BOSTON—It’s out with the old TVs and in with the smart TVs, according to a new report from Hub Entertainment Research. Hub found that more than half of all TV sets are now smart TVs, representing the majority for the first time.
Included in Hub’s “Connected Home” report, it was shown that 52% of all TVs are now smart TVs, up from 45% in 2020. This shows that older, non-smart TVs are more rapidly being replaced, per Hub.
Seven out of 10 U.S. TV households reported that they owned a smart TV. The younger generation is more likely to own a smart TV, with 61% of homes where the oldest person is under 35 reported owning one, as did 59% of homes with children under age 18.
The smart TVs that people are buying are more increasingly featuring built-in operating systems from streaming providers Roku or Amazon Fire TV; more than two in five households say they have one of these kind of smart TV sets. Roku and Fire TV penetration is greater when you factor in a separate streaming device, as 57% of TV homes have such a device or a Roku/Fire TV set.
“The wider adoption of smart TVs and replacement of non-smart TVs turns up the pressure on connected devices like streaming boxes, streaming sticks and video game consoles,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the study. “This ‘eliminating of the middleman’ will have a direct impact on how future revenue is split on advanced TV businesses like streaming, interactive shopping, and addressable advertising.”
Overall, streaming to a TV set has increased from 74% in 2020 to 77% of all homes as per this most recent report. More than half (56%) of all homes say they stream using a smart TV at least once a month, up from the 48% that did so in 2020.
The way people are buying their new TV sets is also changing, in large part due to the pandemic. In 2019, 42% of consumers said they would buy a new TV set in a store, while 27% planned to do so online. Those numbers have essentially flipped; 29% plan to buy a new TV at the store, with 43% buying online.
For more information, visit Hub’s website.
