NPD Finds 60% of Internet Households With Internet-Connected TV

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The number of Internet households with Internet-connected TVs has now reached 60% in the U.S., according to new market research from The NPD Group.

Thirty-five percent of U.S. Internet homes had streaming media players as of January 2017, up from 29 percent last year. The number with connected TVs installed rose by six million to reach 60 percent.

Streaming media players are also driving most of the usage across leading video apps, including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, according to NPD.

In addition, while usage increased across all of the leading Internet video subscription services from January 2016 to January 2017, Prime Video experienced usage growth across all demographics and all connected TV platforms. Connected TV device usage growth was greatest for Hulu, according to NPD’s latest “Application & Convergence” report.

Internet Households With Internet-Connected TV

“The average connected home has three devices installed and able to deliver apps to their TVs, but the mix of those devices continues to change,”added John Buffone, NPD Connected Intelligence industry analyst and executive director.

Shifts are also under way as TV manufacturers migrate to OS platforms from Amazon, Google and Roku. “This benefits content owners, as they can reach a larger audience through distribution on fewer platforms, and viewers, as they’ll be able to find more of the programming they want in a single location,” Buffone commented.

Diversity and quantity of content, including original and exclusive programming, are likely to be key drivers as viewers decide which devices and apps to use, Buffone said. “Industry leaders, like Amazon, Netflix and others will continue to put increased investments into these programs in order to drive demand and viewer engagement,” he was quoted in a press release.

In a November 2016 market research report Emarketer forecast the U.S. connected TV market would surge higher out to 2020 and represent 71.2 percent of U.S. Internet users and 60.4 percent of the national population as of year-end 2016.

Zooming in on smart TV users, eMarketer forecast their number will rise to represent 34.4 percent of connected TV users nationwide by 2020, up from 26.9 percent in 2016.