Viewers remain skeptical about the benefits of 8K

8K television is not attracting consumers according to the latest research by Maria Rua Aguete, Senior Research Director of Omdia, shared at NAB 2022 since, according to forecasts, only 2.7 million homes around the world will have an 8K television by the end of 2026.

According to Omdia, 8K TV shipments only accounted for the 0.15% of all sales of televisions in 2021. This translated into just over 350,000 units worldwide.

In Q4 21, 95,500 8K TVs were shipped, up from 81,900 in Q3 2021 due to seasonality. Shipments were led by China, although Western Europe and North America also saw significant shipments, despite the absence of 8K content.

The reason, according to Maria Rua Aguete, for the slow takeoff in the purchase of 8K televisions is that there are very little native content available at the same time as the marketing is failing. Sales were weaker than in 4Q20 and even 1Q21. For example, Samsung shipped 18% fewer 8K TVs than a year earlier.

As to China It won't boost 8K compared to North America or even Western Europe, despite the devices' large sizes. And the price pressure is too high. Even in Japan, where there is a true 8K channel (from NHK) the acceptance has been minimal.

Omdia estimates that no region reaches the level of 1% of households with a large enough audience to be commercially interesting. "With TV providers struggling with the economics of 4K UHD, it really seems that the small audience for 8K TVs seems unattractive to content producers. It will be interesting to see how the market evolves over the next year," says Aguete.