The new 8KA nonprofit organization includes founding companies AU Optronics (AUO, a panel supplier) Hisense, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics and TCL Electronics, which have all signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance their common vision and mission.

Stated goals of the organization include:

- Promoting 8K TVs and 8K Content to consumers and professionals

- Helping educate consumers and professionals about the 8K ecosystem

- Helping secure 8K native content for members

- Encouraging service providers (especially OTT) to develop 8K offerings

- Facilitating communication within 8K ecosystem to help with commercialization

- Developing initial technical requirements for 8K input signals

- Developing initial 8K TV categories and minimum specifications for image quality

“The 8K Association will not only provide an effective introduction to 8K technology but will also accelerate the beginning of the 8K era,” said Hyogun Lee, Executive Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “By leading the early stages of ecosystem development, Samsung will further solidify its global leadership in the 8K market.”

"8KA helps to accelerate the development of 8K eco-system and the popularization of 8K products,” said Dr. Weidong Liu, the chief scientist of Hisense Electronics. “Hisense will bring 8K ULED products to market and will provide consumers with excellent picture quality and extraordinary visual experiences.”

Building on the newly founded 8K Association and powered by major investments in the latest-generation large-screen 8K-ready panel production facilities—the newest of which enters production in early 2019—TCL will pave the way for an 8K era and actively encourage a wide range of business partners—from streaming services and hardware manufactures—to take the lead in making 8K widely available and accessible.

“AUO has long been devoted to the development of advanced display technologies and was among the first to have introduced 8K technology to large-sized TV displays,” said WeiLung Liau, CTO of AUO. “It is hoped that through the founding of 8K Association with partners of the ecosystem, globally consistent standards will be established to accelerate the adoption of 8K technology, delivering the best image performance possible for viewers worldwide.”

Thus far there has been little to no interest from consumers (in the U.S. or elsewhere), even though 8K TVs have been shown at CES since at least 2012 (Sharp showed an 85-inch prototype that year). And programming is sorely lacking, although Japan’s NHK is now delivering BS8K channel broadcasts in 8K for 12 hours each day via satellite service.