CES 2019 News

There’s a lot to digest coming out of the first full Media

Day here in Las Vegas for CES 2019, but the one thing

that keeps replaying in my mind is a simple statistic that

was delivered during the TCL keynote on Monday afternoon.

During its press conference, the company highlighted a

shocking piece of information related to TV sales in the U.S.

Specifically, according to TCL’s data, 99 percent of all TVs

that were shipped last year were in the sub-$2,000 price

range. So, on the flip side of that, that means a mere 1

percent of the total shipment volume of TVs in 2018 cost

more than $2,000.

That’s an incredibly important statistic to the consumer

electronics retailer for a number of reasons—namely in that it

confirms our long held belief that consumers hunt for deals on

TVs. But that statistic should also catch the eyes and ears of

TV manufacturers around the globe, who, according to that

data, seem to be out of touch with the mass market. And

nowhere is that more evident than with the number of 8K TV

announcements that were made here.

Coming into CES 2019, we expected to see and hear a great

deal about 8K TVs. And Monday’s Media Day extravaganza

proved us absolutely correct with big names like LG, Samsung,

TCL, and Sony all rolled out their 8K solutions to the public. But

we all know how this is going to go because we’ve all seen and

been through this exact same situation with 4K TVs. Only now it

feels like the industry is getting even further ahead of itself.

Don’t get me wrong, 8K TVs are absolutely gorgeous and will

help push screen sizes in the home beyond what we’d think to

be reasonable—we’re getting close to hitting that triple-digit

mark with these sets, with Samsung checking in with a 98-inch

TV introduction later this year. The video performance of these

TVs is unconscionable. The images pop off of the screen and

make you feel like you could just dive into whatever it is you’re

Watching.

But all we’ve been able to watch from a native 8K-content

perspective so far has been demo reels designed for those TVs.

And that very fact speaks to the larger issue with these

introductions, in that 8K content is so far behind the curve right

now. Each brand used their own technical jargon to describe

how their forthcoming product will expertly upscale any and all

content to make what you’re watching look like 8K. But let’s be

real, it’s not 8K and never will be 8K quality.