This year’s World Cup tournament is another big football event (after the European Championship in 2012) before which Poles rush to shops in search of new bigger TV sets.This time, the preferred size is minimum 40 inches, and an increasingly larger number of customers is looking after products with HBBTv technology, which will allow them to keep track of match statistics on a current basis, and TV sets with a 4K resolution.

Taking place every four years, the football World Cup is not only a great sports tournament, but also an important business event, including for the audio/video (AV) market. This has already been shown by the EURO 2012 event organised in Poland and Ukraine – domestic sale of TV sets rose by 14%, both in terms of value and quantity, during that year. It is very likely that this year will bring a similar increase.

“Big football tournaments are one of the main reasons motivating customers to replace their TV set with a new model.During the European Championship, we sold many flat LCD television sets with a 32” diagonal, achieving a multiple sales increase in this category.However, an even larger increase was achieved in the case of TV sets with a diagonal exceeding 50”, which were purchased mainly by pubs, clubs and restaurants.Here sales rose several times.This year we are also observing an increase of customers’ interest in the pre-championship period,” says Jarosław Słowiński, Purchasing Director of AB SA.

This year, according to the data of the biggest distributor of commercial equipment in Central & Eastern Europe – AB SA, the largest demand is generated by TV sets with a diagonal of at least 40 inches, which are bought by private customers, and by TV sets designed for commercial customers with diagonals of 70, 80 or – upon individual order – even more than 100 inches.

“The hit of this year’s World Cup, or even the whole year, may be TV sets offering a 4K resolution, which are being introduced by producers shortly before the event.Many persons will decide to buy a TV set with an HBBTv function, which allows the viewer to display additional multimedia content under the broadcast, e.g. the number of offsides, the possession of the ball by a given team in per cent, etc.For this purpose, a TV set with a smart function and an HBBTv tuner is required,” adds Jarosław Słowiński.

According to the latest report of HIS Technology, sales of TV sets with an Ultra HD (4K) resolution are growing very rapidly. In March 2012, shortly after the premiere of this technology, their sales amounted to 150,000 copies, whereas in March this year they reached the number of 1.1 million copies. According to IHS’s analysts, this year’s World Cup tournament has also an influence on global demand. Three matches of the World Cup, including the final, will be recorded in 4K technology.

The World Cup taking place in Brazil is a huge business project. According to all statistics, this will be the most expensive football world championship in history. The original cost was estimated at 3.5 million USD, but there is every indication that it will be largely exceeded. Only the stadium in the capital of Brazil will cost 900 million USD, three times more than estimated. The event will begin on 12 June.