Among those households with any connected TV devices, 74% have more than one device, with a mean of 3.3 per connected TV household. Those with a connected TV generally find them to be easy to use. Some 70% of all with a connected TV agree (8-10 on a 1-10 scale) that streaming services like Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) are easy to access via connected TV devices, while 12% disagree (1-3).
The study also indicated that 77% of TV sets in pay TV households have a pay TV provider's set-top box, with a mean of 2.2 boxes per pay- TV household. Pay TV subscribers tend to express little enmity toward set-top boxes.
- 20% with a pay TV HD set-top box agree (8-10) that set-top boxes from TV companies are a waste of money, while 44% disagree (1-3).
- 42% with a pay TV HD set-top box agree (8-10) that set-top boxes from TV companies provide features that add value to the TV service, while 16% disagree (1-3).
- 68% with three or more set-top boxes are very satisfied (8-10) with their pay TV provider, compared to 54% with one or two set-top boxes.
Overall, there are more connected TV devices in U.S. households than there are pay TV set-top boxes. Across all households (including those that do not have any of these), the mean number of connected TV devices per household is 2.1, while the mean number of pay TV set-top boxes per household is 1.8.
The findings are based on a survey of 1,206 TV households throughout the United States. This is LRG's thirteenth annual study on TVs in the United States.
Other findings indicate:
- 83% of households with any type of connected TV device get a pay TV service, similar to 81% with no connected TV devices.
- 38% of adults with a pay TV service watch video via a connected TV device at least weekly, compared to 48% of pay TV non-subscribers.
- 79% of all TV sets in U.S. households are HDTVs, an increase from 34% of all TV sets in 2010 and 3% in 2004.
- 33% of non-4K UltraHD TV owners have seen one in use, up from 10% in 2014.
- 25% of those who have seen a 4K HDTV in use are interested in getting one, compared to 9% of those who have not seen a 4K HDTV.
"Connected TV devices are now in nearly two-thirds of all TV households in the U.S., and there are actually more connected TV devices in U.S. households than there are pay TV set-top boxes," said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG. "New forms of competition from Internet-delivered video via connected TVs, along with technological innovations in the pay TV industry, are allowing consumers to choose more options for accessing and watching TV than they have ever had before."