Despite other smart tech being present in a substantial number of American homes, the smart money is on smart TVs says a study from Hub Entertainment Research, showing more homes own them and more owners are using their built-in capabilities to stream shows.
The fourth annual Connected Home study - based on a survey conducted among 5,204 US consumers. Interviews were conducted in February 2022 - found three quarters (76%) of TV households say they own a smart TV, up from 70% a year ago. And the majority (57%) of all TV sets are now smart sets, a proportion a quarter higher than in 2020 (45%) shows.
The study also revealed that in addition to smart TV ownership continuing to climb, so too is the use of smart TV capabilities. That is to say in the past, many smart TVs were operated as “dumb” sets – owners plugged them into cable boxes or external streaming devices, bypassing their built-in smart capabilities. But that said Hub was changing too.
The study revealed that in 2022 more than four in five (86%) smart TV homes regularly stream shows through a smart TV’s built-in capability. This represents a significant increase over 2020 (75%) but it still showed that a notable share (14%) of smart TV homes were not yet using those sets to stream TV or movies.
Smart TVs were the leading edge of smarter homes overall. 52% of all homes own a smart speaker (Amazon Echo, Google Nest, etc.) while 48% owned at least one smart home device like a smart thermostat, smart doorbell, smart lightbulb, etc.)
“Growth in smart TV viewing over the past few years has been supercharged not just by more smart TVs, but greatly increased use of smart TV apps for streaming,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the Connected Home study. “It has been a long road to get a large majority of smart TV owners to use those sets for streaming. This is a theme for smart tech overall: it’s not just getting devices into homes, but how can stakeholders get consumers to use the full capabilities of smart devices?”
The study also revealed that in addition to smart TV ownership continuing to climb, so too is the use of smart TV capabilities. That is to say in the past, many smart TVs were operated as “dumb” sets – owners plugged them into cable boxes or external streaming devices, bypassing their built-in smart capabilities. But that said Hub was changing too.
The study revealed that in 2022 more than four in five (86%) smart TV homes regularly stream shows through a smart TV’s built-in capability. This represents a significant increase over 2020 (75%) but it still showed that a notable share (14%) of smart TV homes were not yet using those sets to stream TV or movies.
Smart TVs were the leading edge of smarter homes overall. 52% of all homes own a smart speaker (Amazon Echo, Google Nest, etc.) while 48% owned at least one smart home device like a smart thermostat, smart doorbell, smart lightbulb, etc.)
“Growth in smart TV viewing over the past few years has been supercharged not just by more smart TVs, but greatly increased use of smart TV apps for streaming,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the Connected Home study. “It has been a long road to get a large majority of smart TV owners to use those sets for streaming. This is a theme for smart tech overall: it’s not just getting devices into homes, but how can stakeholders get consumers to use the full capabilities of smart devices?”
