Courtesy USA Today

(March 10, 2010) Now that you've spent money on high-def TV, here's the latest attempt to prime you to pony up more for The Next Big Thing: CBS will have 3D coverage, in theaters, of the NCAA men's basketball Final Four.

Sean McManus, who oversees CBS' sports and news divisions, says that coverage will be "a separate production" — using announcers Dave Ryan and Steve Lappas — from CBS' TV coverage. And he says the 3D NCAA basketball, shown in about 100 theaters, is the only event that CBS now plans to carry in 3D.

Fox, which had 3D coverage in theaters of a BCS title game, plans 3D TV coverage of this season's MLB All-Star Game via DirecTV. ESPN, which had a 3D Ohio State-USC football game last year in a handful of theaters, will launch a 3D TV channel in June. McManus says he has "no prediction about how prevalent 3D" will become in sports — "this is more of an experiment than anything else."

Asked about the NCAA considering expanding the tournament to 96 teams and possibly moving it to ESPN, McManus says only that he's "totally consumed by this year's tournament." ESPN's NCAA bid would likely include airing simultaneously played games across its various channels. Says McManus, when asked if CBS might air tournament games on its cable TV CBS College Sports Network: "I wouldn't rule that out."

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