COMMENTARY

Why Advertisers Need To Find A Home On Smart TV Home Screens

Vizio’s Travis Hockersmith: “Today, TV viewers are going in many different directions, but they’re all starting from the same place — the smart TV home screen. Advertising technology, budgets and strategies need to catch up to meet viewers where they now live.”

Research: Live TV Remains Top Launch Point For Viewers But Only Barely Beats SVOD

Consumers are most loyal to the sources they go to first, and SVODs and smart TV apps are showing rapid gains as the default launching point, according to a new Hub study.

Vizio Is First Smart TV To Offer Interactive Ads, On Its WatchFree+ FAST

Vizio is integrating interactive advertising capabilities in its WatchFree+ free, ad-supported streaming (FAST) service, via a partnership with Brightline. Vizio is using Brightline’s Accelerator program, which is already used to enable dynamic and shoppable ads on Hulu, Peacock, Discovery+ and other platforms. The new deal marks the first smart TV integration for Accelerator and makes Vizio the first smart-TV manufacturer to enable advertisers to make their ads interactive and shoppable, according to the companies.

U.S. Total Of Streaming Video Devices Topped 1 Billion Last Year

The total number of streaming-video-capable devices in the U.S. topped 10 figures in 2021 and will exceed 1.1 billion by 2025, S&P Global Market Intelligence reported. In a research note S&P said much of the credit for those one-billion-and-counting totals goes to a surge in connected-TV ownership — from 107.7 million sets in 2016, to 191.8 million in 2021 to a forecast 274.2 million in 2026.

Skyworth Digital Technology Broadens RDK Content Offering With NetRange Smart TV Portal

NetRange MMH GmbH, an ACCESS company and global provider of white-labelled, turnkey Smart TV and OTT ecosystems, and Skyworth Digital Technology, say the NetRange Smart TV Portal for RDK and […]

CIMM Launches Pilot To Understand Time Spent Across ‘Every’ TV Platform

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), a division of the Advertising Research Foundation, this morning said it is launching new research to “better understand how time is spent across every platform available on TVs today.” The initiative, dubbed the “Passive TV Measurement Study,” will explicitly look at how American consumers spend time with linear TV as well as OTT (over-the-top internet-connected) devices, smart TV apps and video game consoles.

Digital Media Rights Launches 3 Channels On Vizio SmartCast

Newsmax Goes Plug And Play On Vizio Smartcast

Vizio SmartCast Launches Cinedigm’s Bob Ross Channel

EXECUTIVE SESSION WITH SHELLY PALMER

TVN Executive Session | Virtual CES Foreshadows Post-Pandemic Glimpses

Next week’s CES will feature virtualized presentations of new 8K TV sets, streaming technology and ever-improving home video production tools that will be of interest to broadcasters. Veteran consultant Shelly Palmer says smart TVs will take a leap forward, smartphone tech will pause until post-pandemic mobility returns and huge trade shows like CES itself will never be the same again.

LG Acquires Controlling Stake In TV Data And Measurement Firm Alphonso

LG Electronics and Alphonso today announced a significant investment by LG in Alphonso to bring together the two TV industry leaders’ technologies and innovations to LG’s smart TV lineup. With this investment […]

Vewd OS Eliminates The Need For App Downloads On Smart TVs

Vizio, Google Turn Mobile Into Viewing System

Accelerated Media Signs Two Station Groups

Meredith, Post-Newsweek are the latest group owners to adopt the Connected Ad Network advertising app platform.

The Stupidity of Smart TV

Though the user experience in smart-TV environments has improved over the years, they’re still not as intuitive as the traditional multichannel world.

Spotify Launches App On Samsung Smart TVs

COMMENTARY BY THOMAS MORGAN

How To Build A Smarter Smart TV

Smart TVs are growing in their technology prowess and market scale, but there is still one major market factor that the TV industry is not totally in touch with: the viewer. The killer app for smart TV is simply, TV

Equiso Dongle Turns TVs Into Android Tablet

Pocket TV Gadget Makes Any TV Smart

Wish you could turn any TV into a smart one? A new gadget called the Pocket TV will convert your television into a giant Android tablet. The device is a small microcomputer that plugs into your screen’s HDMI port. Pocket TV runs on Android 4.0 and allows you to do anything on the TV that you can with your phone, such as playing games, surfing the Web and even video chatting with friends.

Connected TVs Offer New Distribution Option

Not long ago, video creators looking for wide distribution on TV sets had few options beyond going door to door begging cable companies for what’s known as a hunting license. Now, however, there is another emerging option. Smart and connected TVs and other over-the-top options offer a chance to cut a deal with a Yahoo, Roku or Samsung and launch a content portal via an app or widget.

Flingo Raises $7 Million For Smarter TVs

Apple Talking To Parts Suppliers For Apple TV

More evidence Apple is gearing up to launch its new Apple TV smart TV. It has contacted at least one major Asian supplier about purchasing television display components, according to Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster. He told investors on Tuesday that he had recently spoken to a “major TV component supplier” that Apple had contacted “regarding various capabilities of their television display components.”

COMMENTARY

Broadcasters Must Wise Up About Smart TV

At last month’s CES, three technologies showed significant progress: connected TV, smart TV and TV Everywhere. It’s likely the three will converge. If so, they’ll arrive in one massive wave that could completely disrupt the way people watch TV — and threaten the way broadcasters do business. Broadcasters must figure out how to catch the wave.

CES 2012 REFLECTIONS

Will The Bet On Smart TV Pay Off?

Will 2012 Be The Year Of The Smart TV?

 Manufacturers would have us believe that. It will certainly be when all of them start branding their connected TVs “Smart TVs” from the get-go. If that and sales of those TVs were the only way we measured the success of Smart TVs, then, yes, 2012 is going to be the year of the Smart TV. But will they actually be Smart TVs? That remains to be seen.

CES 2012

LG Releasing Google TV-Based Smart TV

LG has taken the wraps off its first Google TV-powered television set, even as rumors of an Apple television loom over the industry.

CONNECTED TV

Roku ‘Streaming Stick’ To Connect Any TV

Roku today announced that it is producing a “Streaming Stick” that can convert any television with an HDMI port into a smart device. The stick, available later this year, includes built-in WiFi, processor, memory and software.

Panasonic Unveils Smart TV High-Powered Chip

NAB 2011

Connected TV Is Bigger Than The Web

Smart TVs will understand the viewers’ needs and choices well enough to make useful suggestions on content and services.

MEDIA FORECAST

Deloitte: 2011 TV Will Look Like 2001

If the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show left the impression that TV as we know it is on the cusp of radical reinvention, the folks at research firm Deloitte aren’t buying the hype. Its media forecast for 2011 sees the medium staying largely the same as it’s always been: a hugely dominant force, with no big changes hitting anytime soon.

Samsung Hits 1 Million TV App Downloads