ESPN dropping its 3D channel

If you are one of the sports fans that loves to see LeBron James and his Miami Heat choke away games in three dimensions from the comfort of your couch, you had better enjoy it while you can.

ESPN has announced that its 24/7 3D channel, ESPN 3D, will be discontinued by the end of this year "due to limited viewer adoption of 3D services to the home." The move has been rumored for some time and ESPN is currently undergoing drastic staff cutbacks, so this news is not coming out of left field.

"We are committing our 3D resources to other products and services that will better serve fans and affiliates," ESPN said in a statement about ESPN 3D's demise. "We continue to experiment with things like Ultra HD TV production tools to produce our current ESPN family of HD channels."

During its short life (ESPN 3D launched just over two years ago in February 2011), the network received accolades, such as its recent Sports Emmy win for its unique Winter X Games 16 coverage. During that event, ESPN used 34 different camera systems in six different locations, including five different rig variations. 

The previous year it also received a Sports Emmy for its 3D broadcast of Winter X Games 15. In 2011 it earned the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award for its coverage of the 2010 U.S. Open tennis tournament.

Will you be sad to see the network go? Did you even know it existed?