New research on the viewing habits of viewers has found that viewers see smart TVs and streaming media players as having a whole lot in common, including the ability to strongly influence viewing behaviors.
According to Hub Entertainment Research's Streaming TV: Built-in vs. Plugged-in? study—based on a survey of 2,517 U.S.-based viewers—smart TVs are not moving to replace streaming media players—like a Roku box or Fire TV USB stick—but rather that the smart TV/streaming player combination may exist side by side for some time to come.
These devices are complementing one another, the study found. The report revealed that a significant majority of homes of those surveyed (83%) have an Internet-connected smart TV or streaming media player and that many homes own both types of devices (44%). When it comes to sets, respondents said that more than half of enabled smart TVs (57%) have a streaming media player attached directly to them.
It was also revealed that viewing behaviors are quite similar whether a viewer is using a smart TV or a streaming media player. Both devices can act as a gatekeeper between the viewer and content, often through the home screen of the device itself. For both a smart TV or a media player, about half of viewers use the options found on the device’s home screen to search for and select content rather than heading directly into an app itself to find content. The survey also found that viewers commonly use the branded buttons that are sometimes etched directly onto a remote control device, with nearly two in five smart TV users and streaming media device users selecting these branded buttons either “often” or “all the time.”
Details like these give device manufacturers clear feedback on the content that is being selected for viewing, whether that selection happens through an onscreen recommendation, a promotional ad on the home screen or the decision to simply click a brand name on a remote, the report’s authors said.
What’s also being revealed is that when it comes to “built-in vs plugged-in,” it may not really matter, said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the study. “Whether people are using a smart TV or a streaming media player, their habits are very similar,” he said. “In the short term, both devices are going to co-exist — streaming media players are a long way from being replaced by smart TVs, and can’t be ignored.”
In addition to exploring how people use smart TVs vs streaming media players, the study set out to measure differences in usage/habits between the two; document differences in device usage and streaming behaviors between homes that only use smart TVs or only use streaming media players or use both; and answer what, if anything, might prompt users to commit to smart TV alone and eliminate streaming devices. The survey, conducted in August 2022, was run by Hub Entertainment Research, a company that tracks how technology is changing the way people find, choose and consume entertainment content.
