Most Americans have at least two smart TVs in their homes, and LG and Samsung remain the dominant brands in most households, according to new data released by Hub Entertainment Research.
On Tuesday, Hub released its annual “Evolution of the TV Set” report, which found TVs manufactured by Roku and Amazon are starting to gain popularity with Americans thanks to their low price, native integration with Roku OS and Fire TV OS and better features like AI-powered search and discovery.
Roku and Amazon were among the fastest-growing brands in terms of “most used TV sets” in American homes last year, Hub noted. Roku’s share of the space increased from 4 percent to 8 percent, while Amazon’s went from 1 percent to 5 percent.
The data related to Roku and Amazon didn’t seem to take into account third-party sets that use licensed versions of Roku OS and Fire TV OS, which have been on the market for years. To that end, TCL, Hisense, Best Buy’s Insignia Walmart’s Onn and Element — brands that have long licensed Roku and Fire TV for their sets — collectively account for 14 percent of TVs used in American homes last year.
Samsung remains the dominant brand, with its Tizen OS TV sets powering more than 31 percent of smart TVs found in American homes, while LG’s webOS power 16 percent of TVs in homes. Both Samsung and LG lost ground, with Samsung’s share dropping 2 percent and LG’s dropping 3 percent on a year-over basis, according to Hub’s data.
Each platform tackles the issue of helping streamers find something to watch in different ways, but all are increasingly leveraging the power of AI to help assist in that effort.
Four out of five consumers surveyed by Hub said they wanted better show recommendations from AI-powered features on their smart TVs, while 78 percent said they wanted “AI that remembers your queue.” More than half said they wanted “mood or time of day suggestions,” while 62 percent said they wanted to use AI chatbots from their smart TVs to help them find new things to watch.
“Without a single TV operating system dominating the market, each has the opportunity to better promote streaming services and AI-viewing enhancements to make things easier for viewers,” Jason Platt Zolov, a Senior Consultant at Hub, said in a statement. “The challenge of finding a good show to watch is not just about too many services to choose from; it’s about finding a TV operating system that simplifies those choices in a way that works.”
A free excerpt of the Hub Entertainment Research report is available on their website by clicking or tapping here.
