Recommendations on Policies and Measures for the Ideal State of Next-generation Televisions were Compiled- Future efforts to be taken while foreseeing what the ideal state of televisions and their functional advancement will be in five years’ time -

The television field has led Japan's home appliance industry. While it is now facing a severe situation including diminished domestic demand and intensified competition, the field is expected to create new added value from measures including a video content distribution service utilizing the Internet called "smart TV."

Considering this situation, METI discussed future efforts to be taken which will lead to the increase in televisions' attractiveness as well as the revitalization of related industries, while foreseeing the ideal state of televisions and their functional advancement, so that televisions users will be able to enjoy a more enriched life.

1) Review Meeting on Next-generation Televisions

The Discussion Meeting on Next-generation Televisions was held in September 2012, with 12 people from major television manufacturers, broadcasting businesses, content distributors, and experts attending as members. The meeting was held a total of 5 times up to January 2013.

In the meeting, the members continued discussions on sharing awareness on challenges, on analyses of present situations, and on future directions, by considering the results of the various questionnaires and presentations they have carried out.

2) Various types of surveys on next-generation televisions

In order to gain awareness of challenges to be overcome, a variety of surveys and interviews were carried out on potential demands and trends of use regarding (next-generation) televisions in five years time, as well as on infrastructure environments and on involvement in the Home Energy Management System (HEMS), health, and safety and security.

Outlines of the major surveys

• Trend analysis for ascertaining the current situation of television viewing and changes in media environments, surveying 10,000 people;
• Questionnaires conducted on advanced users about what the ideal state televisions will be in about five years' time;
• Questionnaire conducted on the elderly via the Internet about a subject titled "Future televisions"
• Surveys for finding user needs on home networks; among others

The state of televisions is changing due to increasing collaboration with other devices, such as smartphones and personal computers, including the addition of the ability to receive information from the Internet. To address this situation, the meeting complied recommendations on future efforts that people involved should take, while foreseeing the ideal state of televisions and functional changes in terminals.

Based on the report of the meeting, METI will promote revitalization of television-related industries, while cooperating with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), as a related ministry.

1) Recommendations to advance terminals

• Addressing measures for high-definition displays, such as 4K and 8K,*1 so that video display terminals are able to remain state of the art in households;
• Promoting efforts to connect televisions to wireless LANs and other systems so as to smoothly integrate such televisions with other smart terminals;
• Noting improved operability of television interfaces for the elderly, whose population is expected to increase; etc.

2) Recommendations to advance content

• Establishing technology to provide information while synchronizing broadcasting with communication, so as to increase the effectiveness of offering content services;
• Studying standardization of formats for providing peripheral data (metadata) related to content, so as to improve data as a basis of content services;
• Studying methods to provide viewers or users with recommendation information after analyzing the behavior of such respective viewers in the fields of televisions and cloud computing services as a whole, so as to provide them with an opportunity to experience better television viewing; etc.

3) Recommendations to advance service models

• Studying the feasibility of a variety of services so as to further advance services that utilize next-generation televisions, such as functions of energy management systems (EMS) as a display terminal, observation services, and health management services;
• Studying new service models that, for example, allow users to participate in service policies, specify the burdens imposed on users in advance, and position recommendation functions that utilize big data in the core of the services, as well as reviewing service models depending on the need for related charging systems;
• Studying the provision of various data via an application programming interface (API),*2 so as to expand the services or the providers thereof; etc.

Note 1: 4K and 8K are resolution standards referring, respectively, to picture qualities shown 4 times and 16 times finer than the current high-vision (2K).

Note 2: An Application Programming Interface (API) is a software interface by which application software and other operations provide other application software with a common function. In the development of application software, a function provided by API does not require programming, which means that the development is more effective.

Previous review meetings

First meeting:

September 10, 2012; Awareness of current situation surrounding televisions and future approaches to discussions

Second meeting:

October 24, 2012; Discussion on what the ideal state of televisions will be in five years time

Third meeting:

November 20, 2012; Discussion based on the results of the questionnaires

Fourth meeting:

December 20, 2012; Discussion on future directions to compile a report

Fifth meeting:

January 31, 2013; Discussion on the draft report

• Full text of the report(PDF:3,444KB) / (ZIP:3,444KB) (in Japanese)
• Summary of the report(PDF:151KB)

February 28, 2013

Information and Communication Electronics Division, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau