• by Wayne Friedman , March 28, 2014

Ultra HDTV sets are steadily growing -- but they won’t reach a dominant majority of U.S. TV homes that currently have HDTV for another decade.

Market researcher Parks Associates says by 2024 to 2026, 4K TV sets -- which can deliver four times the quality of current HDTV sets -- will top 80% of U.S. TV homes. More immediately, Park estimates 4K TV sets will hit mass-market pricing in the next two or three years.

Analysts have derided any rapid growth over 4K TV set adoption, due to the lack of TV programming -- especially since the TV industry has just gone through its conversion to high-definition TV from standard-definition TV.  

Currently, HDTVs are in 82% of U.S. broadband TV after 15 years on the market.

"4K TV adoption is following the same pattern as HDTV, but prices are dropping more quickly," stated Stuart Sikes, president of Parks Associates.

"With the increasing convergence in the connected home, innovations such as 4K have implications for a variety of players throughout the home entertainment ecosystem," he adds.