Good news for 4K Ultra HDTV lovers: you’ve got support from others who agree with you.
A recent study reported in a 2Q-2019 market research bulletin by the Leichtman Research Group (LRG) found that 59% of 4K Ultra HDTV owners strongly agree that picture quality on a 4K TV “makes everything look better even when not watching 4K content.” Just 7% of those polled disagreed.
The finding flies in the face of many who initially felt the higher resolution format made little difference to the human eye from typical seating distances. However, to be fair, those contrary opinions were expressed mostly in the first years of the 4K launch, before the emergence of televisions with a wider color gamut and high dynamic range (HDR).
However, Leichtman did report that “some may be confused as to whether or not they are watching various types of 4K content.”
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The results cited by the LRG were based on a poll of 1,150 TV households throughout the U.S., and are part of the LRG study entitled “Connected and 4K TVs 2019.”
The report, however, did point out that “the prior confusion over HD content declined as HDTVs became more commonplace. It is important to recall that after reaching 17% penetration in 2006, HDTV expanded to 69% of TV households in 2011. Spurred by a continued decrease in the prices of 4K TVs, and the fact that the vast majority of current 4K owners are pleased with their sets, we are now likely entering a similar growth stage of the product life-cycle for 4K HDTV.”
Other positive notes for the 4K TV industry included the fact that 48% of non-4K TV owners surveyed plan to get a new TV in the next year and are very interested in getting a 4K TV. In addition, 41% of current 4K TV owners said they are interested in getting another 4K TV.
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However, the study was a little less bullish on the prospects for the newly introduced 8K TV category, just 11% of respondents said they were interested in buying one.
Due largely to declining price points for 4K Ultra HDTVs, 4K sales are expected to continue their escalation. The LRG pointed out that in 2014, about one in every 200 TV households had a 4K TV, growing to about one in ever six households over the past five years.
“This is a similar growth pattern to that of HDTV in its introduction stage at the turn of the century,” the report shows.
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In related questioning, the study found that the most popular source for watching 4K content was Netflix, which was cited by 40% of those with a 4K TV, however, only about a third of those saying the watch 4K on Netflix said they had the Premium-level plan, which is required to receive 4K content.
“This suggests that a large number of Netflix subscribers may believe that they are watching 4K content when they are not,” the report synopsis indicated.
In addition, the report showed that despite the growing popularity of smaller screen devices such as mobile phones, laptops and tablets for viewing video, TVs continue to hang on to their popularity in U.S. homes.
“For the 15th consecutive year, over 20% of adults say that they got a new TV set in their household in the past year, demonstrating that TV sets are a recurring purchase item,” the LRG said.
The report synopsis continued that the number of TV sets used in U.S. households is similar to what it was
several years ago. The mean number of TVs used per household in this year’s study was over 2.6 – which is nearly identical to the mean number of sets reported five years ago.
Based on this, the LRG deduced that 320 million TV sets are currently in use in U.S. households and these TVs “are increasingly likely to be connected to the Internet, and to be 4K Ultra HDTVs.”
The study also found “74% of U.S. TV households have at least one Internet-connected TV device, including connected Smart TVs, stand-alone streaming devices (like Roku, Amazon Fire TV stick or set-top box, Chromecast, or Apple TV), connected video game systems, and/or connected Blu-ray players. This is a similar level to last year, and an increase from 69% with at least one connected TV device in 2017, 50% in 2014, and 24% in 2010.”
In total, the LRG surmises that “31% of adults in U.S. TV households watch video on a TV via a connected device daily – compared to 25% in 2017, 11% in 2014, and 1% in 2010.”
By Greg Tarr
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