Are viewers evolving along with their TV sets?

The biggest screen in the home is evolving, affecting not just viewer habits and expectations but the business plans of content providers and advertisers, according to Hub Entertainment Research’s fourth annual “Evolution of the TV Set” study. Streaming, voice control, and non-viewing uses of TV sets are top ways to show how sets – and viewers – are evolving, the researcher assures.

The speed with which consumers are turning to streaming using smart TVs continues to impress. Almost two thirds (62%) of TV homes report streaming using a smart TV, compared with less than half (47%) two years ago. This rapid growth is driven by increases in both smart TV homes and in the share of those homes using smart TVs to stream.

Moreover, more than half (51%) of the most-used sets in US homes have a remote control with voice command capability – up notably since 2020 (38%). In homes with a smart TV, one in three (33%) linked a smart TV to a smart speaker like Amazon’s Echo or Google’s Nest, enabling voice control – up a third from 2020 (25%).

Furthermore, the report revealed that smart TVs are used for more than viewing television programs or movies. In smart TV homes, seven in ten (73%) say they use a set for something else – up from six in ten (63%) in 2020. The most popular non-TV activities on smart TVs are streaming music, mirroring or casting another screen to the set, checking news or weather apps, or using an on-set browser.

“Streaming on smart TV sets has grabbed the spotlight, but do not forget other ways TVs have evolved. With the TV itself becoming an advertising platform, changes in user behaviors from set evolution can impact marketing opportunities, exposure, and effectiveness,”  said David Tice, Senior Consultant to Hub and co-author of the study.

These findings are from Hub’s “Evolution of the TV Set 2022” report, based on a survey conducted among 2.526 consumers in the United States. Interviews were conducted in May 2022 and cover consumer ownership of, and attitudes towards, TV sets and TV-related technologies.