[IanJRedman]

Sky definitely had a Sky 3D channel for a few years but I think the plug was pulled around 2014/15. Although I never owned a 3D set I remember seeing a Sky 3D advert at the cinema (before a 3D film) and the best part was the Sports coverage, but I don’t think that lasted too long. If memory serves for an average Premier League game in 3D, I recall reading that they needed an additional entire camera set up just for 3D.

The BBC HD channel was used for 3D events for a little while, they certainly used it for Wimbledon in 3D once, this was after BBC One HD was a thing. Although I recall seeing that coverage on my TV and it was simply 2 pictures side by side. Eurosport also had a 3D service on Virgin Media, but this I think was only a pop up one about 10/11 years ago, maybe for an Olympics or French Open?

BiB - Yes, broadcast 3D was always in the side-by-side format (or top and bottom as mentioned above): two slightly different pictures, horizontally squeezed into one frame, which could then be combined by the TV to form a 3D image. This was the only way to achieve 3D over linear broadcast infrastructure. IIRC, this was at a time when the BBC's HD channels still routinely used 1440x1080 rather than the full 1920x1080 resolution. For 3D broadcasts they would increase the resolution to the full 1920 pixels, to compensate for the drop in resolution when the pictures were combined - you'd essentially only get half the vertical resolution, so an effective 960x1080 image.

Meanwhile, 3D Blu-ray would use a superior format whereby two full HD frames were stored, rather than shoehorning them both into a single frame, so you'd get full HD 3D which wasn't possible on broadcast.

Strange to think this was all cutting edge a decade ago, now it's obsolete in the home market!