rights to those films, they explicitly included the network and global licensing rights. While he may have bought the films and "all rights", the US courts are currently considering whether licensing rights to new related distribution formats are included implicitly with more general licensing rights, or must be explicitly licensed.
I hope that things work out for A3N - the industry needs more channels and content, as well as settling on a specific technological standard.
Source - Plans in Place for New U.S. 3D Network, Promaxbda daily brief
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