Two-Thirds of US TV Homes Have TV Connected to Internet, Report Says

Some 65 percent of U.S. TV homes have at least one TV connected to the Internet via a videogame system, Wi-Fi, Blu-ray player or streaming media player, said a Leichtman Research Group report. That’s up from 44 percent in 2013 and 24 percent in 2010, LRG said. Connected TV devices in U.S. households now outnumber pay-TV set-tops, LRG said. Among connected TV households, 74 percent have more than one device, averaging 3.3 per household, it said. Ease of use perception ranks high among connected TV households, with 74 percent of respondents giving an 8-10 ranking on a scale of 1-10, compared with 12 percent who disagreed that connected TV devices are easy to use, it said. Pay-TV households average 2.2 pay-TV boxes, the report said, and 77 percent of the TVs in pay-TV households are connected to the provider’s set-top box, it said. Across all households, the mean number of connected TV devices per household is 2.1, compared with 1.8 pay-TV set-top boxes per household, LRG said. On cable provider-supplied set-top boxes, 42 percent of subscribers agreed (8-10 ranking) the boxes' features add value to the TV service, while 16 percent disagreed, LRG said. Twenty percent of cable subscribers with pay-TV set-tops (8-10) think the boxes are a “waste of money,” while 44 percent disagreed. Other findings: 38 percent of adults with a pay-TV service watch video via a connected TV device at least weekly, compared with 48 percent of viewers who aren’t pay-TV subscribers; a third of non-4K Ultra HDTV owners have seen one in use, up from 10 percent in 2014; and 25 percent of consumers who have viewed a 4K HDTV are interested in getting one vs. 9 percent who have not watched a 4K HDTV, it said. The survey of 1,206 adults ages 18 and older in continental U.S. TV households was done in February and March.