What They Say
Speaking at the Spanish UHD Summit (no doubt virtually!), Omdia’s Senior Research Manager, Paul Gray, has said that he thought that 2021 will be a “tremendous” year for the take-up of 4K. That will be because of “the very rich pipeline of sports events”.
Gray also recognised that 8K prospects should not be dismissed. He explained that 8K could have a role as a professional performance format and that then 2024 Olympics could see 7-8 million 8K sets shipped.
He said that China was enthusiastic about 8K and there were many demonstrations of the combined 8K sets with 5G capability although no major broadcaster had yet committed to 8K.
“Huge 5G investment is an incentive to develop 8K content although infrastructure remains immature at this time.”
Gray presented forecasts which shows that HDR would be in some 35% of all TVs shipped by 2024 in Japan, although take up would be slower elsewhere (Western Europe barely 15% by 2024).
He added that while 8K sales of TV sets represented only 0.1% of unit shipments, they were 1.2% of revenues.
What We Think
The recent data on 8K sales has been likely to dampen enthusiasm, so Gray’s reminder of the difference between volume and value is welcome. (BR)
