The Connected TV Landscape: Why Smart TVs And Streaming Gadgets Are Conquering The Living Room

February 11, 2014 Leave a comment

The Connected TV Landscape: Why Smart TVs And Streaming Gadgets Are Conquering The Living Room

MARK HOELZEL FEB. 7, 2014, 10:31 PM 2,425 3

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Connected TVs are on pace to take over the television viewing experience. There will be more than 759 million televisions connected to the Internet worldwide by 2018, more than double 2013’s number, according to Digital TV Research.

The first wave of connected TVs, called “Web TVs,” failed because they assumed that people would use their televisions as a computer, by browsing the Internet and reading email. Now, a new generation of Internet-enabled TVs is succeeding. These connected televisions enhance the everyday experience of watching television by offering a better viewing experience for your favorite programs and movies, as well as an alternative way to interact with music and photos.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we dissect the connected TV landscape, analyzing the factors, trends, and key players that are shaping the market. We explore the explosive growth of streaming devices, such as Google’s Chromecast and Apple TV, and compare it to the growth smart TVs from manufactures like Samsung and Vizio. We also examine the relationship between connected TVs and the pay TV industry.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

Streaming devices currently comprise the majority of connected TVs. But we believe distribution will shift to smart TVs, as prices decrease and the television upgrade cycle shortens.

Apple TV and Roku hold the largest market share for streaming devices, but Chromecast, which Google released last summer, has also achieved stellar sales numbers. Market research data shows that 8 million Apple TVs and 4.5 million Rokus shipped in 2013 in the U.S. 

Smart TVs will account for the majority of television shipments by 2014. By 2015, more households will have smart TV than connected TVs.

On both streaming devices and smart TVs there is a division between open and closed platforms. Chromecast, LG, and Roku have embraced open platforms that allow developers a great deal of freedom to develop apps for their devices. Samsung, Apple, and others are betting on closed ecosystems, which follow a more careful curatorial approach.

Despite platform fragmentation, HTML5 offers at least a faint hope for increased unification between connected TVs, just as it does on mobile. LG and Chromecast have integrated it into their connected TV development environments.

How will developers and operating system operators monetize smart TV apps? Media downloads, subscriptions and — to a much lesser degree — advertisements will drive the dollars. Smart TV platform operators have begun experimenting with ads.

Changes to the pay TV industry, namely cable and satellite providers, will also have a huge impact on the future of connected TV. It’s now an open question as to how — and how effectively — cable providers will use their power to shape the future of connected TV.

In full, the report:

Outlines the connected TV landscape as it stands today and how it will change in the near future.

Highlights the key players, platforms, and devices that are shaping the connected TV market.

Looks at the latest streaming devices to come to market and how each has altered the TV landscape.

Projects the trajectory for smart TV shipments and the tension among smart TV manufacturers between an open and closed platform approach.

Analyzes the relationship between connected TV and the pay TV industry, and how it will evolve in the future.

Filed under TMT Trends

Unknown's avatarAbout bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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