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Connected TVs are in 65 Percent of American Homes

According to the findings from a recent study, Connected TV devices are now in nearly two-thirds of all television households within the U.S. market. There are already more connected TV devices in U.S. households than there are pay-TV set-top boxes.

Leichtman Research Group (LRG) finds that 65 percent of American TV households have at least one television set connected to the Internet via a video game system, a smart TV set, a Blu-ray player, and/or a stand-alone device -- that's up from 44 percent in 2013, and 24 percent in 2010.

Connected TV Market Development Results

Among those with any connected TV devices, 74 percent have more than one device, with a mean of 3.3 per connected TV household. Those with a connected TV generally find them to be easy to use:

  • 70 percent of all with a connected TV agree (8-10 on a 1-10 scale) that streaming services like Netflix are easy to access via connected TV devices, while 12 percent disagree (1-3).

The LRG study also found that 77 percent of TV sets in pay-TV households have a pay-TV provider's set-top box, with a mean of 2.2 boxes per pay-TV household. Pay-TV subscribers tend to express little animosity toward set-top boxes:

  • Fully 20 percent with a pay-TV HD set-top box agree (8-10) that set-top boxes from TV companies are a waste of money, while 44 percent disagree (1-3).
  • 42 percent with a pay-TV HD set-top box agree (8-10) that set-top boxes from TV companies provide features that add value to the TV service, while 16 percent disagree (1-3).
  • 68 percent with 3 or more set-top boxes are very satisfied (8-10) with their pay-TV provider – compared to 54 percent with 1-2 set-top boxes.

Overall, there are more connected TV devices in U.S. households than there are pay-TV set-top boxes. Across all households (including those that do not have any of these), the mean number of connected TV devices per household is 2.1, while the mean number of pay-TV set-top boxes per household is 1.8.

These findings are based on a survey of 1,206 TV households throughout the U.S. market, and are part of a new LRG study.

Other findings from the LRG study include:

  • 83 percent of households with any type of connected TV device get a pay-TV service – similar to 81 percent with no connected TV devices.
  • 38 percent of adults with a pay-TV service watch video via a connected TV device at least weekly – compared to 48 percent of pay-TV non-subscribers.
  • 79 percent of all TV sets in US households are HDTVs – an increase from 34 percent of all TV sets in 2010, and 3 percent in 2004.
  • 33 percent of non-4K Ultra HDTV owners have seen one in use – up from 10 percent in 2014.
  • 25 percent of those who have seen a 4K HDTV in use are interested in getting one – compared to 9 percent of those who have not seen a 4K HDTV.

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