The postponement of the Tokyo Games and Euro 2020 will mean a delay in the launch of new 4K channels

The Senior Research Director of media and entertainment at the consulting firm OMDIA, Maria Rua Aguete, analyzes at the 4K HDR Summit the current situation of Ultra High Definition and the impact that COVID-19 may have.

Maria Rua Aguete, Senior Research Director, Media and Entertainment en OMDIA (new brand under which the consulting firms Informa Tech: Ovum, IHS Markit Technology, Tractica and Heavy Reading have been operating together since this year) has participated in the 4K Summit 2020 to share some of the main trends that are marking the takeoff of the Ultra High Definition.

His intervention has begun by ensuring that the economic impact of the pandemic will be felt in several phases, culminating in a recession. The overall impact on all consumer digital services will be driven primarily by e-commerce. While markets such as smart home, music or pay television will hardly be affected by the pandemic, cinema, mobile consumption and television advertising will suffer a negative impact. On the contrary, e-commerce, broadband, online games or OTT services will benefit from this crisis.

The subscription to the pay television and OTT convergerán este año en cuanto a número de suscriptores en todo el mundo con alrededor de 1.050 millones en cada una de las dos modalidades. Es de reseñar que en 2022, el número de suscriptores a servicios de televisión de pago alcanzaría los 1.251 millones mientras que los de servicios OTT rondarán los 1.064 millones.

“En 2020, la OTT superó por primera vez las suscripciones a la televisión de pago y esta brecha es probable que se amplíe en los próximos 4 años presentando un cambio importante en el panorama de la televisión”, ha afirmado.

Impacto del COVID-19

María Rua Huete is convinced that “COVID-19 is driving a far-reaching change in consumer behavior that presents a large number of challenges for device, technology and media sellers.”

The global pandemic is driving a wide change in consumer behavior. Los envíos de unidades (principalmente teléfonos inteligentes) no se recuperarán del impacto del COVID-19 hasta 2022.

In parallel, the artificial voice intelligence será primordial para la nueva generación de dispositivos de televisión. En este momento, menos de la mitad de los televisores inteligentes que se usan actualmente pueden usar un asistente de voz, comparado con más del 80% de media streamers.

As for the impacto del 4K en la venta de televisiones, la consultora estima que si bien es un punto clave limita su crecimiento. “Las pantallas 4K simplemente no existen fuera de la televisión”, ha afirmado.

En este momento existen en todo el mundo 557 millones de televisiones 4K, el 21% de todos los televisores en uso en 2020. Por el contrario, el parque de teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas de 4K es de apenas 0,62 millones.

Global UHD resolution surpassed half of TV sales for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2018 and was almost 60% in the fourth quarter of 2019.

North America will lead the way in households equipped with a UHD TV, reaching 74% by 2024, up from a third of homes at the end of 2018, and more than half by the end of 2020.

The Senior Research Director of OMDIA has concluded her speech at the 4k HDR Summit 2020 by highlighting that “the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Euro 2020 Football Championship due to the pandemic has meant that many public broadcasters in Europe have postponed the launch of new UHD channels.”