Digital Content Is Driving Smart TVs Shipment

A new report by NPD DisplaySearch is predicting a 15 per cent growth in smart connected TV worldwide in 2012.  The research found that Japan has the highest penetration of Smart and Connected TV, Western Europe and China are at the same growth rate and that North America is the slowest compared to other develop countries.

For consumers in China, there is plenty of free content on the internet and few structure services.  This favours the new Smart Connected TV with browsers. Last year 2011 connected TV shipment share in China was 26%, this year (2012) it has grown to more than 40%.

The researchers find that the accessibility of content and broadcast services is linked to the development of connected TV, it has also help to propel the penetration in Europe and Japan.

On average over 30GB of internet video is consume every month by North American households, according to Cisco.  Despite this their penetration is hovering around 20%, “they don’t seem attracted to connected TV,” said Paul Gray, Director of European TV Research.

NDP pointed out that Western Europe consume more free content every month than North America and that Terrestrial broadcasters’ catch-up services are beginning to dominate in Western Europe.  “We find that North America leads by far in paid on-demand services, which tend to be tied to set-top boxes,” said Gray.

They also find that connected TVs are flourishing with open standards like HbbTV rapidly gaining acceptance, similar to the development of the Ginga standard in Brazil.

NDP said, Nearly 9.5 million consumer-controlled (open internet access) smart TV shipped in Q2 2012, with 43 million expected to ship in 2012.  This figure is forecast to grow to 95 million in 2016.

source:displaysearch