Google’s interest in the TV market has been picking up steam, fueled by competitors like Roku, Amazon’s Fire-TV, and other popular streaming platforms.
A new report published by Strategy Analytics is predicting what smart TV growth will look like over the next few years. In the report, it’s predicted that over 50% of households (globally) will have a Smart TV in the home. North America has already passed the 50% of households with smart tv with the report estimating by 2026 to expect a 90% threshold.
The driving force behind the growth is record sales of new Smart TVs. In fact, over 90% of all “flat-panel TVs” sold are smart TVs…AND that’s for TVs only and does not include streaming devices like Chromecast, Roku, Fire TV, and Nvidia Shield.
Today’s leader is Samsung with its Tizen operating system, however, it is noted in the report mentioned above that Google’s Android TV has made “Strong Gains” in the last several years.
Google last reported that their Android TV had over 80 million active devices and had grown more than 80%.
Mentioned in the report, is that this growth is because platforms like those take much of the burden of development off of the TV manufacture. A top analyst for Strategy Analytics had this to say:
As smart functionality is no longer a point of differentiation but has become a check box necessity, smart TV manufacturers have had to make a choice between maintaining their own software and application ecosystems or licensing a software platform from a third-party partner. While many have decided to partner with the likes of Google’s Android TV and Roku in order to avoid the ongoing costs of maintaining their own platform, several brands including Samsung, Vizio and LG are going it alone and are looking to capitalize on the fast growing Connected TV advertising business.
For indie filmmakers and small broadcasters, the growth of Smart TV’s including android TV is great news. Giving new opportunities to broadcasters that typically would get turned down for large networks – now broadcasters can build their own application and reach potentially millions of new viewers that were traditionally closed off from them before.
Here at TvStartup, we have seen hundreds of independent broadcasters take advantage of this technology shift and start their own channels on apps like Roku, FireTV, Samsung, and other platforms. However now with the growth of Android TV, it’s one more piece of ammunition in the independent broadcasters’ arsenal to blow away large media conglomerates and compete for viewership on an even playing field.
As the wave of technology shifts to Smart TV’s only more and more opportunities will emerge for small and independent broadcasters….make sure you stay in touch with us by subscribing to our mail list by clicking here.
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