Commentary

40% Own A Smart TV, 35% Still Have A VCR

One of the more significant connected devices in the home may end up being the smart TV.

While more consumers add Internet-connected devices such as thermostats, security systems, locks and lighting over the long term, people in the short term are increasingly streaming content through their connected TVs.

Four in 10 consumers already have a smart TV, according to the consumer market research firm GfK. And more than a third (36%) of consumers own a digital media player.

Apple TV is now used by the least (8%) of those, with the other main players being Roku (15%), Google Chromecast (10) and Amazon’s Fire TV, according to the report, Over-The-Top TV 2016.

The study comprised interviews of 1,100 consumers in a nationally representative GfK panel of consumers aged 13 to 64.

Consumers are hardly giving up traditional television, since 89% of them watch TV at least once a week.

But connecting new things in the home is growing, including linking smart TVs to home networks.

While the television remains the dominant way to deliver movies and programs, more connected devices will drain from the time that viewing content that is delivered that way.

Consumers have a finite amount of time. Many (78%) have a TV-connected DVD player, with more than a third (36%) using it at least once a month to watch DVDs, according to GfK.

However, adding connected or smart devices in homes will not occur overnight.

For example, more than a third (35%) of homes still have a videocassette recorder. On the other side, another 22% have a computer-to-TV hookup, with 9% using it at least once a month to play content from their computer through the television.

At the very least, connected, smart TVs are providing consumers some insight into IoT possibilities.

In 2014, 41% of consumers watched Netflix on a PC of mobile device. Today, 47% watch it through a smart TV.

Smart devices in the home are less likely to totally replace something there already. They are more likely to become an addition and integrate with some of those things.

More significantly, they are most likely to integrate with consumer behaviors already in place and then improve and advance those behaviors.

2 comments about "40% Own A Smart TV, 35% Still Have A VCR".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. L M from agency, October 14, 2016 at 1:15 p.m.

    “more than a third (35%) of homes still have a videocassette recorder."


    Now that sounds like a start up initiative… to collect, recycle and make something worthwhile out of all the scrap metal.  A new device? A new alternate energy product? in IoT? OR, what is most likely in the fast fashion world of gizmos… send it in a heap on a boat to Asia, to let them monetize it.


    The more the world changes, the more it seems it doesn’t!

  2. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin replied, October 14, 2016 at 1:36 p.m.

    Good point, that is a lot of hardware, LM.

Next story loading loading..