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I think that's a poor metric. Why in the world would the Olympic opening seremony be something worth caring about 3D for?

Also note that the numbers in that article does not mesh with 20-30% penetration - according to Ofcom there was ca. 60 million TV's in the UK end 2011. The article cites 1.3 million 3D TV's sold in the UK at the time of writing.

So rather than a mismatch with usage, it seems prudent to question where the 20-30% number the article cites comes from....

Indeed. Most new TVs seem to support 3D [1]. It could be that roughly 20-30% of people bought a new TV in the last 2-3 years, and those TVs just so happened to support 3D, even if the consumer wasn't purchasing a new TV specifically to get 3D.

[1]: At least that was the impression I got when shopping for a new TV ~6 mos ago.

> The problem with market share stats is that they don't always correspond with usage. People with 3D TVs don't simply seem to be very interested in watching 3D content on them.

This is true of my parents. I've never seen them use their 3D TV as one, the rather pricy viewing glasses are still sealed in the box.

I have a 3D TV and would probably watch some TV in 3D if it was available (I'd certainly give it a try, at least), but my content provider doesn't offer any 3D channels. I'm curious how many of the audience you mention could watch it if they had a 3D TV.