Digital TV News

Smart TVs have a not so merry Christmas

Wednesday 25 January, 2012

By Duncan Heaney

YouGov follow-up survey finds smart TV uptake remains low while console sales surge.

Back in December, we reported on a survey by research firm YouGov, which found that only one in ten UK consumers own a “smart” TV, and few others had an intention to buy one.

Smart TVs connect to the internet to offer additional services, such as on-demand films, TV catch-up services, games, and more. While uptake of the televisions has been slow to date, YouGov wondered if the Christmas period had given the gadgets a boost, and ran a follow-up study to find out.

So did smart TVs gain traction over Christmas? Short answer: no. From December to January, ownership of smart TVs increased by just 1%. What increase there was, was mostly driven by males - ownership jumped from 10% to 13% in this group. High definition TVs (HDTV) did sell over the festive period though, ownership increasing from 55% to 59%.

Games consoles also sold better than smart TVs over the holidays - not surprising considering they’re much cheaper. Even the venerable Nintendo Wii - a console that’s on the verge of being superseded by the Wii U - saw ownership increase by 4%.

Consoles have previously been identified as a factor in the slow uptake of smart TV as the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 offer streaming film, music and television services too. The results of YouGov’s study lend credence to that theory - it found that among the 18-24 age range, ownership of a console that can access TV programmes jumped from 7% before Christmas to 25% in January.

The new survey found that intention to buy has barely increased since the last survey, but It’s not all bad news for smart TV manufactures. According to Dan Brilot, media consulting director for YouGov: “Some of the industry’s messaging does seem to be getting through, as shown by a thawing in indifference towards Smart TV and a rise in purchase consideration. Prior to Christmas, 52% of the UK population said they definitely would not purchase one but this has dropped to 45%.”

Photo by LGEPR