The 30-minute 3-D video will be available February 15 — when SI rolls out the print issue — for rental or purchase on Playstation 3, and for rental on Video on Demand powered by Qriocity via Sony's 3-D-compatable 2010 and 2011 Bravia HDTVs and Blu-ray Disc players. The 3-D video will be $7.99 to buy and $4.99 to rent. A 2-D version will go for $6.99 and $3.99, respectively.
The agreement builds on a partnership between Sony and SI, which collaborated on the Making of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2010 video. It also comes as Sony joins a raft of other consumer electronics manufacturers including Samsung, Vizio and LG in rolling out 3-D TVs over the past year. On the programming end, Sony has worked with Imax and Discovery to bring 3-D programming to the small screen.
Sports Illustrated added 3-D to its print swimsuit edition in 2000. Since then, the title has offered various multimedia hooks including videos over iTunes and mobile downloads. As a result, somewhat fewer people are buying the print swimsuit issue — sales were 1.1 million last year vs. 1.3 million in 2005 — but the franchise has racked up big numbers on the web. Last year, in a six-week period following publication, the swimsuit edition drove 11 million uniques and 100 million video views as well as 1 million downloads of an iPhone app. The title also began offering Flipboard Pages on its iPad app in December.
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Sports Illustrated's circulation in 2009 was around 3.2 million, flat with the year before.