Panasonic, Sony are set to dominate in the upcoming Ultra High definition TV market.

Japan’s NHK has boldly announced that it would broadcast the next 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 8K – just 4 years away. The number of Super Hi-Vision, 8K televisions in the market today is just … 1.

So as to kickstart this process, NHK has teamed up with Sony and Panasonic to get the necessary tech ready so as to get more products out there in the market, said the Nikkei.

You would be right in saying, 8K requires 4x the bandwidth of 4K. So the team must now create new types of streaming and compression technology.

While Panasonic & Sony will focus on developing professional grade cameras, NHK will focus on broadcast related issues.

For us, consumers, the benefit will be ultra-high resolution video that even most theatres will find hard to deliver. However, with hardly any 4K content, let alone 8K, jumping to a newer standard could be a hard sell.

Incidentally, probably to test its technology, NHK even broadcasted a small amount of 8K content in this times Olympic in Japan.

Since Sharp is the only company to have 8K television models, the only fan fans could see the ultra-high resolution contents was though public viewing stations.

Incidentally, Sharp’s 85” 8K model could set you back by at least $130,000. For the 2020 Tokyo Olympics however, both Sony and Panasonic will roll out 8K models.

Significantly, the strategic move of forming an all-Japanese consortium, could be to gain back some market share and prestige which were ceded to competitors including, Samsung, Vizio, LG and TCL in the 4K market.