Global Ultra HD TV Penetration to Reach 222 Million Homes by Year-End, Says Strategy Analytics

More than 200 million households globally have an Ultra HD TV, Strategy Analytics reported Thursday, predicting that number will reach 222 million by year's end, up 50 percent from year-end 2017. Only 3 percent of Ultra HD TVs in use by January will be 8K-ready, the rest having 4K displays, it said. Some 71 percent of U.S. homes will own an Ultra HD TV by 2023, it said. Sales of 8K TVs will reach more than 400,000 units next year and top 11 million by 2023, or 6 percent of the Ultra HD market, but the researcher’s expectation for 8K services is “cautious”: “While Japan has now launched 8K TV in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the rest of the world will be slower to follow suit, given that the number of homes with 8K-ready TVs will remain low until the mid 2020s,” said analyst David Mercer. Owners of 8K TVs will mostly watch 4K and HD content, “while the TV’s image processors will do a good job of scaling most content to give impressive images,” said analyst David Watkins. Image resolution is only one element in perceived video quality, Watkins said, mentioning HDR and high frame rate as additional drivers of consumer satisfaction.