4K will grow quicker than HD

New research by Parks Associates predicts 4K TVs will follow a similar but faster growth trajectory to that of HDTVs.

The research “4K Today: Bringing Ultra HD to Market” predicts 4K TVs will reach mass-market pricing in the next 2-3 years and top 80 per cent of households in approximately 10-12 years as opposed to HDTVs which reached similar levels in 15 years.

Parks Associates analysts say 4K will initially be delivered via OTT, with companies like Netflix, Comcast, and Amazon already working on 4K-based offerings, and as 4K traffic increases over the next two years, traffic demands on broadband networks will grow dramatically. As a result, operators are aggressively looking into bandwidth-saving technologies, including next-generation video compression technologies.

“4K TV adoption is following the same pattern as HDTV, but prices are dropping more quickly,” said Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates. “With the increasing convergence in the connected home, innovations such as 4K have implications for a variety of players throughout the home entertainment ecosystem.”