LONDON—New consumer research suggests that 8K TV is failing to appeal to consumers, with Omdia reporting that 8K TVs only accounted for 0.15% of all TV shipments in 2021 and predicting that only 2.7 million households worldwide are expected to have an 8K TV by the end of 2026.
Omdia senior director, media & entertainment, Maria Rua Aguete presented the data in a research note.
“In 4Q21, 95,500 8K televisions were shipped, an increase from 81,900 in 3Q21 due to seasonality,” she reported.
“It appears that 8K TVs have lost momentum,” she added. There is “no convincing reason to buy 8K TVs (very little native content is available) the marketing is failing, numbers-wise."
“ We see no convincing market demand of further 8K service development,” she said. “Even in Japan, where there is a true 8K channel (from NHK) uptake has been minimal….No regions hit the level of 1% of households with a large enough audience to become commercially interesting. With TV providers struggling with the economics of 4K UHD, it really seems that 8K TVs small audience appears unattractive to content producers. It will be interesting to see how the market develops over the coming year.”
