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In-Stat: As High-Definition TV Goes Mainstream, Speculation Starts About Ultra-High Definition TV (12/11/2009)

While the market for High-Definition TV (HDTV) has hit the mainstream, the industry has already started speculating about the commercialization of Ultra-High Definition (UHD). Market research firm, believes 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,” says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst. “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 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.
* In-Stat expects the total installed base of UHDTVs Europe to approach 5% household penetration until 2021, and increase to over 28.2% penetration by 2025.
* In Asia-Pacific, Japan will be among the early adopter countries.

The research, “The Market Opportunity for Ultra-High Definition Video” (#IN0904468MBS), covers the availability of ultra-high definition TV units and of ultra-high definition services around the world. It includes:

* Market and industry drivers for UHD service subscribers and viewers.
* Analysis of how the development of different technologies and business models is impacting the market for UHD services.
* An in-depth look at potential UHD service providers.
* Analysis of the emerging Digital Cinema and 3D Technologies.
* Assessment of the UHD Value Chain, including UHD content creation, cinema distribution, broadcast and in-home technologies.
* Long-term (fifteen-year) forecasts for worldwide UHDTV households by geographic region.

www.in-stat.com