Samsung Tizen expands global connected TV share

Samsung’s Tizen operating system leads the global connected TV market after a massive third quarter of smart TV sales.

According to new research from Strategy Analytics, Samsung sold 11.8 million smart TVs worldwide in the previous quarter, making it the best ever quarter by Samsung or any other vendor. The firm said there are now more than 155 million Tizen OS smart TVs in use around the world, an increase of 23% in the past year, and that Tizen now accounts for 12.5% of connected TV devices in use.

“Samsung’s success in building Tizen as a global TV streaming platform bodes well for the company’s new revenue streams,” said Michael Goodman, director of TV and media strategies at Strategy Analytics, in a statement. “Content providers and advertisers are keen to benefit from the rapidly growing audience for connected TV services as increasing numbers of viewers switch away from traditional pay TV and broadcast platforms.”

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The next largest platforms behind Tizen are LG’s WebOS, Sony PlayStation, Roku TV OS, Amazon’s Fire TV OS and Google’s Android TV.

Strategy Analytics said that the global market for connected TV devices – including smart TVs, media streamers and games consoles – reached 81.3 million units in the third quarter, an increase of 19% year over year. The firm predicted that connected TV device sales in 2020 overall will finish 7% higher than in 2019.

“By the end of this year nearly 1.3 billion connected TV devices will be in use worldwide,” said David Watkins, director of TV Streaming Platforms at Strategy Analytics, in a statement. “Samsung’s success in smart TVs means that it will retain its leadership position for some time. The multi-way battle between Samsung, LG, Sony, Amazon, Roku and Google will shape the way TV is viewed over the coming decade.”