Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

Light Reading

Fuzzy Outlook for Ultra HD

Glenn Hower, a research analyst at Parks Associates, was more bullish about Ultra HD's short-term prospects than his two counterparts on the panel. But even Hower, whose firm projects that more than 46 million households worldwide will subscribe to an UHD pay-TV service by 2018, conceded that 4K has not yet taken off as anticipated among TV programmers and other content providers.

Case in point: Both Home Box Office Inc. (HBO) and ESPN, which usually pioneer new video formats, have been "missing in action" on 4K so far, as Light Reading Senior Editor and panel moderator Mari Silbey put it. As a result, much of the 4K content produced so far has been nature shows. (See BTE 2015: 4K All the Way.)

"The content isn't quite there yet," Hower acknowledged. He mused that the "level of risk aversion" among programmers may be higher after their failed forays into 3D TV content a couple of years ago. "Nobody wants to be the first to get burned," he said. "So nobody wants to be the first to jump in."

From the article "Fuzzy Outlook for Ultra HD" by Alan Breznick.

Previously In The News

Icontrol Adds Analytics for Smarter Homes

Some analysts have suggested that the smart home market is slowing down, and/or that it is due for a shake-out as consumers struggle to realize the value of some new connected devices. (See Analyst...

Cloud Lifts Video Infrastructure Market

Meanwhile, on the network side of the video infrastructure business, the largest revenue increases in the first quarter came from TV Everywhere, cloud DVR software and content discovery solutions,...

Security Services Boost Cable & Telcos

After years of hovering around 20%, the adoption rate for home security services in the US bumped up to 23% in 2014. One big reason for the increase? Cable and telecom companies are gaining signifi...

Broadcasters Eye OTT Bonanza

Speaking on one "Super Session" panel, industry experts expressed confidence that most, if not all, of the major broadcast networks, cable networks and other programmers will use the Internet and b...