• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, May 12, 2010

In response to a somewhat curious question from an analyst whether sports leagues would seek separate rights deals for 3D-casts, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Tuesday he doesn't anticipate the tactic and wouldn't accept it.

"It's certainly something that we wouldn't tolerate," he said on a call, referring to the coming ESPN 3D.

Iger did allow that consumers may have to pay extra to receive ESPN 3D or other 3D channels down the line. In the meantime, in order to build interest, that does not appear to be the case, although a Comcast representative left the door slightly ajar.

Comcast said Wednesday that it has a deal to make ESPN 3D available to its subscribers starting in June -- when the network kick starts with the World Cup. The representative said in an email that the operator "just signed [the] deal and final details haven't been locked in."

The Comcast-ESPN agreement is not a surprise. Comcast offered the Masters golf tournament last month in 3D, which was produced by ESPN.

At DirecTV, which earlier had agreed to carry ESPN 3D, a representative said customers who receive ESPN in high def will get the new channel gratis. DirecTV will offer ESPN 3D as part of a suite of 3D channels. The Comcast deal allows for some ESPN 3D events to be offered through VOD.

Of course, customers who want to tune in must have a 3D-capable set, and that is likely to be a miniscule amount. One estimate calls for .009% of U.S. TV homes to have a 3D set by the end of the year. Also, 3D set owners need special glasses to watch and have to do some tinkering with set-top-boxes to ensure a clean feed.

Disney's Iger acknowledged that ESPN 3D faces an uncertain playing field as it rolls out, although it is important to be ready when the consumer is.

"Obviously, you're looking at a world where there are very few 3D sets out there and the ability to transmit still has some limitations ... [but] as is the case with any technology that makes the experience better ... it's worth spending money to develop," Iger said. "And ultimately [it] will create value. But this is slow going, and we're just looking at the beginning."

Also this week, Verizon FiOS reached a deal to carry the Yes Network 3D feed in July of two New York Yankees-Seattle Mariners games to New York-area customers.

That came after FiOS executive Shawn Strickland suggested in April that Verizon would take its time before leaping into 3D programming full force. He indicated that the telco TV company had concerns that networks may be trying to extract unnecessarily high fees from operators to allow them to offer their 3D programming.

"Some content owners have elected to specifically exclude Verizon and other competitive distributors from carriage of these 3D events in an effort to advantage their distribution businesses," Strickland stated. "Others have fixed ridiculously high prices for the content. Verizon's position is that integrated operators should not withhold programming options from the marketplace. Consumers should have the freedom to choose the distributor that best meets their needs."

Other operators from Dish to Cox would be expected to sign with ESPN 3D before Mexico and South Africa start the World Cup. Verizon may be another game.