Re: This is why I love the bbc
Some (quite expensive) consumer sets will downscale internally to the panel's refresh rate whilst advertising a higher one.
There's a history of TV panels starting out (or being repurposed as) PC display panels - which will run at (probably) 60 Hz, unless they're more modern 100 or 120 Hz (...and even if they're advertised as 100, I'm not even sure they're natively 100 - quite possibly native 120 with some on-chip conversion!).
Taking this into consideration, 50 Hz countries are in the minority in light of global market forces which has always frustrated me. However you look at it, TVs and PC displays are made to a price point which doesn't usually include native support for 50 Hz and its higher rate multiples.
Also, consider the amount of legacy panels still in use in the UK - 720p or 'budget' 1080p panels in budget TVs which are now probably at least a decade old. They are all 60 Hz simply due to the economy of scale to manufacture one type of panel for worldwide use and throw a cheap deinterlacing and frame rate conversion algorithm in for non-NTSC markets.
Most people won't have a true 100 Hz panel in their house. People are still buying budget TVs en masse from Tesco for crying out loud, and those are all made-in-PRC specials which ALL use 60 Hz native panels.
As an aside, anything shy of a 600 Hz refresh rate is useless for true cross-standards use as it will always involve awkward, unequal frame rate conversion (and native capture at high, but not super-high, rates causes other issues with flicker from lighting etc). I agree with those who are frustrated that 600 Hz wasn't adopted as an UHD requirement. (600/24, 600/25 and 600/30 all leave no remainders, the first ideal refresh rate.)
http://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/fake-refresh-rates-samsung-clear-motion-rate-vs-sony-motionflow-vs-lg-trumotion has an interesting table showing fake vs. true panel rates. You may be surprised how many panels in models from big box manufacturers don't have refresh rates that match their advertised maximums.