Connected TVs: can Google replicate the takeover of mobile OS on the TV screen?

Despite the rising amount of devices available to watch video content, TV sets continue to draw the largest audiences in European homes. The devices are becoming even more strategic with the rise of CTV advertising opportunities, and the possibility to create substantial ad revenues through TV interfaces. In this context the battle taking place to control Smart TV platforms presents high strategic stakes for operating systems providers, often also selling their own TV devices. How are they spreading their OS through smaller brands? In parallel, the operating system fragmentation resulting from this competition has had strong consequences on the market over the years, but signs of consolidation around a handful of platforms start to appear. How far can the concentration go? Can a smartphone-like scenario, leaving only two or three running operating systems on TV sets occur in the future? The ongoing battle to control TV operating systems At end-June 173 TV sets brands were active and selling their products across Europe. Samsung and LG products constituted the largest share of retail offers with respectively 25% and 18% of the number of distinct products proposed to consumers. This means that despite their overall domination, it leaves between 40% to 60% of the market to many other brands depending on the country, including very well established ones such as Hisense, Sony, TCL or Panasonic. While customers must navigate through a wide range of brands, just a handful of smart TV operating systems control the aggregation of streaming and entertainment Apps on the TV device, including in particular: Android TV (Google), Tizen (Samsung), webOS (LG) and Vidaa (Hisense). In this context, the brands that haven’t deployed their own smart platform yet see their options growing, as major OS intensify their efforts to license their platform to third party manufacturers. Although largely preceded by Google's Android TV, which can be found on 106 different retail brands across Europe, the TVOS WebOS, Vidaa, Roku and Fire TV have recently convinced dozens of brands and hardware manufacturers to implement their platform, with more coming every quarter. In Q2 2023, Vidaa and webOS each powered products of 15 different brands, Fire TV 9 and Roku 4. Tizen, Saphi, MyHomescreen were still only present on a single brand's products. This means that despite Samsung's announcement in 2021 that it would open up its platform through licensing deals, and the agreements signed a countries like France, Italy, Spain and the UK in 2022, such offers are yet to be released on the retail market. A highly fragmented retail market These disputes over the TV park can stimulate innovation and push manufacturers to provide the best options to customers, however, they also create complexity for Entertainment Apps developers as...