ESPN to show Soccer World Cup in 3D

American TV network ESPN is to show football matches in 3D during this year’s World Cup in South Africa.

The US sports broadcaster, which won rights to show Premier League games in Britain after the collapse of Setanta last summer, said that it would debut its 3D television system during a World Cup match between the hosts and Mexico on 11 June.

Twenty-four other matches during the competition will also be shown in 3D, which will require viewers to wear special glasses. The company did not say whether viewers in the UK would, or how it planned to make the technology available to its subscribers in the United States.

The system, which relies on a network of cameras and entirely separate staff, has been in trials for the past year.

“This is an ongoing science project for us,” said Bryan Burns, ESPN’s vice-president of strategic business planning, at the CES show in Las Vegas.