OYSTER BAY, N.Y.—Much like the rest of the world, 8K TVs are not having the 2020 they expected. Manufacturers of TV panels capable of displaying the high-resolution had hoped for a strong showing of sales, but as ABI Research reports, those numbers were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABI’s latest report reveals that the overall flat-panel TV market is sluggish in 2020 because of economic uncertainties. There was expectation that 8K-capable TVs would help boost the market, but the one-year delay of the 2020 Olympics, which was going to consist of 8K content, is among the key factors that have led to low 8K TV unit shipments for 2020.

Flat-panel TV makers are still pushing 8K TV sets, though. Samsung and LG are reportedly aiming to increase 8K TV sales to generate higher revenues and profit margins. Samsung has offered promotional prices for its 8K TV sets as a way to counteract many consumers’ economic challenges from the pandemic, ABI says.

“Although 8K TV set price points have declined from a year ago, the cost of most 8K TV sets is still relatively high, ranging from $3,500 to $30,000,” said Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst at ABI. “High cost and lack of content will delay 8K TV set adoptions.”

ABI estimates that just 1% of worldwide flat-panel TV shipments in 2021 will be 8K TV sets.

For more information, visit ABI’s website. 

OYSTER BAY, N.Y.—While Disney+ has already proved immensely popular among consumers, its continued success, and the emergence of other subscription-based services, are key behind ABI Research’s projection that by 2024 the OTT video market will be more than $200 billion.

According to a new report from ABI, 90% of that $200 billion in OTT video revenue will come from SVOD and advertising. Already ABI has seen subscriptions in the Asia-Pacific region growing significantly, primarily in China and India.

However, pay-TV is not being shut out of this growth. ABI says that the pay-TV industry has been embracing OTT as an added value rather than competition, and that over time traditional pay-TV may “become indistinguishable from a pure OTT package of services,” said Michael Inouye, principal analyst at ABI Research.

In 2019, there were more than 700 million OTT SVOD subscriptions globally, while there were more than 1 billion subscriptions for pay-TV. ABI notes that pay-TV growth is slowing (even declining in North America), but it believes that the overall market is expanding.

“Increasingly, we’re seeing more solutions and conversations about bringing content and services together,” said Inouye. “This includes pay-TV and OTT bundles and extends to cross-platform advertising, analytics and customer/service management. Ultimately it makes the market more accessible to a wider range of companies and expands the potential video touchpoints, particularly as new technologies like 5G, smart home and augmented/virtual reality play larger roles.

ABI’s full report, “OTT and Multiscreen Video and Digital Content,” is available on its website.

OYSTER BAY, N.Y.—The impact of Disney+ goes beyond all the memes of Baby Yoda from “The Mandalorian.” The direct-to-consumer (DTC) OTT service, which will be joined by others like HBOMax and NBCUniversal’s Peacock in 2020, is forecasting a shift in the video market, according to a new report from ABI Research.

ABI dove into this and other topics in its “54 Technology Trends to watch in 2020” report. Some of the other trends dealt with virtual reality and augmented reality, 8K and 5G.

The last few years, virtual MVPDs like YouTube TV, DirecTV Now (now AT&T TV Now) and PlayStation Vue (soon to be defunct) were seemingly pointing to how content was distributed as being the key factor in a changing market. However, the popularity of Disney+ and its library of content is shifting that paradigm, and the launch of DTC services HBOMax and Peacock—with deep libraries of content of their own—will result in consumers debating how they will spend their content budget, per ABI.

This will make it difficult for new services that do not have preexisting content to make an impact in the market, predicts ABI. It says Apple TV+ is an example of that already with its lower price ($5 per month) and its bundling with new Apple hardware purchases to help spur subscriber growth.

ABI does see a potential avenue for traditional pay-TV operators. “[T]he shift to DTC does create an opportunity for these MVPDs to serve as an aggregation point for fragmented OTT services,” ABI writes.

2020 may be a good year for DTC, but ABI does not see a big growth in 8K TVs. While the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan will be broadcasting in 8K, that hi-res broadcast is expected to be limited to the host country. In reality, 8K content for TVs around the world is still extremely limited, so, “without the content to take advantage of the higher resolution, adoption, of course, will be limited,” ABI reasons. 

Price is expected to come down for 8K TVs, though it is still expected to be higher than the average consumer can afford, so ABI forecasts less than 1 million shipments of 8K TVs worldwide in 2020. However, 4K TVs are expected to see some growth.

Other findings from ABI’s report touched on VR and AR technology. While there is growing buzz for consumer VR experiences, it is not expected to see a big growth as there still needs to be some maturation in both the hardware and software for the technology. AR, on the other hand, is expected to have some significant growth, particularly on mobile platforms. 2020 will be more of a chance for VR to establish a clearer path moving forward, says ABI.

ABI also touched on the deployment of 5G. It said that it expects 5G Fixed Wireless Access services to see “accelerated growth,” while other 5G services will continue to be built out, though there will still be ample room for growth in the coming years.

One thing that ABI did not touch on that is set for a major deployment next year is Next Gen TV. The new television standard garnered no mention in the report, even though it is expected be available in the top 40 U.S. markets by the end of 2020.

More information can be found on ABI Research’s website, www.abiresearch.com.