First 8K streaming content coming to Samsung 8K TVs

Samsung is partnering with three streaming providers in Europe, Chili, Megogo and The Explorers, to bring the first 8K HDR content to its 8K TVs.

It's a start
Samsung's announcement at IFA 2019 is very light on details. The company says that the three streaming providers will "adopt 8K HDR10+ along with its support for 4K HDR10+" sometime in the near future.

The content will be available on Samsung 2019 8K TVs but seemingly not the 2018 models. What type of content? The announcement did not point to any titles. Chili is a pay-per-view movie service while Megogo is the largest subscription streaming service in the CIS countries. No technical details as to compression format or bitrate were provided. YouTube is also hosting video in 8K resolution but current 8K TVs are not capable of decoding it.

 Also read: Why you shouldn't buy an 8K TV in 2019

While it is great to see development in terms of 8K content the announcement raises more questions than answers. It is hard to deem it significant at this time.



Samsung considers it an important development for its HDR10+ format.

- "With this announcement, Samsung has established itself as the leader of the HDR (High Dynamic Range) specification industry. Chili, The Explorers and Megogo – three key OTT (Over-the-top) service providers in Europe – will adopt 8K HDR10+ along with its support for 4K HDR10+," the company said.

Samsung said that 81 companies have joined the HDR10+ program since launch. Services such as Rakuten TV and Magenta TV are expected to implement 4K HDR10+ support later this year or in early 2020. There is still far more content available in the competing Dolby Vision format.

- Source: Samsung