Commentary

HDTV's Almost Old-Fashioned -- But Maybe Just Advanced Enough For Now

HDTV is almost an anachronism. With more than half the country having HDTV sets, now it’s really just TV.

Still, make way for more transitional names such as “4K” or “8K." Those two new TV systems are four and eight times current HD quality, respectively.

(Take a breath. I can feel you sweat, having just invested heavily in HDTV over the last couple of years.) 

Apple is considering a 4K TV set to be sold at the end of the year or in early 2014, according to one report. That’s right, a 4K TV set to be sold in the U.S. by one of the most dominant, buzz-enabled electronic consumer product manufacturers. Japan’s NHK Broadcasting system is starting up 4K TV transmission later this year.

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Still, a good share -- around 75% -- of TV marketers still don’t advertiser in HDTV, and a bunch of other platforms still not set up for HDTV transmission. What does that say about the future of TV? Maybe that it's media-efficient even when it lags.

SpotGenie Partners relishes these changes -- but of course, this is a company focusing on digital distribution of HDTV. According to a white paper SpotGenie sponsored, all the new TV technology only boosts its value. This includes the research that TV works so well with new social media. And for marketers it continues to offer pristine brand recall over many other media platforms, even many new digital ones.

Back to the bigger (maybe better) TV set news. Consumers can always be wowed. Currently they don’t mind paying $199 or $299 for an iPhone, and  $499 or $599 or more for a iPad. But a TV set? This is a way different level of consumer product — even at the current HDTV price point. At this moment in time we're talking about 4K TVs costing anywhere from $40,000 to $300,000.

Yikes! TV set prices aren’t bound to drop into Apple’s hitting zone any time soon. A  fast-moving economy will need to arrive, with consumers packing some crazy extra cash. If not, you can forget about 4K TV, and hope for OK TV.

1 comment about " HDTV's Almost Old-Fashioned -- But Maybe Just Advanced Enough For Now".
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  1. Edmund Singleton from Winstion Communications, March 29, 2013 at 4:34 a.m.

    'The following program is brought to you in living color', there came a time when this announcement became unnecessary, perhaps the time has come for HD too?

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