Audio Video News

Consumers have purchased more than 7 million 4K Ultra HD (UHD) TVs since they first hit the market in 2013, according to a new report from the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG).

DEG said more than 1.5 million 4K UHD TVs sold in the first quarter of 2016, up 210 percent over the same period in 2015. The association noted that the news comes at a time when nearly 95 percent of U.S. households—some 104 million—have at least one HDTV and Blu-ray playback devices (including game consoles) are in 84 percent of homes.

Other highlights from the first quarter 2016 report, include:

• Total U.S. home entertainment spending was nearly $4.6 billion, in line with the same period in 2015 and outpacing the box office value on video release by almost 10 percent.

• The first UHD players to go on sale in the U.S. sold “quickly” and consumers bought more than 80,000 discs during the first weeks of the launch—twice the number of discs sold when Blu-ray launched.

• 26 UHD Blu-ray titles were available as of the end of March, a number that continues to grow.

  Sales of all packaged video goods (including digital) were down 9 percent compared with the first quarter of 2015.

• Total subscription revenue (streaming and disc) was up 14 percent, while digital subscription streaming was up 19 percent compared with the first quarter of 2015.

• Video on demand (VOD) platforms continued to grow, up 7 percent for the quarter and reversing the downward trends seen in early 2015.

• Growth in electronic sell-through slowed to 4 percent due to a “smaller slate of new releases but continues to see robust catalog growth.”