As tipped by ChannelNews, a war is breaking out among TV OS Companies, who are looking to generate billions in revenue from click revenue generate from TV owners subscribing to content channels via the OS, at the same time several TV manufacturers are switching to new OS systems.
Analyst firm Dataxis expects 2022 to be a decisive year in the market for Smart TV operating systems as Samsung movies to use their Tizen OS to deliver movies and apps and LG their WebOS.
LG has also moved to making their WebOS system available to several TV brands in Australia a move that is generating billions.
The market is still crowded but the power balance could soon shift leading to consolidation in the near future as several brands switch to new Operating Systems.
According to Dataxis “Samsung’s Tizen and LG’s webOS have been the two most used Smart TV for nearly a decade, but according to the Companies latest research Roku’s OS and Google’s Android TV have gained the biggest growth in 2020 and 2021, with the trend is expected to continue into 2022.
Roku LG and Google, as well as Amazon with its Fire OS, moved to licence their TV platforms to second and third-tier manufacturers a few years ago,” said Guillaume Perrin, Senior Analyst at Dataxis.
In 2021, Android TV had a 15.5% share of the installed base, according to the analyst firm.
Samsung Tizen had 34.4%, LG webOS 15.9%, and Roku 5.8%.
Other TV operating systems (Panasonic’s My Home Screen, Hisense’s Vidaa, Vizio’s SmartCast, Philips’ Saphi along with several other software systems.) had a combined 28.4% share but the ‘other’ category is shrinking every year.
In Australia Hisense whose uses a house brand developed OS called Vidaa is facing warranty claims because of the poor performance of their smart OS.
Last year Android TV was rebranded Google TV and at CES 2022 Google announced new partners in the form of Hisense and Skyworth with the OS set to appear on a new range of Metz TV’s due to be launched in Australia shortly.
TCL will also start using Google TV in more TV models this year.
As for Roku, Dataxis points out that it has yet to consolidate its position outside the USA with one of their biggest supporters TCL and in the USA Hisense, diversifying its line-up to include Google TV.
Amazon’s Fire TV which is tipped to be launched in Australia this year, is facing the same challenges as Roku outside the USA.
The retail giant is trying to enter Europe through partnerships with Grundig and JVC.
JVC is a cheap bottom end TV sold at the likes of Big W.
So when will we start to see consolidation in the Smart TV operating system market?
Dataxis analysts claim “2022 will also witness the growing adoption of Google TV, Android TV’s successor, and River OS, LG’s alternative to webOS. Market consolidation might then take a few more years, in the crowded Smart TV OS market,” they claim.