IHS Sees Global HDR TV Shipments Growing to 47.9 Million in 2021, From 12.2 Million in 2017

Global shipments of high-dynamic-range TVs will grow to 47.9 million sets in 2021 from 12.2 million this year, said IHS Markit in a Monday forecast. IHS also sees an additional 88.6 million HDR-ready sets shipping globally in 2021, it said. It defined those sets as having HDR decoding embedded, but no HDR display capability. IHS expects 23 percent of the Ultra HD TVs that ship globally this year to “offer the full HDR experience," said Paul Gray, associate director-consumer devices, in a statement. Most of the sets shipped “will be able to decode a signal, but lack the high contrast capability to display HDR content to an advantage,” he said. In areas of the world “where the airwaves are congested, broadcasters have no spare space to transmit the extra data required” for 4K, said Gray. “However, HD with HDR provides a huge increase in perceived quality for a very low data overhead, and that’s incredibly interesting.” U.S. broadcasters see ATSC 3.0 as the gateway for delivering better pictures to the viewing public almost immediately after launch, but bandwidth constraints have many looking toward using 1080p with “enhancements” like HDR in launching 3.0, at least as an “interim” approach, broadcasters told ATSC’s annual meeting in May (see 1705160044). North America will lead the world with 14.6 million HDR sets shipping in 2021, with China second at 11.8 million TVs shipped, IHS said.