Global shipments of LED-backlit LCD-TVs with 40 inch or larger screen sizes will rise by nearly eight-fold in 2010, from 2.5 million units in 2009 to 18.8 million units, according to market research firm iSuppli Corp.

Thanks to factors such as consumer demand and a higher focus on green technologies, iSuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) predicts that shipments of LED-backlit LCD-TVs will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 405 percent between 2008 and 2013, reaching 112.1 million units.

By 2013, 83.2 percent of 40-inch and larger LCD-TVs shipped will use LED backlights, up from just 0.1 percent in 2008 and 6 percent in 2009, iSuppli said.

"Panel makers have been investing heavily in LED chipset makers or have been developing their own internal technologies in order to take advantage of what they believe LED-backlit LCD-TVs bring to the table: differentiation, innovation, low power consumption and, of course, the potential to reap the benefits of higher revenue," said Riddhi Patel, principal analyst for television systems at iSuppli, in a statement.

Patel said LEDs can help differentiate LCD-TVs from others on store shelves, something that will become even more important as the LCD-TV market begins to saturate and the replacement cycle occurring in the U.S. and elsewhere nears its conclusion.

Consumers are attracted to LED-backlit LCD-TVs by because of thinner form factors, improved picture quality, power savings and other green attributes, iSuppli said. But the firm cautioned that the cost of LED backlights remains too high for mass consumer adoption, with the TV sets that utilize LEDs now priced far more than standard CCFL-based LCD-TVs.

But increasingly stringent government policies are forcing television manufacturers to shift their backlighting to environmentally friendly technologies that consume less electricity, especially at the larger TV sizes where power is a major concern, iSuppli said.