Smart TV are now in a large majority of TV homes, and account for over half of all TV sets, according to Hub Entertainment Research’s third annual “Connected Home” report. In detail, the study found out that ownership of a smart TV set is at 70% of TV households this year, a notable milestone in their adoption.
Overall, 52% of all TV sets are now reported to be smart, up from 45% in 2020. This indicates accelerated replacement of older, non-smart TV with smart ones. Moreover, homes with kids or younger adults are more likely to own smart TV sets. Greater proportions of smart TV ownership are found in homes with children under age 18 (59% of all sets are smart TV), or in homes where the oldest person is under age 35 (61%).
Key providers of separate streaming devices are hedging their bets by outfitting more and more smart TV sets with their software. The Hub study also shows increasing ownership of TV sets with built-in operating systems from Roku or Fire TV – more than two in five TV households now have one of these sets. Furthermore, 57% of TV homes now say they have a Roku/Fire TV streaming device or a Roku/Fire TV set – a large increase over The Hub's year-ago measure (51%).
Any streaming to a TV set has increased to 77% of all homes from 74% a year ago – whether using the built-in capability of a smart TV or a connected device. The adoption of smart TVs has driven this increase. Overall, 56% of all homes say they stream using a smart TV at least once a month – up from 48% in 2020.
Lastly, the report discovered the pandemic has brought about a big change in how people plan to buy smart TV. In 2019, more people (42%) planning to buy a new TV set said they had intentions to shop for it and buy it in a store; only 27% planned an online purchase. This year, the pandemic has flipped the numbers: only 29% said they planned to buy at a retail store, while 43% planned to buy online.
“The wider adoption of smart TV and replacement of non-smart TV turns up the pressure on connected devices like streaming boxes, streaming sticks, and video game consoles. 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,” said David Tice, Senior Consultant to Hub and co-author of the study.
These findings are from Hub’s “Connected Home 2021” report, based on a survey conducted among 5.000 US consumers. Interviews were conducted in February and March 2021, and cover consumer ownership of many types of media-related technologies.