The number, size, and energy consumption of television displays has increased despite competition from computers and mobile devices. The International Energy Agency (IEA) puts the number of sets at 2 billion; that pushes Vertatique's count of the edge gear we've attached to the global ICT infrastructure up over 11 billion items.

Televisions, whose viewing areas have grown progressively larger, consume more energy than computer displays because they are brighter in order to accommodate viewing at a distance. Televisions and settop boxs (STBs) now appear to consume as much energy in US households as dishwashers and clothes dryers combined, since the latter have grown significantly more energy efficient in recent years.

This is prompting some jurisdictions, like California, to consider limits on television display energy consumption.