As the baseball season gets underway, the Stanley Cup and NBA playoffs come into view and the World Cup right around the corner, there was perhaps no better time to gather a handful of the most influential names in Canadian sports media at the 2010 CMDC Conference in Toronto, Thursday.

The panel discussion, led by Globe & Mail columnist Stephen Brunt, included TSN president Phil King; Rogers Sportsnet president Doug Beeforth; executive director of CBC Sports Scott Moore; and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment EVP/COO Tom Anselmi.

It was a lively discussion that centred on the rapid changes in sports consumption and focused specifically on multi-platform coverage, the growth of 3D programming and how all of it will affect the live product.

Using the recent 2010 Vancouver Games as an example of the future of sports coverage, the panel unanimously agreed that multi-platform was the new standard of service.

"The bar has absolutely been set," said Rogers' Sportsnet's Beeforth, pointing to the number of occasional online users who had their first encounter with watching high-quality sports on the web during the Olympics. "Consumers can use all the different platforms to see what they want, when they want it."

The CBC's Moore said multi-platform was a key component to the network's plans for the 2010 World Cup. "Every World Cup game will be on TV and available online with multiple cameras for the first time ever. The consumer is demanding that kind of engagement. They've seen how well multi-platform works and they don't want to go back."

The impact of multi-platform consumption–TV, online, mobile–led the conversation into how this has changed the live sports experience and, with the recent hype surrounding 3D, where the live product will fit in.

MLSE's Anselmi said that while some people predict sports spectators will go the way of the live studio audience, no amount of technology can replace people's desire to participate. "People will always want to feel the sweat and emotion of live sports," he said.

Moore agreed and went a step further: "We created a made-for-TV event, Battle of the Blades, and we couldn't give away enough tickets. So people definitely still have a real desire to experience a live event."

But that doesn't change the fact that a new wave of technology is bound to change how sports are viewed. "The 3D technology is going to revolutionize our business in ways we can't even predict right now," said Beeforth. "For us production people, it's going to mean covering events differently because the traditional way of covering a sports event doesn't work all that well in 3D. We could see new cutting patterns and camera angles."

Moore went into the challenges of producing that content, asking who will pay for it? "Until the cable companies or consumers want to pay for [3D production], I don't see the business model there yet," he said.