By 2016 the number of households using a hybrid service delivered to their TV sets will grow to 100 million, according to a new forecast from NPD In-Stat.
"The next step in the viewing experience will be for TV sets and set-top boxes to permit all of the traditional TV-related services, which is then expanded and enhanced by bringing in content from the Internet, or from Internet-like Web services that provide a walled garden of authorized content and on-screen features," says Gerry Kaufhold, NPD In-Stat research director.
According to Kaufhold, nearly 80 million households will be actively using TV apps provided by their service provider by 2016.
Some of the findings laid out in new NPD In-Stat research, “The New TV Experience: TV Apps and Hybrid Services” include:
Personal computers remain the primary display device for viewing videos from the Internet.
North America is the early leader for hybrid-TV households, but the UK, France, and Germany are coming on strong. Most of Europe will have hybrid services by 2016.
Europe's Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) service will begin to gain dominance by late 2013.
Europe will become the worldwide center of excellence for long-term development of hybrid-TV services.
