Procter & Gamble on Tuesday became the latest Fortune 500 company to cancel live appearances at the CES tech show next year in Las Vegas amid concerns about the coronavirus’ omicron variant. Instead of a physical presence at the highly anticipated annual electronics events, the Cincinnati-based consumer goods giant now plans to host a virtual event at its pglifelab.com website.
The pitch for ATSC 3.0, the IP-based broadcast television standard marketed as NextGen TV, often focuses on the 4K resolution it can deliver over the air. But at the online-only CES 2021, industry executives suggested it might appeal more to viewers’ ears than their eyes. “We’ve had a lot of conversations around audio and NextGen,” said Grace Dolan, Samsung VP for integrated marketing, at a “Next Generation Television in Focus” panel Tuesday morning.
TVN Executive Session | Virtual CES Foreshadows Post-Pandemic Glimpses
Next week’s CES will feature virtualized presentations of new 8K TV sets, streaming technology and ever-improving home video production tools that will be of interest to broadcasters. Veteran consultant Shelly Palmer says smart TVs will take a leap forward, smartphone tech will pause until post-pandemic mobility returns and huge trade shows like CES itself will never be the same again.
In the lead-up to CES, it says the majority of American viewers are expected to have ATSC 3.0 broadcasts available to them by fall.
The International CES electronics extravaganza historically held in Las Vegas in early January, was once a “TV show”—that is, a massive annual exposition and convention to showcase the latest, greatest television receivers and consumer video equipment. This year, the “All-Digital CES 2021” is a pandemic-induced virtual exhibit and conference taking place Jan. 11-14, (with a month of “reruns”). Registration opened on Dec. 3.
Exclusives
Next year’s CES, the world’s biggest consumer-technology trade show, has been pushed back a few days in January 2021, the Consumer Technology Association announced. CTA also announced Verizon chairman/CEO Hans Vestberg as the kickoff keynoter for the online-only event. Originally, CES 2021 was scheduled to run Jan. 6-9, 2021, in the trade show and conference’s first-ever virtual format, after the CTA canceled the in-person in Las Vegas because of the COVID pandemic. The new dates for CES 2021 will be Monday, Jan. 11, to Thursday, Jan. 14.
The Consumer Technology Association’s annual electronics gathering in Las Vegas during the first week in January will be virtual in light of the coronavirus pandemic. CTA CEO Gary Shapiro says: “Technology helps us all work, learn and connect during the pandemic — and that innovation will also help us reimagine CES 2021 and bring together the tech community in a meaningful way.”
