By 2019, more than 50 percent of TV households in Japan, the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany will have smart TVs, according to IHS.
The IHS TV Sets Intelligence Service report finds that smart TV household penetration in Japan has already reached 50 percent and will rise to 63 percent in 2019, followed by the U.S. at 57 percent. Among Western European countries, Germany and the U.K. are expected to reach 53 percent penetration for smart TVs in 2019, followed closely by France at 50 percent.
“Increasing demand for 4K resolution, the debut of high dynamic range (HDR) for both hardware and content, and access to streaming content that supports these features will accelerate smart TV demand globally,” said Hisakazu Torii, senior director of consumer device research for IHS Technology. “Growing availability of 4K content from online video providers will also support this trend, as will the introduction of ultra-high-definition Blu-ray in 2016.”
While China is considered to be an emerging TV market, smart TV household penetration there is expected to reach 46 percent by 2019. This is because smart TV is an essential feature on TVs sold in China, as many Chinese consumers seek out online content services. “With content providers and smart-device manufacturers, such as Alibaba, LeTV, Xiaomi, now entering the TV set market, Chinese consumers have more smart TV choices than ever before,” Torii added. “Increased sales of 4K TVs will accelerate these trends in the Chinese market.”
Other emerging countries will remain low, due to a lack of online video content and insufficient infrastructure to deliver the required broadband internet content to the home. Smart TV household penetration in Brazil and Russia will only reach 36 percent in 2019 and just 3 percent in India.
