NOW THAT high definition television is mainstream, the industry has turned its sights to the commercialization of Ultra-High Definition (UHD), says In-Stat.
In a report called ‘The Market Opportunity For Ultra-High Definition Video‘, the market research firm predicts that there will be a lengthy time period before the UHD market reaches a critical mass of 5% household penetration. However, as the initial market debuts over the next five to ten years, there will be ample opportunities for technology companies, manufacturers, service providers and media companies to experiment with business models and strategies to make UHD a strong business in the long term.
“UHD formats provide between four and sixteen times the resolution of Blu-ray or 1080p high definition as well as 22.2 multichannel three-dimensional sound,” said In-Stat analyst Michelle Abraham, in a statement. “This is a vast improvement over the currently available end user viewing experience in the home.”
As originally proposed, UHD comes in two levels of resolution: 7680 x 4320 pixels (i.e., 8K resolution), and 3840 x 2160 (i.e., 4K resolution).
Recent research by In-Stat also found the following:
– The rising popularity of high resolution digital cinema will expose consumers to high resolution content. Then, early UHDTVs will be made available to provide a digital cinema high resolution viewing experience in the home. Ultimately, broadcasters will start offering UHD content to an addressable market of UHDTVs, between 2017 and 2022.
– The total installed base of UHDTVs in Europe is expected to approach 5% household penetration by 2021, and increase to over 28.2% penetration by 2025.
– In Asia-Pacific, Japan will be among the early adopter countries.
