Roku is still the king of connected TV OS in America, according to new consumer survey results published by Hub Entertainment Research.
Interviewing 5,001 U.S. consumers ages 16-74 for its Connected Home report, Hub asked which connected TV operating system(s) they use, either native to their smart TV or via streaming media player. Among households that stream monthly, 59% of respondents said they use Roku versus 49% for Samsung’s OS (Tizen).
The consumer survey results conflict with findings recently published by Samsung, culled from the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), suggesting that Tizen has surpassed Roku domestically in the CTV realm. A recent ARF report suggested usage of Roku HDMI pucks and dongles has dramatically decreased since 2023.
Notable in the Hub rankings is the presence of Xumo, the Comcast and Charter joint venture, which reached 7% share among households in the U.S. that stream from smart TV or streaming media devices monthly, per the report. Meanwhile, VIDAA, a platform incubated by China’s Hisense, controlled nearly 8% of CTV devices globally, according to a study released by the Connected TV Marketing Association last June, but it doesn’t even show up in Hub’s domestic US ranker.
Whichever TVOS is actually “winning” this horse race, it’s clear that there’s no absolutely dominant competitor in the U.S. That portends more innovation, Hub contends.
"As ownership of smart TVs becomes universal, there's still room to grow in improving the viewing experience,” said Jason Platt Zolov, senior consultant at Hub, in a statement. "Without a single TV operating system dominating the market, each has the opportunity to better integrate paid and free streaming services and AI viewing enhancements to help gain the attention of consumers.”
Based on the Hub survey, the various TVOS platforms need to engineer better universal search tools. Only 56% of respondents said they use their OS to search for shows, with most users choosing to “hunt and peck” with search tools provided by individual streaming apps.
And particularly for older users (or, those north of 35), there is more of a split in terms of interest for new artificial-intelligence-based TVOS features. Only 45% of customers older than 35 say they’re interested in AI voice matching to customize their viewing experience, for example.
