​Latest research from GfK reports that since 2004, 60 million flat panel TV sets have been sold in the UK, bringing the total market value in 2012 to £2.6 billion. However, sales continue to fall year-on-year, with 2012 being the first time that the market has fallen below £3 billion since 2005.

The movement towards larger screen sizes has resulted in the Jumbo (43”+) segment being the only portion of the market to see growth (2012 vs. 2011), growing 10 percent in volume. This trend towards large screen sets is boosting the uptake of premium features, with more than a third of the TV market value in 2012 coming from 3D television sets. This feature now comes as standard in most high-end sets; however, it is difficult to determine whether these sets were purchased deliberately for their 3D technology. In 2012, 44 percent of the market value was attributed to Smart TV sales, which similarly to 3D, is an increasingly standard feature throughout the high end range of televisions.

Mark Hamilton, GfK Account Manager, comments “Looking at December 2012 sales, the flat television market surpassed 60 million units over its lifetime. With the 2012 onslaught of ‘large-screen’ activities including the European Championships and the Olympics, we have seen strong continued uptake of the 3D and Smart TV features. This alone accounted for 35 percent and 44 percent respectively of the total market value in 2012. Though the inclusion of these features as standard in most high-end sets means that a number of these will be passively purchased, this does not necessarily reflect the number of consumers actually using these features.”