69% of U.S. TV households have a connected TV

New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) finds that 69% of US TV households have at least one television set connected to the Internet via a smart TV set, a stand-alone device (like Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV stick or set-top box, or Apple TV), a video game system, and/or a Blu-ray player — up from 50% in 2014, and 24% in 2010.

Overall, there are more connected TV devices in US households than there are pay-TV set-top boxes. Among those with any connected TV devices, 76% have more than one device, with a mean of 3.5 per connected TV household. Across all households (including those that do not have any of these), the mean number of connected TV devices per household is 2.4, while the mean number of pay-TV set-top boxes per household is 1.7.

These findings are based on a survey of 1,204 TV households throughout the US, and are part of a new LRG study, Connected and HD TVs XIV. This is LRG’s fourteenth annual study on TVs in the US.

Other findings include:

• Overall, 25% of adults in US TV households watch video via a connected TV device daily — compared to 11% in 2014, and 1% in 2010.
• 43% of all ages 18-34 watch video via a connected TV device daily — compared to 26% of ages 35-54 and 10% of ages 55+
• 22% of adults with a pay-TV service watch video via a connected TV device daily — compared to 38% of pay-TV non-subscribers
• 79% of all TV sets in US households are HDTVs — an increase from 59% in 2014, and 11% in 2007
• 38% of non-4K Ultra HDTV owners have seen one in use — up from 10% in 2014
• 31% of those who have seen a 4K HDTV in use are interested in getting one — compared to 7% of those who have not seen a 4K HDTV

“Connected TV devices continue to expand both in terms of the percentage of US households that have connected TV devices and the frequency that people are using them,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “Yet, with 81% of connected TV households also getting a pay-TV service, choices provided by connected TVs are generally being integrated with traditional viewing options.”