About 425,000 connected TVs will be sold in The Netherlands this year, according to research from GfK. Next year, 20% of all TV sets sold will be connected, while in 2012 1.2 million sets will be sold, equivalent to 40% of the market.
In three years time, over 60% of all TV sets sold will be connected. “It is fast becoming the standard, Web TV is here now, but there is no such thing a standardisation”, GfK’s Barbara Schouten told the audience at the Immovator Cross Media Cafe about connected TVs in Hilversum on December 7. “Each of the manufacturers now have their own, proprietary system. Samsung’s Internet@TV, Philips Net TV, Sony Bravia Internet Connect, Panasonic Viera Cast, LG Netcast.”
In addition to the connected TV sets, consumer electronics manufacturers also build and sell other connected devices, such as Blu-ray disc players. Of these, 88,000 units, or 21%, are already connected. Next year, the percentage is expected to jump to 42%.
Then there are the connected game consoles such as Wii, Sony Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, along with the so-called ‘media gateways’ (or ‘media centres’), which connect the local home network to the TV set. Of these, up until October of this year some 120,000 units had been sold (including Apple TV).
According to GfK, people are now indeed watching video on the web, especially younger viewers between 13 and 19 years old, who do 30% of all their viewing on the PC rather than on the TV set. No wonder in a country, which boasts 86% internet connectivity. GfK also predicts that by 2014 half of all entertainment content will be consumed digitally (VOD, online).
