Big BCS bowl game to land at CES 2009...in 3-D!

Folks who are fans of both football and CE gadgets will get to watch the BCS title game while at CES -- and in 3-D, no less. Meanwhile, though, it's unclear whether 3-D will be available on home TVs any time soon.

Fox Sports plans to broadcast the BCS title game in 3-D at both the CES show in Las Vegas and select theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, said David Hill, chairman and CEO, speaking at this week's 3-D Entertainment Summit. Hill's comments were originally reported in Variety Weekly.

But Hill wasn't exactly enthusiastic about 3-D's prospects, in surprising comments that Variety also reported. Complaining that the last big transition -- the one to DTV -- hasn't resulted in broadcasters making more from advertising, Hill said, "I hope the TV industry doesn't get conned again the way we did with HD. And we got conned."

Broadcasters are leery of 3-D after getting "conned" into first investing in HDTV equipment and programming, and then failing so far to make any money off of that technology, according to Hill. He went on to sound a warning that TV manufacturers would need to "subsidize" 3-D if TV broadcasters are going to get heavily involved.

Also during the event, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg predicted that the rising popularity of 3-D fare in movie theaters won't expand into people's homes in the near future.

In today's economy, consumers who've recently shelled out money for flat screen TVs won't want to buy 3-D-enabled replacement sets, according to Katzenberg.

At a recent Pepcom press event in New York City, Nvidia gave demos of technology for outfitting existing video and gaming content with 3-D characteristics. The company also talked up intentions to issue a related announcement at CES, but without divulging any details.