Nearly 12 million of 4K TV were sold in Europe during the year 2016, which represents a growth of 102% in comparison for the year 2015 (6 million of 4K TV shipped).
According to Dataxis research, sales were driven by UK (2 million), Germany (2 million), France (1.7 million), Russia (1.4 million) and Italy (880 000). Furthermore, Dataxis estimates that 4K TV sales in Europe will reach 17 million at the end of the year 2017
Two main elements affect the regional numbers, for instance Brazil used to be the largest market and the main source of growth, however, since the end of 2014, its evolution has been frozen. Secondly, in the larger markets, the challenge is to reduce the barrier of entry to reach new level of penetration. In 2017, legal Pay-TV was available in 41% of households.
In 2016, 4K TV represented 22% of 53 million of TV sets sold in Europe compared to only 10% for the year before. However, the 4K TV set market in Europe remains far away from China who is the leading market. More than 25 million 4K TV have been sold in China in 2016 and Dataxis estimates that 40% of TV shipments were 4K for the first quarter of 2017 against 33% for year 2016.
Following research Dataxis predicts that 4K sales in Europe will continue to increase rapidly despite the lack of 4K content and price drop. The democratization of 4K made by the manufacturers and the dynamism seen in the Chinese market show that 4K sales is bound to rise in Europe in the coming years.