Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has laid out a timetable for the switch to 4k-resolution and 8k-resolution broadcasts.

The Ministry aims to be the world’s first country to broadcast in 4K-resolution in July 2014, followed by a trial run of 8K-resolution broadcasts by the public broadcaster NHK in 2016. NHK’s broadcast satellite service aims to have 8K in time for the 2020 Olympic Games.

The CS satellite television system will be the first to run programmes in 4K, followed by the BS satellite system and terrestrial over-the-air stations. The ministry aims to spur demand for new televisions that offer four times the pixels of the current “full high vision” standard (Japanese for 1080p HDTV). 8K-resolution will offer 16 times the pixels of current HD televisions.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be held in the summer of 2014. Japan completed the transition from analogue to digital over-the-air broadcasts last year.

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, UHD, Ultra-HD/4K