Connected TV Sales to Surpass Game Consoles

LONDON: Consumers worldwide will purchase 52 million connected TV sets this year, outpacing the sales of gaming consoles, estimated at 37 million, according to a new report from Informa Telecoms & Media.

“The market for connected devices—connected TVs, connected Blu-ray players, games consoles, media-streaming devices and hybrid set-top boxes—is continuing to grow globally, as consumers seek to access services such as Netflix and iPlayer via their televisions," said Andrew Ladbrook, analyst at Informa. "In 2016, 1.8 billion in-home video devices—including tablets—will be sold, an increase of almost 800 percent from today. And by this time, 70 percent of all in-home video devices sold will be able to connect to the Internet. Until now, many online video services were launched primarily with the game console in mind, mainly because console users innately understand how to connect these devices and demand interactive video services from them. However, this is beginning to change as connected TVs bring these services to a mainstream audience."

Sony, Samsung and LG will make the most gains from this increased demand, Informa notes, but should be wary of competition from Chinese firms like Hisense and TCL. "These manufacturers are following the high-volume low-price model laid down by Samsung and are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of connected TVs as the Chinese market burgeons to sales of over 47 million in 2016,” adds Ladbrook.

Informa asserts that the biggest losers will be media-streaming devices, like Apple TV. For Apple to effectively compete in this arena, Informa says, Apple must launch a TV, or turn Apple TV  into something more than a convenient way to access video via iTunes.