A quarter (25%) of the 3.3 million TV sets sold in Germany in the first half of 2016 were Ultra HD sets.
In total, 2 million Ultra HD TV sets are now in German households, report industry associations Deutsche TV-Plattform and ZVEI with reference to current figures from market research company GfK Retail & Technology.
“This means that Ultra HD has firmly established itself in the German market in 2016,” said Kai Hillebrandt, board member of ZVEI’s consumer electronics division. “Meanwhile, there are also several models of Ultra HD TV sets available in the medium-price segment.”
At the same time, the number of Ultra HD TV channels is growing. “The first unencrypted Ultra HD TV channels have been available in Germany since IFA 2015; for autumn 2016 the first pay-TV offer in this resolution has been announced,” said André Prahl, chairman of the board of Deutsche TV-Plattform.
Pay-TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland will transmit live games of Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League in Ultra HD from autumn 2016 with further live sports, movies and series to follow.
Video-on-demand providers such as Netflix, Amazon and Wuaki.tv offer more than 200 films and series in Ultra HD in Germany; over 50 titles are available on Blu-ray discs.
Consumers also have the possibility to record content in Ultra HD themselves. According to GfK, 13 million Ultra HD-capable smartphones, 600,000 camcorders and 160,000 digital cameras have been sold in Germany so far.
