LOS ANGELES—Disney is marshaling its broadcast and cable network assets to promote the upcoming March 1 launch of season three of "Star Wars: The Mandalorian" on Disney+ streaming by simulcasting episode one, season one of the series on ABC, Freeform and FX.

The series first episode will air on Friday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. EST/PST on the broadcast and cable networks. Season three will be available to stream beginning Wednesday, March 1 on Disney+.

"The Mandalorian" is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order and follows the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic.

The show offers a pioneering example of the use in virtual production and has been one of the Disney+’s most popular series.  

LONDON—No sooner than broadcasters began transmitting HD programming in earnest, it felt as if equipment manufacturers began trumpeting the benefits of 8K – 16 times the resolution of HD.

Although that’s a bit of an exaggeration, Japan’s NHK, who started the R&D work on their Super Hi-Vision system in 1995, first screened 8K video in 2005, only one year after the launch of the first HD channel in Europe. For several years a decade ago, the network demo-ed SHV on giant displays in specially-designed stands at the NAB Show and IBC.

The first public showcase of the technology was a collaboration between NHK and the BBC to transmit the opening ceremony and selected events from the London 2012 Summer Olympics to giant screens in Broadcasting House in London, Pacific Quay in Glasgow, and the National Media Museum in Bradford.

Responses to the presentation were very positive with audience members remarking on the sense of intimacy created through seeing the athletes at that size and level of detail. More than one person remarked that being close enough to read the emotion on the faces of the participants made what is usually the most boring part of the ceremony—the entrance of the athletes—into the most moving part of the entire event.

The Current State
Ten years on, where does 8K sit in the media landscape?

Firstly, it now shares the acronym UHD (Ultra High Definition) with 4K. Its approach to dynamic range has been given its own acronym HDR (High Dynamic Range) and is also applied to HD, 4K, and still photography.

It has its own industry body—the 8K Association, who have defined basic specs for what an 8K TV should offer, including: 7,680 x 4,320 pixel resolution; input frame rates of 24p, 30p, 60p; more than 600 nits peak brightness; HEVC support; and HDMI 2.1.

When the 2012 London Olympic project was undertaken, there were only three 8K cameras in the entire world. Now there are good 8K cameras available for under $7,000, and 8K TVs for under $2,000; even smartphones now boast 8K capabilities.

There have been a few 8K projects in the broadcasting world, mostly focussed on sports production, but adoption has not been huge.

In early 2020, BT Sport and Samsung screened the UK’s first public live 8K sports broadcast, with a presentation of a match between Arsenal and Olympiacos which was made available in 8K to select fans inside Arsenal’s Emirates stadium. 

This was followed by a transmission of a Premiership Rugby match sent live in 8K to selected homes. The game was produced entirely remotely allowing BT Sport to explore OB and production workflows for future live 8K broadcasts.

NHK launched BS8K, an 8K satellite television service in 2018 and produced about 200 hours of 8K video during the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

As a Broadcast Format
The challenge facing proponents of 8K is consumer adoption. Market research firm Omdia anticipates that just 2.7 million households worldwide are expected to have an 8K TV by the end of 2026. According to the firm, shipments of 8K TVs only accounted for 0.15% of all TV shipments in 2021. The CTA forecasts 479,000 8K-capable TV sets in the US by 2023—out of an overall market of 38 million sets—that’s a market penetration of only 1.26%.

The logistics of transmission are a significant obstacle to 8K becoming a broadcast format. The HEVC 8K codec used for the Tokyo Olympics required a bitrate of 85 Mpbs.  Advances in the efficiency of the coding algorithm allowed a bitrate of 40 Mbps for an 8K trial at the 2019 French Open.

Putting these numbers in perspective: the transmission bitrate of terrestrial broadcast HD channels averages around 6 Mbps—from as low as 1.1 and bursting up to 11.0 Mbps. To deliver equivalent quality for a 4K broadcast, a bitrate of 9 Mbps is needed. 8K requires a significant leap up to 48 Mbps, which is 8 Mbps greater than the entire bitrate available in the UK’s HD multiplex, which currently carries 9 HD and two SD channels. 

In a world in which over-the-air bandwidth is scarce and the subject of intense competition for access, it is turning out to be difficult to create a business case that justifies replacing 11 channels with one to service only 1.26% of the market.

In Production
Although the uptake of 8K as a consumer format has been slow, the technology has been making inroads as a production tool. 

Panasonic sells what it calls an 8K “Region of Interest” camera that can be configured to output 4 HD video feeds that can be panned, tilted, and zoomed via software. The system allows up to eight of the cameras to be linked in a single integrated system, effectively creating 32 virtual HD camera positions.

8K LED walls are starting to replace the use of green screens in feature productions like Disney’s “The Mandalorian.” This approach allows the actors to actually see and interact with the CGI environment in real time. This approach can be simpler to light than green screen sets, easier and more flexible to shoot, and can lead to cost savings.

In the Future
In a futuristic twist, the first 8K console game for the PS5 has been released, but only the console’s processor can see it in that resolution. 

Shin’en’s “Touryst” was released for the PS5 in an 8K version last year, however PS5 doesn’t currently support 8K output for games, and has to render it internally at 8K and then downscale the output to 4K. Sony has promised to enable 8K output in a future update, but has not named a date for that to happen.

Seventeen years after its first appearance, the jury is still out on 8K as a consumer format. It could end up being a non-starter like 3DTV, or it might follow the path of other repurposed consumer products like Betamax and MiniDisc as a useful production tool.  As William Gibson wrote, “the street finds its own uses for things.”  

MANCHESTER, U.K.—Dragons were replaced by Baby Yoda as the most-pirated TV content for 2020, as TorrentFreak reported its annual top 10 list of most-pirated TV shows, which saw the “Star Wars”-based Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” lead the way.

HBO’s “Game of Thrones” had held a seven-year streak as the most-pirated show, but with the series ending in 2019, a new champion was bound to emerge. “The Mandalorian” (the third most-pirated show in 2019) now headlines a new top three that also consisted of Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” and HBO’s “Westworld”—both of which had not been on the list in 2019.

TorrentFreak says that the three most popular titles being on three separate subscription services, which not everyone may be able to afford, is an example of the piracy problem.

PLUS: Pirating Streamed Content to Become Felony

The other top 10 most-pirated shows are as follows: “Vikings,” “Star Trek: Picard,” “Rick and Morty,” “The Walking Dead,” “The Outsider,” “Arrow” and “The Flash.”

TorrentFreak’s rankings are based on BitTorrent statistics for downloads of single episodes worldwide. 

WASHINGTON—NAB Show Express is adding a interactive program to its slate that takes a deep dive into the technology that is changing the TV (and film) production landscape. Titled “Let’s Talk Cine,” this live program will feature conversations with filmmakers, technologists and studio executives on how new technology is impacting the creative and physical process of production and post-production.

The first session in the “Let’s Talk Cine” program is “How Is Virtual Production Changing Television?” Produced in association with the Television Academy’s Interactive Media Peer Group, the session will explore how virtual production tools were used on shows like HBO’s “Run” and the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.” The session, which will take place on May 13, will feature Sam Nicholson, ASC, Stargate Studios; Miles Perkins, Epic Games; Christina Lee Storm, DreamWorks Animation; and Richard Bluff, Industrial Light & Magic.

Also on May 13, there will be a behind-the-scenes look at the popular Netflix series “Ozark,” specifically detailing the show’s visual evolution. The panel will consist of “Ozark” production designer David Bomba, cinematographers Ben Kutchins and Armando Salas, and director and camera operator Ben Semanoff speaking on how the use of art direction, lighting, shot design and camera work created the show’s dark look.

With productions taking place at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, “Let’s Talk Cine” will also have a special panel titled “Remote Production and Post: Lessons Learned After Two Months of Safer-At-Home” on May 14. ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council help produced the session, which will focus on the best platforms, apps and practices for creating and finishing content remotely.

Additional sessions will include an “Ask Me Anything About Filmmaking” live session with three-time Oscar nominee Roderigo Prieto, ASC, AMC, and a webinar from filmmaker Nigel Dick, “One Man Crew: Nigel Dick Shares His Tips & Tricks”

The NAB Show Express is taking place from May 13-14. For more information, visit www.nabshowexpress.com.  

BURBANK, Calif.—In less than three months since its initial launch on Nov. 12, 2019, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger revealed that the Disney+ streaming service has 28.6 million subscribers as of Feb. 3.

The Disney+ streaming service was created as the new streaming home for classic Disney, Marvel, National Geographic and Star Wars content, as well as new original programming, like the popular Star Wars spin-off “The Mandalorian.”

Currently, Disney+ is available in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. It is slated to expand to markets across Western Europe—the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain. Austria and Switzerland—on March 24 and in India on March 29; additional Western European markets will add the service in summer 2020. Expansion into Latin America is expected in 2021.

“We believe the subscriber growth to date and the overall reaction to Disney+ reflects a variety of factors that includes the uniqueness of the service, an excellent user interface and the high quality of our brands and content,” said Iger during an earnings call. Iger said that the success of Disney+ exceeded the company’s expectations.

Part of Disney+’s strategy with its launch was to also provide Disney+ for free to new Verizon customers for a year, as well as traditional free trials. Iger also noted that conversions of free to pay subscribers and churn were better than the company initially predicted.

Iger also took time to during the call to announce premiere dates for new original programming, including Marvel’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (August) and “WandaVision” (December), as well as the second season of “The Mandalorian” (October).

Disney also released subscriber information for its other streaming platforms, Hulu and ESPN+. As of Feb. 3, Hulu had 30.7 million subscribers and ESPN+ had 7.6 million.

BURBANK, Calif.—Disney+ is only a little more than 24 hours old, but it’s been quite the start for the brand new streaming service. The much anticipated platform that features Disney classics, Marvel and Star Wars movies as well as original programming exceeded even The Walt Disney Company’s expectations with first-day sign ups, but with that came a few bumps in the road.

DownDetector, a company that tracks outages for telecom and streaming companies, registered more than 8,000 trouble reports early morning on Nov. 12 in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands. Some subscribers weren’t able to login, experienced playability issues and some were not able to access all or specific content.

“The consumer demand for Disney+ has exceeded our high expectations,” Disney said in a statement. “We are pleased by this incredible response and are working to quickly resolve the current user issues. We appreciate your patience.”

Most of Tuesday afternoon saw a decrease in reported issues to under 1,000, according to DownDetector, though it peaked over 2,000 around 8 p.m. As of Wednesday morning, fewer than 300 issues were being reported.

Beyond subscribers’ ability to access the new streaming service, it also saw its first instance of pirating. After concerns were expressed about pirating of Disney+’s original content, specifically the Star Wars series “The Mandalorian,” it came to fruition as the first episodes of “The Mandalorian” were pirated within three hours of the platform’s launch, according to Comparitech.

Most of the torrenting of the show came from Spain and the U.K.—countries that will not see the launch of Disney+ until 2020—though some originated in the U.S. and Canada.

With Disney’s new streaming service finally launching in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands today, Nov. 12, there are still millions (or even billions) of viewers who won’t be able to access its content, in some cases for at least four months.

Disney+ has been promoting its exclusive original content for months, whetting fans’ appetites with glimpses of a new live action “Lady and the Tramp,” “The World according to Jeff Goldblum,” and new Star Wars TV series “The Mandalorian.” But with the announcement that the new SVoD won’t launch in western Europe until the end of March 2020, how does Disney protect content that many fans would give Darth Vader’s missing right hand to watch now?

“High-value shows like 'The Mandalorian' will drive incredible consumer demand, and just like 'Game of Thrones,' will be a target for pirates,” Tim Pearson, senior director, product marketing, at NAGRA tells TV Technology's sister publication TVBEurope.

“In today’s increasingly fragmented digital world, there is a segment of the market that will just pick up their smartphones and search for what they want to watch and find illicit options. For providers like Disney+, competing with such free alternatives is just not sustainable.”

“With the right technologies in place, service providers like Disney+ can identify which legitimate clients the stream is leaking from, and then stop the distribution through that point,” Pearson continues.

“In the case of 'The Mandalorian,' preventing leaks and, if needed, identifying the source of any leak is critical. Anti-piracy actions can also be taken to bring down pirate resellers and illicit streaming services. Finally, in markets where it is legally possible, blocking access to pirate services is another effective approach to stopping piracy.”

At heart, it appears content is the main reason behind Disney’s decision to hold back its launch in the U.K. and western Europe, as Futuresource’s principal analyst David Sidebottom explains: “If it were to launch simultaneously globally, it would have differing content line-ups in different countries, due to the existing licensing deals that are still running in most countries with third-party pay-TV and/or SVoD providers.

“The most high-profile content is movies in the first pay-window, particularly given Disney’s stellar Box Office line-up in 2019, therefore it is set to hold out launching in a country until it can offer these first run movies,” he adds.

In the U.K., Sky currently has exclusive rights for Disney’s first run movies, with the deal thought to run well into 2020. “Therefore, for first run movies, it should have little bearing on piracy,” says Sidebottom. “But on the Disney+ exclusive 'The Mandalorian,' it won’t be available until 2020. Given the likely pent-up demand to watch the show, it will be interesting to see how fans react or choose to access the shows if they can’t wait.”