Japan Plans To Launch 4K Television Broadcasting By 2014

By: Talha Bhatti  |   January 28th, 2013   |   Business, Gadgets, News

Consumer electronic manufacturers are always trying to entice customers with new innovations and technology. This is usually most apparent in the television sector with a new type of product hitting the market every other year. Once broadcasters starting offering HD channels, sales of the current HD television sets started picking up quickly. Similarly, it has been announced that Japan will become the world’s first country to offer 4K TV broadcast. The country expects to start transmission of the latest TV technology in July 2014. Japan hopes that this will help sell more of the latest ultra high-definition (UHD) TV devices.

 

Asahi Times reported that officials from the communications ministry were looking to launch the service two years in advance and hoped to revive the local electronics appliance sector. The Japanese industry has seen a slump lately and the new demand might help Japanese manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic. The two companies have already started creating 4K TVs and even showcased them at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

 

The Japanese news outlet also stated that demand for TVs became stagnant after broadcasters converted to terrestrial digital broadcasting from analog. Many observers believe that 4K technology will be very hot in the future and can help revive demand. In order to fast track growth, Japan expects to begin 4K broadcasting a lot earlier than the original deadline of 2016.

 

Interestingly, the date change means that Japan beats Korea to the 4k line and also will be transferring over right before the 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil. Manufacturers are also already working on 8K technology which would be 16 times sharper then the current HD. Japan is thinking about moving up the date for 8K broadcasting to 2016 so that it coincides with the Olympics taking place in Brazil that year.

 

Source: ZDnet

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