Tag: Smart TVs

TiVo Launches New Home Screen to Drive Viewer Engagement and Brand Awareness

TiVo Jan. 6 announced new features for its home screen user interface that enable advertisers to better reach consumers across the TV screen.

The new feature aims to provide advertisers with easier monetization opportunities on smart-TV screens, including full-screen video advertisements and shoppable QR codes.

The new software expands TiVo’s user interface technology, which helps consumers find entertainment content across more than 100 TV brands, dozens of operators and more than 5.3 million monthly active users.

“With our unexposed audience and highly engaged monthly active user base, TiVo Ads delivers the quality and precision advertisers demand, along with interoperable data and global program IDs that offer a comprehensive view of ad performance,” Matt Milne, president of TiVo Ads and chief revenue officer at Xperi, said in a statement.

The company will be offering demonstrations of TiVo Ads at CES in Las Vegas through Jan. 9.

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Ampere: Smart TVs No. 1 Choice Among U.S. Internet Users

Internet-connected smart TVs are now the most-used consumer electronics devices among U.S. internet users, according to new data from Ampere Analysis.

The London-based research firm found that among survey respondents ages 18-64, daily smart-TV use increased 27% in the past four years from one hour and 15 minutes to one hour and 34 minutes through the third quarter of 2024.

Ampere found that smart-TV ownership among internet users is up 78% over the past 10 years from 59% in 2016. Use of streaming services increased 61%, faster than any other age group surveyed by Ampere.

Samsung remains the top-owned smart TV brand in the United States, followed by China’s TCL, with household ownership up 50%.

“As engagement with streaming services continues to grow, so does the uptake of smart TVs, which provide easy access to a range of platforms,” Annabel Yeomans, research manager at Ampere, said in a statement.

Yeomans said he expects the trend to continue, particularly among older audiences who are watching more streaming services.

“In Europe, on the other hand, the strength of linear TV has meant a slower growth for smart TVs, but even here they are increasing share of viewing time,” he said. 

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Vizio Adds Inspiration + Faith Category to Smart-TV Content Lineup

Vizio has added the Inspiration + Faith category in its smart-TV content lineup.

The category offers viewers a gateway to channels focused on subjects including faith-based sermons, yoga, family-oriented films and TV shows, health and wellness content, and meditation and mindfulness.  

The Inspiration + Faith category offers live streaming channels including: 

  • Joel Osteen Network (Ch. 1282)
  • Trinity Broadcasting Network (Ch. 1281) — The world’s largest religious network and America’s most-watched faith channel TBN delivers 24/7 inspirational programming. 
  • Pure Flix (Ch. 1292) — Pure Flix TV features movies that celebrate seasonal stories of faith, family, friendship and love made for the entire family. 
  • TED (Ch. 1287) — The channel features the world’s greatest thinkers and doers sharing ideas.   
  • JLTV (Ch. 1284) — More cultural than religious, JLTV provides content about Jewish culture and history, the Jewish faith and the Jewish people. 
  • Commune (Ch. 1289) — The channel features top teachers in integrative medicine, spirituality, yoga, meditation, relationships, mindfulness, and more.

 

“Our team is always looking for new content to meet the needs of our audiences, and the launch of the Inspiration + Faith category on WatchFree+ does exactly that,” Greg Barnard, senior director of content acquisitions at Vizio, said in a statement. “As the New Year begins and so many people seek to improve their mental health, find motivation, and receive spiritual fulfillment, the channels in this category can provide some highly sought after guidance and clarity.”  

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Customers can find the content by selecting “Live TV” from the left-side menu of the home screen. From there, they press and hold the enter button on the smart TV remote and the Category Guide will pop up. They can then scroll down and select Inspiration + Faith.  

The Inspiration + Faith category joins the other channel content categories including Kids + Family, Comedy, Movies, Food + Travel, Crime and more. 

CES 2025 Officially Opens With Focus on Practical Rather Than Theoretical AI Applications

LAS VEGAS — CES 2025 officially opened Jan. 7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, in the throes of an ambitious remodel, and various other nearby venues.

The concourse on opening day was its usual sea of people, while the big buzz on the show floor was AI’s move from the theoretical to the practical — in everything from massive TVs to smart home tools and healthcare.

As usual, the show floor is dominated by massive exhibits from such big consumer electronics mainstays as Samsung, Sony, Hisense, TCL, Panasonic and Toshiba.

Samsung’s booth, as usual one of the biggest, delivered on the theme of “AI for All” with displays for smart homes, smart healthcare and even an AI-powered management system for ships called SmartThings. TVs, however, were conspicuously absent, except for a big display of art TVs, dubbed The Frame, which use ambient light sensors to make a static screen display of paintings and photographs look like real art when the TV is not in use.

Samsung trumpeted its impressive slate of smart TVs two days before the show opened at a press conference that saw the unveiling of Samsung Vision AI, a new intuitive technology that will be implemented across all Samsung AI-powered screens and devices, including newly introduced models Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED 4K and OLED models.

Other CE companies didn’t shy away from using the show floor to flaunt their latest smart sets and Laser projection TVs.

Hisense — with a booth theme of “AI Your Life” — showed off its gargantuan 136-inch MicroLED TV as well as its 116-inch TriChroma LED TV, which the company says is the only consumer model to use RGB Local Dimming Technology, which offers unparalleled color precision, vibrancy, and efficiency.

TCL exhibited its new line of QM6K TVs, featuring TCL’s enhanced QD-Mini LED system and powered by its new Halo Control Technology Suite of hardware and processing advancements. Also at the TCL booth was the 115-inch TCL QM7K Mini-LED TV, which the company says is the world’s largest.

Also new on the TV front were LG Electronics’ LG G5 OLED TV, which the company says is 40% brighter than last year’s G4, and a 55-inch OLED set by a company called Displace TV that gets stuck to the wall using suction cups.

Hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), CES 2025 runs through Jan. 10.

 “We’re thrilled to dive into CES 2025, which will show innovations that improve the lives of millions of people, create new jobs, and catalyze global economic growth,” said Gary Shapiro, CEO and vice chair of the CTA. “CES is where the future begins. It’s where business gets done, partnerships are forged, deals are struck, and world-changing ideas take center stage.”

In addition to the show floor, CES 2025 features more than 300 conference sessions with top tracks and stages such as CES Creator Space, Digital Health Summit, Great Minds, Innovation Policy Summit, and Research Summit.

And streamers, as usual, have taken over much of the convention space at the Aria, mostly for meeting rooms and activations.

Smart TVs Powered by TiVo Coming to U.S. Market by Early February

LAS VEGAS — Xperi’s TiVo in advance of CES 2025 announced that it will be entering the U.S. television market with Sharp Home Electronics Company of America.

The deal marks the debut of the TiVo operating system in the U.S. market, with smart TVs powered by TiVo becoming available to American consumers as early as February 2025. The sets offer a UHD and HDR 55-inch QLED screen, plus Dolby Atmos and three HDMI ports.

The announcement is seen as a major milestone for Xperi’s independent media platform. Already available in Europe, TiVo OS currently has eight partners, including Sharp Europe, to introduce its smart TVs Powered by TiVo across more than 33 brands including Bush, Daewoo, Digihome, Panasonic, Sharp, Telefunken and Vestel.

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Xperi says the TiVo OS is an efficient and cost-effective turnkey solution for OEMs looking to roll out a new generation of smart TVs globally. The platform aggregates content from various streaming services, linear-TV channels and sports content, allowing consumers to organize and access their favorite shows, movies, and live events in a single user interface. TiVo OS supports a wide range of popular streaming services, providing consumers with access to a vast library of both free and paid content.

TiVo OS also offers advanced search and recommendation capabilities. Powered by algorithms that learn from individual viewing habits, the platform provides personalized suggestions tailored to each user’s unique preferences. 

TiVo OS also offers natural voice navigation for select smart-TV models. Consumers can easily search for and access their desired content by issuing simple voice commands.

Xperi made two other announcements Jan. 5. 

TiVo Broadband announced that more than 20 operators have selected TiVo Broadband Solutions to deliver premium content to customers across their TVs. TiVo Broadband Solutions are specifically tailored for operators’ broadband-only customers and are powered by TiVo’s IPTV technology.

And TiVo One, the company’s cross-screen marketing solution designed to optimize audience-based campaigns across multiple screens and devices, began rolling out its Home Page Hero Ads in December. This enables brands to amplify their message with advertising across TiVo IPTV and smart TVs Powered by TiVo.

Crunchyroll Anime Streaming Service Launches on LG Smart TVs

The Crunchyroll anime streaming service app launched Feb. 21 on LG Electronics smart TVs in the United States and across international regions.

The service features more than 18,000 hours, 46,000 episodes and films, and 3,300 Japanese music videos and concert specials.

Viewers will also get expanded access to the simulcast series streaming on Crunchyroll shortly after premiering in Japan, including the dark fantasy “Solo Leveling,” “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End,” and the comedic “Mashle: Magic and Muscles,The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc,” among other content. Crunchyroll’s catalog is available in subtitled or dubbed formats across more than 12 languages including English, Spanish (Latin America and Spain/Castilian), Portuguese, French, German, Arabic, Italian, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.

“Our new partnership with LG makes it even easier to be an anime fan,” Kaliel Roberts, chief product officer at Crunchyroll, said in a statement. “Anime offers a variety of genres and viewing adventures and now viewers have even more options to dive deeper.”

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Crunchyroll has more than 13 million paying subscribers globally, and serves 200 countries and territories with a dedicated anime streaming library, while also offering events and experiential, theatrical, gaming, merchandise, e-commerce and more.

Streaming TV App Philo Now Available on Vizio Smart TVs

Streaming TV app Philo has launched on Vizio smart TVs.

Vizio Smart TVs join other devices where Philo can be accessed, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Samsung TV, and mobile devices such as Android phones and tablets, iPhones, and iPads. Philo is also available on Amazon Fire Tablets and can be streamed on computers via web browsers.

Philo can be accessed directly from the home screen on Vizio smart TVs. To watch Philo on a Vizio TV, consumers can press the home button on the Vizio remote, select apps from the left hand navigation, select app search, type “Philo” and then select it from the app search results.

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CES 2024 Highlights AI TV Advancements

LAS VEGAS — CES 2024 ended its four-day run here on Jan. 12 with a total count of 135,000 attendees and more than 4,300 exhibitors, up 17% and 34%, respectively, from the 2023 show.

The exhibitor count is close to the pre-pandemic high of 4,400 at CES 2020, while attendance is still significantly short of the more than 170,000 who attended the show four years ago. But Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which produces the annual show, is quite pleased with the numbers.

“The resurgence of CES proves that face-to-face conversations and meetings are a necessity for the technology industry,” Shapiro said. “For more than 20 years, I’ve said that every company must become a tech company, and the diversity of exhibitors at CES 2024 proves it. The CES footprint and conference programming span the entire tech ecosystem.”

See our EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS from CES 2024 here!

Shapiro noted that the show’s footprint of more than 2.5 million net square feet of exhibit space was 15% bigger than CES 2023, while more than 40% of the attendees came from outside the United States, representing 150 countries, regions and territories.

The big buzz at the show was artificial intelligence, which was embraced by legacy consumer electronics exhibitors such as Hisense, LG, Samsung, TCL, Sony, and Panasonic to make their smart TVs even smarter.

Hisense, the Chinese CE giant that in the first half of 2023 became the world’s second-biggest television manufacturer, got a jump on its competitors with a press conference the day before the show opened highlighting its new line of ULED and ULED X TVs. The star attraction: the 110UX, which in addition to its 110-inch screen size is five times brighter than the average high-end set and incorporates AI technology to dynamically adjust contrast and depth depending on the scene. The company’s Hi-View Engine PRO chipset — featured exclusively in the U7 and U8 series — leverages deep learning and innovative technologies to create lifelike skin tones, refine HDR detail, and significantly improve image detail.”

Not to be outdone, LG Electronics unveiled its new line of QNED TVs, powered by the α8 AI Processor. AI Picture Pro offers picture quality based on deep learning, according to the company. The feature distinguishes faces, objects, and backgrounds within a scene, enriching the texture and fine details. Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro splits the picture into blocks and analyzes each in real-time to detect the darkest and brightest areas, elevating the details with precise HDR optimization to deliver three-dimensional image quality, according to LG. With Personalized Picture Wizard, users can customize the image quality by simply selecting a few preferred images from a given selection that are intelligently set up through deep learning.

Samsung Electronics in a press conference unveiled its “AI for All” vision, which holds that AI technology will enable people to experience their devices more intuitively and conveniently than ever before. The new Samsung Neo QLED 8Ks feature a built-in AI processor that can automatically upscale low-resolution content to 8K quality. The AI Motion Enhancer Pro automatically detects the type of sport being watched and uses deep learning to help viewers visually track fast-moving objects likes baseballs and footballs with crystal clarity. Samsung Neo QLED 8Ks also feature Active Voice Amplifier Pro, which uses AI to analyze voice and background noise and optimize the TV listening experience.

On the content side, Netflix returned to the CES show floor for the first time in six years with a glitzy mirrored booth where guests were being given an immersive preview of the sci-fi drama series “3 Body Problem,” which starts streaming on March 21. Guests donned a shiny silver gaming headset — modeled after the one in the series — and were taken on a wild cinematic ride rich with special effects, as well as a preview of the new full-length trailer.

“3 Body Problem” is an ambitious epic from “Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss, along with Alexander Woo, that was adapted from Chinese author Liu Cixin’s Hugo Award-winning book trilogy. The eight-episode series is set in a fictional past, present and future in which Earth encounters an alien civilization from a nearby system of three stars that orbit one another, a nod to the three-body problem in orbital mechanics.

Hub Research: Smart TV Streaming Use Reached 68% of U.S. Households in 2023

With streaming video on the TV screen the biggest home entertainment change in the past 10 years, streaming via a smart TV has tripled since 2013, from 21% of homes to 68%, according to new data from Hub Entertainment Research.

The company reports that with streaming video use moving beyond early adopters to the general consumer, SVOD and ad-supported streaming services haven’t been the only drivers. The market also been driven by technology changes that have made smart TVs much easier to connect, use and less expensive to buy.

Hub reports the number of TV platforms (streaming, broadcast, pay-TV) used to access streaming content has nearly tripled from 2013, from 2.6 platforms to 7 platforms.

This has created a crisis in content discovery for viewers trying to find their favorite shows. For example, “Yellowstone,” which premieres on Paramount Channel on cable, streams repeats on Peacock, has its prequel series stream on Paramount+, and is now being shown on the CBS broadcast network.

In 2013, defaulting to a pay-TV provider to find content was preferred by 50% of consumers compared with 31% for streaming. Ten years later, 60% of consumers prefer streaming for content compared with 22% for pay-TV.

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“We wonder if broadcast networks as we know them will remain or transition to all streaming,” Hub founder Jon Giegengack wrote in a post. “We fail to see how the next OTA TV broadcast standard, called Next Gen TV, gains traction with consumers who already barely understand the difference between HD and 4K and 8K resolution.”

BritBox Streaming Service Available on Vizio TVs

British-themed entertainment streaming service BritBox Dec. 15 announced that its $8.99 monthly/$89.99 annual subscription-based app is now available on Vizio connected televisions.

Vizio users have access to a variety of genres, including mysteries, dramas, comedies, lifestyle and documentaries, as well as Agatha Christie titles.

“With a diverse selection of titles spanning from crime to comedy, we will further enhance Vizio’s entertainment offering,” Reemah Sakaan, CEO BritBox International, said in a statement.

The VOD service, which is co-owned by BBC Studios and ITV, surpassed 3.4 million subscribers globally through November since launching in the United States in 2017.

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