The open HbbTV standard is the leading TV app platform on TV sets in German households, followed by Samsung Tizen and Amazon Fire TV.
Taking a look at actual usage, the great importance of the TV platforms of Deutsche Telekom (Magenta TV), Vodafone and Sky can already be seen today. Comcast subsidiary Metrological, meanwhile, has the greatest growth prospects.
These are the results of the study TV App Platforms in Germany – Update 2020, which Hamburg-based agency TeraVolt conducted with the support of a 12-member expert panel and market research institute Facit.
While Amazon Fire TV (4.3 million households) has the third-highest reach after HbbTV (15.3 million) and Tizen (5.9 million), it falls behind Magenta TV, Metrological, Foxxum and Android TV in terms of actual usage.
According to the study, Metrological in particular, whose solutions are used by operators such as Sky and Vodafone, is likely to play an important role in the German TV market in future. TeraVolt forecasts that Metrological will increase its reach by 31% annually and climb to second place in usage by 2024 while Samsung’s Tizen will drop to fourth place. HbbTV will remain the undisputed number one.
“Vodafone and Sky as well as Tele Columbus already rely on Metrological’s app store. The Comcast subsidiary will therefore grow into one of the most important platforms for TV apps in Germany and could even become more important than Tizen and Amazon Fire TV,” said Tobias Künkel, managing partner at TeraVolt.
Nevertheless, Amazon will remain a strong market player, stressed Künkel: “Amazon is now present in more living rooms with its app-enabled devices than Telekom, Vodafone, Sky or Google. With its Prime service, Amazon offers a product that enables direct identification, data acquisition and billing of its customers. These are important factors for long-term success and customer loyalty.”
The complete, English-language study can be downloaded from the TeraVolt website as a PDF document.