The TV market is set to return to growth in 2018, Futuresource Consulting reports-- the recovery of several markets and the transition to 4K UHD models will bring global sales of $85 billion, a 5% increase over 2017.

"We believe 4K UHD TV sets will ship over 100 million units this year, equivalent to two-thirds of the entire large screen market," the analyst says. "Consumers increasingly want larger screens, and this is playing nicely into the 4K UHD proposition."

The two biggest markets, China and the US, saw falls in 2017 but the outlook for 2018 is positive. Futuresource says the two markets are ahead in terms of 4K UHD and large screen adoptions, with over 75% of sets sold in both US and China in 2018 being over 40-inch. That said other regions are catching up, with W. Europe matching the 44% Chinese household ownership of 4K UHD TVs by 2022.

With a "substantial" 4K UHD TV household install base comes more content across all markets. The analyst says there is a "significant step-up" in the proportion of 4K UHD TV owners watching 4K content at home, thanks to an increase of SVOD subscribers and a growing choice of content via linear TV.

Another weapon used by vendors in the premium TV arena is voice-- Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa find use in TVs from the likes of LG, Hisense, TCL and Vizio. Samsung 2018 QLED sets use, obviously, the company's own Bixby assistant. Smart home and IoT are a focus for many brands, and as such the adoption of virtual assistants in TVs should grow rapidly.

Meanwhile the search for better margins leads to the adoption of QLED or OLED technology in larger TVs. The two biggest TV vendors are on the opposing sides of the debate, since Samsung is the driving force behind QLED and LG is all about OLED. Futuresource predicts a 41% CAGR for the 2018-2022 period for the two technologies, leading to shipments reaching 8m in 2022.

A final finding points out potential confusion surrounding HDR, a technology available in 60% of 4K UHD TVs shipped in 2018. HDR10 is the most commonly found solution across vendors, but there are perhaps too many alternate technologies available, including HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Advanced HDR and Dolby Vision.

Go 4K UHD and Premium Sets to Drive Worldwide TV Trade Value up 5% in 2018