According to ABI Research, worldwide shipments of 4K/UltraHD-capable set-top boxes will reach 48 million by 2020, while HEVC set-top shipments will reach 88 million units. The research house expects about 60,000 set-top high-end gateway set-tops with UltraHD and HEVC capabilities to be deployed in 2014.
After the initial push of high-end UltraHD capable boxes in multi-tuner gateway boxes, ABI expects a second round of HD HEVC boxes to roll out in areas with demand for HD services where the last-mile network buildout isn't otherwise sufficient to deploy HD MPEG-4 services.