UK Ultra-HD could hit 1m units

UK Ultra-HD could hit 1m units

The forecasts for 4K/Ultra HD take-up this year have exceeded all expectations. 2014 saw around 200,000 UHD units sold in Britain (3 per cent of the market), and this year’s forecasts could see as many as 995,000 large-format 4K sets sold. The data comes from market analyst GfK, and were presented at the SES-sponsored 4K/Ultra HD conference in London.

GfK says that the British sales are more or less in line with similar sales in other comparable countries in Europe. December’s UK sales were in excess of 60,000 pieces, already 7 per cent of the market in that month alone.

GfK’s Nigel Catlow (Business Group director/consumer electronics) told delegates that if this expansion continued, then 2015’s overall sales will be close to half-a-million units. “However, as the sales percentage is itself growing month by month it seems highly probable that the market will be closer to 1 million pieces by year end, rather than half-a-million.”

Catlow stressed that these are forecasts, and inevitably carry the usual warnings, but given that the 4K manufacturing sector is releasing many new UHD models “strong growth seems inevitable”.

He added that the one inescapable fact was that British consumers seemed to have a strong appetite for larger and larger screens, and “this is encouraging the purchase of UHD TVs” and also helped by steadily falling prices of the technology.

German sales, said Catlow, were even stronger (at 211,000 for 2014) and France only just behind (196,000 units).