Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) is predicting that 4K TVs will follow a similar, but faster, growth pattern as HDTVs, which have reached 82% of U.S. broadband households after 15 years on the market.

The research group forecasts that 4K TVs will reach mass-market pricing in the next 2-3 years and top 80% of households in approximately 10-12 years. Parks Associates analysts note 4K will initially be delivered via OTT, with companies like Netflix, Comcast, and Amazon already working on 4K-based offerings, and as 4K traffic increases over the next two years, traffic demands on broadband networks will grow dramatically. As a result, operators are aggressively looking into bandwidth-saving technologies, including next-generation video compression technologies.

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