María Rua Aguete (IHS Markit): "soy muy optimista con respecto al 4K pero pesimista en relación al 8K"

At this moment there are 177 channels in the world that offer UHD content (156 commercial channels, 11 demo channels, 4 teleshopping channels).

Maria Rua Aguete, Executive Director, Technology Fellow, Media and Entertainment en IHS Markit has been in charge of opening the program of presentations of the 4K-HDR Summit which is held from today until next Friday at the National Digital Content Pole in Malaga.

“Technology and content have to talk and I think that currently companies on both sides are not communicating much,” he stated when opening his speech.

Regarding the 4K penetration in homes, has highlighted that it is currently close to 50% as a world average, highlighting mainly Europe and North America that surpass other regions such as Japan, Africa or Latin America.

Compared to China, where penetration reaches 30%, in the case of Japan it is barely 16%, although a change in this figure is to be expected due to the celebration of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

Regarding the screen size, increases one inch per year. “Customers like large televisions especially in countries like China or the United States where it is a sign of social status,” he said.

In relation to 8K, the penetration data is barely insignificant, reaching just 1.4% worldwide. A notable increase in the production of 8K content would be necessary to encourage these sales, he assured. “We do not foresee a big change with respect to 8K for the next 4 years.”

In 4K, we find more content offering although it is not generalized either. In the United Kingdom, only 17.29% of pay TV subscribers can access 4K content.

At the moment There are 177 channels in the world that offer UHD content (156 commercial channels, 11 demo, 4 teleshopping). Western Europe leads this ranking. In 8K, for its part, there is only one offer in the entire world, which is offered by the Japanese broadcaster NHK.

For their part, the streaming operators such as Netflix, Amazon and Sky are producing 4K content, gradually increasing the number of hours, mainly in fiction. In terms of movie theaters, only 22% of exhibition screens worldwide are 4K.

How could content providers monetize UHD? María Rua Aguete has highlighted that Netflix is considering charging almost double to provide access to this content. On the opposite side, Disney+ is even studying the possibility of offering UHD content without a price increase.

The IHS Markit analyst concluded her intervention by assuring that although 8K will arrive it will not be in the short term. “I am very optimistic about 4K but pessimistic about 8K,” he stated.