More than half (54%) of smart TV owners use their smart TV to stream video weekly, per a report from Hub Entertainment Research. But with all the other capabilities smart TVs offer, what other activities do owners enjoy?
More than one-third (37%) of the more than 1,600 smart TV owners surveyed say they stream music or audio from services such as Spotify and Pandora. Consequently, the ability to stream music on devices such as smart TVs has helped lift the music consumption in the US, with Nielsen finding that online audio streams increased by almost half (49%) in 2018.
Another fifth (20%) of smart TV owners are using their TVs to ‘cast’ a smartphone or tablet screen onto the TV screen. Others are using their smart TVs as they would use a computer, with 18% reporting that they use a web browser on their smart TV and 13% using the TV screen as a monitor for a computer. Another 11% look at or use social media on their sets.
Still, other respondents (14%) say they check news, weather or traffic by using non-video smart TV apps, while 1 in 10 use their smart TV to look at digital photos on apps such as Shutterfly or Flickr.
As smart speaker ownership has increased about 1 in 5 smart TV households (19%) have a smart speaker linked to their smart TV in order to perform functions such as turning the set on, changing channels or adjusting the volume. While it is safe to assume that not all smart TV owners also own a smart speaker, for those who do own both, it’s possible that they are not aware of this functionality. In fact, other research has found that the majority of smart speaker owners are not fully aware of all their smart speaker’s features.
An excerpt of the research can be downloaded here.
About the Data: Findings are based on a survey of 2,517 of US consumers, ages 16-74. Of those surveyed, 1,609 own at least one smart TV set.
