Research: US Smart TV ownership rising
April 11, 2024
The holiday season was good for many of America’s living rooms, with Smart TV ownership increasing in Q1 2024 to nearly eight in 10 households as consumers replace old TVs and embrace streaming video. Hub Entertainment Research’s annual Connected Home study reveals how consumers are still investing in home entertainment technology that improves their home theatre experience.
Increased streaming drives Smart TV usage:
- 62 per cent of TV households are now streaming weekly on smart TVs, up significantly from 47 per cent in 2021. While separate streaming media player devices such as Roku and FireTV are in half of homes, growth has stalled compared to all-in-one smart TVs that provide seamless integration for viewers.
- In addition, the growth of easy-to-install, affordable sound bars are improving the external sound systems for many while they otherwise are hesitant to upgrade to 4K or 8K TV sets.
Apple makes a big splash with headset debut, but the high price keeps it out of reach for most:
- With reportedly 200K headsets sold upon launch, Apple established solid awareness (49 per cent) and interest (53 per cent top 2-box) in the $3,500 (€3,250) device.
- However, intent to purchase remains low and the most popular use case for headsets still lies in gaming, with room to grow for more traditional TV and movie viewing.
“With more affordable and higher quality TVs available, it’s no surprise that people are continuing to upgrade their home theatres to better Smart TVs that make watching favourite streaming content easy,” notes Jason Platt Zolov, consultant to Hub and study co-author. “The exciting debut of the Apple Vision Pro headset is a big step toward making advanced headset usage more mainstream – although there is clearly room to grow in further integrating it into traditional living room behaviour.”