Winter X Games make the leap to HD

By Ken Kerschbaumer

The Winter X Games will be going HD in January, the first time ever that HD and ESPN’s top extreme sports event will give viewers the ability to see all the small details that make the games a hit.

Rick Alessandri, senior vice president, ESPN consumer products and X Games managing director, says the move was a direct result of equipment getting better and the HD audience getting larger. “Everything from follow cams to robotic cams will be in HD,” he says.

There will be one or two non-HD cameras, like POV cameras on snowmobiles as the technology has still not caught up with the need. “Our position is we don’t want to take something away from the viewer in terms of POV camera,” says Alessandri. “If the cameras aren’t HD they are still worthwhile.”

All 15 hours of the Winter X Games 12 will be in high-definition, January 24 through January 27, 2008 live from Aspen, Colorado. X Games 14 will also be presented entirely in HD and will air in early August, 2008. XCENTER, the daily highlight show for both the X Games and Winter X Games, will also be shown in HD on ESPN2 HD.