Only half of UK Smart TV owners know what a Smart TV is

In a YouGov survey of the nation’s TV habits, consumers admitted that the main reason they would buy a Smart TV is just to have the most up-to-date television. Only a third (37 percent) of Brits planning to buy a Smart TV said that connecting to the internet through it, the “smart” part, was a factor in buying one.

Explaining the results, Dan Brilot, YouGov’s media consulting director, said, “The ‘smart’ part of a Smart TV is not yet the main reason people are buying them; it’s more about future-proofing their TV set in the same way that lots of people bought HD TVs even before HD channels were available. I think many early adopters of Smart TV are buying them for the sake of owning the latest gadget. We see the profile (in terms of tech adoption) as very similar between iPad and Smart TV owners at the moment. These are the kind of people who are willing to make a big ticket purchase without quite realising what they’ve bought.”

Further, only half (53 percent) of Smart TV owners correctly identified a Smart TV as one that directly connects to the internet without the need of another device; while one in four (25 percent) Smart TV owners have never used it to connect to the internet.

Brilot added, “You wouldn’t imagine that a quarter of people on any other internet-led device hadn’t used it to go online, especially at this stage of the adoption curve. Manufacturers need to understand what the USP of a Smart TV is, either understanding a current need or creating one--as Apple do so well-- rather than bundling together different technologies without the necessary thought as to how they might be used together.”

Smart TVs are expected to have a big impact on traditional viewing habits in the near future, with 14 percent set to own one in the next year. Just over one in three (35 percent) Smart TV owners say they now spend more time watching TV through “on-demand” services, such as BBC’s iPlayer, than they do watching traditional “linear” TV.