After debuting a version of its TVOS for a handful of third-party smart TV and streaming gadget makers last year, LG has upgraded and expanded webOS Hub to more than 200 technology partners. 

The additional brands, which include Seiki, Eko, Stream System, Konka, Aiwa and Hyundai, marks a tenfold increase over the 20 device partners that were announced when the "Hub" version of webOS was first introduced in early 2021. 

LG is one of the biggest suppliers of smart TVs -- and smart TV operating software -- in the world, controlling nearly 20% of the international TVOS market, according to research company Omdia. LG says 120 million devices in 50 countries are powered by webOS.

For the latest iteration of webOS Hub, LG is following an emerging business tech trend, supplying a customizable platform that lets smaller consumer electronics makers establish their own branding on their devices. 

Hub partners can customize and fine-tune the home screen by selecting the color scheme, applying a visual style consistent with their identity or inserting a logo for visibility. 

It's a strategy similar to what Xperi is deploying in Europe with a TiVo-branded TVOS, which it says allows CE makers who can't afford to develop their own OS to keep their brand identity intact, instead of forfeiting it the major connected TV gateway software makers -- Roku, Amazon and Google. 

In the latest webOS Hub, LG is also touting enhanced usability and personalization features, providing users with a curated selection of content to check out based on their tastes and preferences. 

Next Pick1 recommends up to three live programs, from broadcast stations or a connected set-top box, as well as one VOD title or app. 

The new update also supports LG’s Magic Explorer, which displays information relevant to the content being played, such as actor bios and filming locations.

Additionally, webOS Hub provides an improved viewing experience with Clear Voice PRO, a feature that makes onscreen dialogue much easier to hear. 

As with the more traditional webOS, webOS Hub supports major streaming apps including Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video, as well as LG’s free, premium content service, LG Channels. 

The TVOS is adding vMVPD fubo TV, and popular cloud gaming service NVIDIA GeForce Now. 

“We are committed to refining and expanding our webOS Hub ecosystem, which continues to introduce more and more consumers to the unparalleled user experience of LG webOS,” said Park Hyoung-sei, president of the LG Home Entertainment Company, in a statement. 

The Elvis Presley Channel has launched on platforms including LG Channels, Amazon’s Freevee, Vizio, Sling, Xumo, Plex and Local Now.

The channel, created in partnership by Elvis Presley Enterprises and ABG Entertainment, with Cinedigm, features the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll in films and specials, as well as series and lifestyle programming.

Original series are in development.

"We are thrilled for fans to immerse themselves in Elvis' world with the launch of The Elvis Presley Channel," said Matt Abruzzo, senior director - brand management, entertainment, Authentic Brands Group (ABG), owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, LLC. "The Elvis fandom is incredibly passionate, and when it comes to serving enthusiastic fan bases, no one does it better than Cinedigm."

Cinedigm announced plans to launch the channel last year.   ■

LG Ads Solutions has announced a deal with Omnicom Media Group to bring LG smart TV and cross-screen ad inventory to clients of the world's second largest advertising agency. 

LG Ads data, culled from a network of more than 20 million LG smart TV U.S. households, will be integrated within Omni, Omnicom’s suite of proprietary applications, which in turn will mesh with clients’ first-party data and technology to orchestrate media campaigns. 

OMG agencies will now be able to run TV campaigns across all addressable LG smart TVs in the U.S.

LG Ads notes that connected TV adverting revenue is expected to reach $19.1 billion in 2022. 

New York-based Omnimedia is the world's second-biggest ad agency, with projected 2022 revenue of $15 billion, placing it only behind London's WPP ($16.9 billion), according to Insider Intelligence. Omnimedia's client roster includes McDonald‘s, Apple, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson.

“Omnicom’s vision for bringing more transparency and quality consumer experiences to CTV is directly in line with our initiatives for more open access to high-value smart TV data and for guaranteed outcomes for advertisers, where CTV media is only paid for when campaign objectives are met,” LG Ads Solutions CEO Raghu Kodige said in a statement. 

Added Slavi Samardzija, CEO of Annalect, the data and analytics division of OMG that developed and manages Omni: “LG Ads Solutions brings one of the industry’s largest observed TV data sets to the Omni platform, as well as access to its premium CTV media inventory. This partnership is a natural continuation of our efforts to transform the effects of data and analytics on media, while giving our clients access to the best view of both consumer behaviors and media inventory, paired with the highest level of precision.” ■

In a shift that will impact the platforms consumers all over the world use to stream video, China's TCL is poised to overtake Korea's LG as the No. 2 global supplier of smart TVs this year. 

According to Korean electronics news site The Elec, which cites data from research company Omdia, TCL is ordering 36.5 flat panel displays from its vendors this year vs. 34.3 million from LG. Market leader Samsung has ordered 55.6 million displays

These orders don't necessarily translate into shipments, but they are good rough indicators as to how many unit shipment and sales each manufacturers expects in a given year.

In 2021, LG shipped 27.33 million smart TVs, according to Omdia data, while TCL shipped 24.57 million sets. TCL, which roared onto the global smart TV scene in 2017 with low-cost LED sets that undercut Korean rivals LG and Samsung, has been steadily closing the unit-sales gap with LG for several years. 

The story here isn't about revenue. LG has hooked a fast-growing advanced advertising business to the proprietary operating system that powers its premium smart TVs, webOS. 

TCL licenses the Roku OS and, to a growing extent, Google's Android TV and Google TV, to power its lower-priced smart TVs. However, as TCL swells in stature, so does the prophecy recently put forth by Roku CEO Anthony Wood, who last month predicted that Roku, Google TV and Amazon Fire TV would someday displace the proprietary OS software provided by Samsung and LG. 

Roku has 60.1 million active users, 88% of which are in the U.S., according to information released by Guggenheim just last week. As TCL ramps up sales of Roku-powered sets in regions including Europe, those numbers will certainly shift. 

Ditto for Google -- in January, TCL said that it has now deployed 10 million devices powered by either Android TV or its prodigy, Google TV. 

CuriosityStream continues to look for ways to broaden its reach beyond its core SVOD offering.

On Monday, the company announced a new free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel just for LG smart TVs. 

Curiosity Now will run on LG TV 4.0 and newer model smart TV models. The FAST runs on channel 277 on the LG Channels guide.

“We are excited to introduce the Curiosity Now streaming channel to the LG Channel platform and bring a sampling of our family-friendly, factual entertainment programming to LG’s highly engaged user base,” said Brandon Fong, senior VP of partnerships and distribution for Curiosity. “LG customers will have more ways to interact with Curiosity’s deep library of content and discover some of the best programming across nature, history, science, and travel.”

CuriosityStream, which reports Q4/full-2021 earnings on Thursday, has seen its subscription video-on-demand platform stagnate in recent quarters at around 20 million users. ■

The major smart TV makers who supply their own operating system will eventually give up and license a third-party OS from either Roku, Amazon or Google, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said. 

Speaking Monday at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Wood said the streaming OS business would someday resemble the operating platform paradigm for smart phones, where Google's Android and Apple's iOS dominate a narrow field of OS contenders. 

More and more, it's the native OS of the smart TV that drives connected TV viewing, Wood said. And the platforms powering these TVs will consolidate over time.

Also read: Roku Ready To Make Streaming Pitch to In-Person NewFront

"We still have a lot of people using Samsung, LG and Vizio, but over time, they're going to switch to licensing third-party operating systems," Wood said. 

"The economics of monetization, feature sets and the resources just don’t support [an over-abundance] of solutions for streaming OS," he added. 

With more than 60 million active accounts, Roku is the leading supplier of connected TV OS in the U.S., which Wood called "an advanced market." 

As Roku has proliferated to markets like Mexico, it has quickly grown its market share, he added, noting that Roku has gone from zero to 20% market share of connected TVs in Mexico in just a few years. 

Operating systems including Samsung's Tizen and LG's webOS are big in regions like Western Europe, Wood noted, but that's only because Roku is just starting to deploy itself there. "Once Roku enters a market outside the U.S., our share starts to grow," he added. 

Eventually, the ad-supported side of the streaming business may get to a point in which OS providers scale of certain degree that is "big enough to ride the ride." But in the here and now, it seems hard to believe that Samsung, LG and Vizio would just give up. 

Samsung said last year that its Tizen OS is in 1.28 billion devices worldwide. And last week, Vizio said that active accounts for its SmartCast OS grew by 24% in 2021 to reach 15.1 million globally. ■

Cinedigm said it made a deal with LG to make nine of its most popular free ad-supported streaming channels to the LG Channels platform on the set-maker‘s smart TVs.

The channels can be easily accessed by LG TV users and are integrated directly into the television and its channel guide.

The channels are The Bob Ross Channel, Dove Channel, Real Madrid TV, El Rey Network, Lonestar, MyTime Movie Network, The Country Network, So … Real and The Only Way Is Essex.

Also: Cinedigm, Shout! Factory in Deal That Adds Movies to Both Company's Streaming Services

“Smart TVs have transformed the way viewers consume content with connected TVs becoming the dominant viewing medium for hundreds of millions of viewers,” said Jennifer Soltesz, VP, business development and strategy at Cinedigm. 

“Introducing these nine streaming channels to fans and genre enthusiasts on LG Smart TVs now expands Cinedigm’s presence across virtually all major television manufacturers in the world. We’re pleased to grow our partnership with LG, just in time for the busy holiday season as consumers are making choices around connected TV purchases,” Soltesz said. ■

Redbox said it made a deal to five of its free ad-supported streaming TV channels carried on the LG Channels platform on LG smart TVs.

Redbox Free Movies channel is already on LG Channels, Redbox said. Also coming to LG Channels are Redbox War and Westerns, Redbox Holiday, Redbox Rewind and Redbox Romance. 

Also: Redbox Gets More Movies To Stream from WarnerMedia, Sony

“Redbox is known for being a destination for movies, and these FAST channels will bring a wide range of great movies and TV for viewers via LG Channels,” said Chris Yates, general manager of Redbox on Demand. “From westerns to holiday favorites to nostalgia, LG’s customers will soon have even more ways to interact with the Redbox brand alongside our streaming app.”

Redbox, known for its in-story DVD rental kiosks has been pivoting to streaming, setting up free channels and, soon, subscription channels.

LG Channels is LG's free streaming service, providing users with a wide selection of premium live and on-demand programming, including movies, TV shows, news, sports, kids, and more. LG Channels and a channel guide are available on 2016 TVs and newer and in 14 countries. ■

Fox Entertainment said its Tubi streaming service is now available via LG Smart TV sets in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Australia.

Tubi is now available on 29 different platforms, the most of any ad supported video on demand service, according to Fox. 

LG set users can access Tubi through the Launcher Bar on LG’s menu screen. It is also accessible by saying “Tubi” into the LG Magic Remote. Tubi programming is being integrated into the LG on-device search.

Tubi provides a library of 35,000 movies and television series including the original humor series The Freak Brothers.

Fox acquired Tubi last year and has seen strong growth in usage and ad revenue. ■

According to the latest Nielsen figures, YouTube controls 6% of all connected TV viewing, trailing only Netflix (7%). 

So it's not surprising that China's ByteDance would like to capture a little of that same momentum for TikTok, another short-form, user-generated video platform that surpassed 1 billion users worldwide in September on the Android mobile platform alone. 

So, after debuting on Amazon Fire TV devices earlier this month, ByteDance said that the TikTok app is now supported by smart TVs sold in the U.S. powered by Android TV and Google TV, as well as Samsung and LG's native operating systems. 

Also read: TikTok App Comes to Amazon Fire TV

TikTok's connected TV initiative isn't brand new. For instance, the TikTok app debuted on Samsung TV's sold in Europe a year ago. 

While describing its mobile apps as delivering "little bursts of joy," ByteDance said its TikTok mobile apps deliver “a TV home-viewing experience, making it easy to watch content from our For You and Following feeds on the big screen. This includes the most liked and viewed videos across a huge range of categories, from gaming and comedy to food and animals.”

Notably, TikTok still isn't supported by devices, including smart TVs, powered by the leading U.S. connected TV OS, Roku. 

DistroTV said it has reached deals making its free ad-supported TV platform available on smart TVs produced by Samsung, LG and Sony.

DistroTV was already available via key streaming device partners including Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, and Google TV, as well as on mobile platforms like iOS and Android.

With CTV mushrooming, it was important for DistroTV to get more smart TV carriage.

“Our research shows that DistroTV viewership is on average occurring at a 15-times higher engagement rate on large screen devices versus mobile devices,” said Navdeep Saini, co-founder and CEO of DistroScale, parent company of DistroTV. “We’re thrilled to expand DistroTV’s video streaming experience through our new availability on these smart TVs, and to continue to provide our growing base of viewers with the content they crave, on the devices they prefer to watch on.” 

DistroTV says it has a lineup of 150 channels, having added several over the past few months in an effort to appeal to a broader audience.

Discovery said it made a deal with LG Electronics USA that will make the Discovery Plus streaming service available on LG Smart TV sets.

“The arrival of the Discovery Plus app on LG Smart TVs delivers a new range of premium, educational and inspiring content to LG TV owners,” said Peggy Ang, LG’s VP of marketing. “LG Smart TVs truly elevate the home entertainment experience with access to the most anticipated and sought-after content delivered with critically-acclaimed picture quality the way the creators intended it to be seen. We are proud to partner with Discovery Plus to bring this content to LG TV owners.”

Discovery Plus offers more than 200 original shows and a library of 60,000 episodes from networks including HGTV, Food Network, DIY and OWN.

Also Read: Discovery Plus Puts Scare into 'Ghostober' with 'Haunted Museum' Scripted Series

"We are thrilled to expand the availability of Discovery Plus and provide LG customers a direct and easy way to stream our much-loved brands, series and talent," said Gabriel Sauerhoff, senior VP, digital distribution and commercial partnerships at Discovery. "The announcement of Discovery Plus on LG Smart TVs builds upon our existing relationship with a valued partner, and we look forward to the continued growth of Discovery Plus and reaching more fans around the world."

Discovery Plus is available in the U.S. starting at $4.99 per month, with an ad-free version available for $6.99 per month.

Hockey-puck-like streaming devices, along with HDMI sticks and dongles, are on their way out. And the leading U.S. smart TV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are about to “have their moment” with huge ad revenue growth.

That’s the conclusion of a new report from OTT-focused research company TV[R}EV, which predicts collective 4.5x growth in advertising coin for the three biggest U.S. smart TV OEMs, Samsung, LG and Vizio. With all three developing their own video operating systems that are natively integrated into their sets, TV[R]EV predicts their collective ad revenue will grow from $1.37 billion in 2021 to $6.17 billion in 2026. 

“All three OEMs have done a phenomenal job of updating their interfaces,” said TV[R]EV co-founder and lead analyst Alan Wolk. “People are starting to notice and realizing they don’t need a third-party dongle anymore. That’s going to drive up viewership numbers on smart TVs, especially as viewers buy the latest sets.”

As smart TV OEMs continue to improve the user experiences delivered by their interfaces and remote controls, and Roku continues to proliferate through its OEM relationships, TV[R]EV predicts that dongles will "disappear." 

According to TV[R]EV, Samsung says that 90% of its smart TV users don’t deploy an external streaming device. 

We did have some questions … which were answered as we read through the report. 

For one, why isn’t China’s TCL a “fourth Beatle” in the discussion of leading smart TV OEMs? And isn’t Roku, whose OS powers most TCL TVs, a major factor in the business of automatic content recognition (ACR)-based advanced advertising?

“We have chosen not to include Roku and TCL in the same category as Vizio, Samsung and LG,” Wolk wrote. "While they are most definitely helping the smart TV market to grow, they have a different business model —the interface is licensed, which means that TCL could choose not to renew the contract and/or hand it over to a rival. Given that Roku’s success is mostly limited to the U.S. market, this is a legitimate concern.”

Smart TV penetration into North American households will meet and surpass 90% by 2024, according to data just released by Strategy Analytics. 

The research company said that more than 665 million homes worldwide, around 34%, owned a smart TV at the end of 2020. This figure is set to increase to 1.1 billion homes globally, or 51%, by 2026. 

“Smart TV is a standard fit feature of most flat-panel TVs sold today and so smart TV household penetration will inevitably continue to grow as consumers replace old sets with new modern smart-enabled versions,” said Edouard Bouffenie, senior analyst, connected home devices, for Strategy Analytics. 

Notably, the research company said Korea's Samsung, which makes its own operating system, remains the top shipper of internet-connected televisions worldwide. However, China's TCL--which licenses Roku for many of the sets it ships--has usurped Korea's LG for the No. 2 position globally. 

“Smart TV usage is growing and is on a path towards becoming the preferred platform for accessing online video content,” added David Watkins, VP, media and intelligent home practice for Strategy Analytics. “However, the current connected TV landscape in the home is incredibly complex and consumers may have multiple devices in multiple configurations to choose from. Factor in different viewing habits amongst different members of the household and it’s clear that TV streaming platform providers face a significant challenge in driving engagement and ensuring that TV viewers remain on their platform and do not switch to another source. Smart TV OS providers must look to influence the TV viewer’s journey through improved content discovery capabilities, advanced analytics and advertising platforms and the development of an intuitive and user-friendly UI.”

FuboTV said its app has been launched by LG Electronics on its smart TVs.

LG Smart TV users are eligible for a free trial of fuboTV by scanning the QR code on the fubo TV app.

Also Read: Apple TV App Arrives on Android TV

The fuboTV app on LG sets running webOS lets users set up as many as six users per subscription and create a customized guide, putting favorite channels at the top of the list. User can also choose to record games played by favorite teams and fuboTV’s Watch Next feature makes it easier to binge series.

Also Read: LG Debuts Major WebOS Upgrade

The fuboTV app runs on LG’s OLD sets, which have self-lit pixels which can be individually controlled to produce perfect black levels, and ultra-sharp and realistic picture quality.

With streaming usage surging in regions like Europe and South America during the pandemic, the top U.S. connected TV device platforms, Roku and Amazon Fire TV, have seen their global market share slip.

According to the latest data released by Conviva, Roku saw a 3% drop in global connected TV “big screen” usage in the first quarter of 2021 vs. Q1 2020, and now stands at 30% of the worldwide market. Amazon Fire TV has slipped from 22% to 19% over that same span. 

Conversely, Korean smart TV markers Samsung and LG have seen increased usage in fast-emerging streaming markets—Samsung’s OS market share is up 3 points to 12% in the latest Conviva study, while LG’s usage grew from 4% to 6%.

Also notable: Google’s Android TV usage grew from 2% share to 5%.

While other research companies, including Strategy Analytics, measure streaming platform market share by counting device shipments, Conviva says its “proprietary sensor technology” is embedded into 3.3 billion streaming app downloads globally, “measuring in excess of 500 million unique viewers watching 180 billion streams per year with 1.8 trillion realtime transactions per day across more than 180 countries.”

The shifting platform pie comes as streaming usage has surged in places like South America, which saw usage increase by 240 this past year, as well as Africa (up 149%) and Europe (up 122%). 

In North America, where Roku and Fire TV are the dominant platforms, usage was only up 18%.

“While Roku captured a significant share of global viewing time, this prominence was primarily driven by North America, where it commanded 37% of big-screen viewing time in Q1 2021,” Conviva’s report stated. “In the second largest market for Roku, Europe, the company only accounted for 8% share of the big screen, trailing a number of other devices, including Samsung with 19%, Chromecast with 12%, Amazon Fire TV with 10%, LG TV with 10%, and Android TV with 9%.

Roku’s position is even worse in Africa, Asia, Oceania and South Africa, all of which it has 4% usage or less, Conviva added. 

South Korea’s LG Electronics — the No. 4 Seller of smart TVs to the U.S., controlling around 12% of the market — has made a major upgrade to the operating system controlling those sets. 

Version 6.0 of webOS will power LG’s OLED, QNED Mini LED, NanoCell and UHD smart TVs. The software will be paired with an upgrade to the remote control packaged with these sets, dubbed Magic Remote. 

The previous iteration of webOS featured a simple shortcuts bar with apps, HDMI destinations and other key data on the bottom of the screen, letting users see the programming as they worked the OS. Users could select, say, a specific streaming app from the shortcuts bar, and another row of data would appear, highlighting what was on that service.

ALSO READ: CW Launches App on Vizio SmartCast Platform

For webOS 6.0, the software now has a full, dedicated home screen, like most other OS platforms — a homogenization notably lamented by tech reviewers, who preferred the simplicity of the previous iteration. 

Programming recommendations sit above a horizontal row of favorite apps. Other horizontally configured lists, such as live TV picks, unfurl below the apps list. 

"The new home screen provides faster access to the most frequently used apps and streamlines content discovery with the ability to receive recommendations based on the user’s preferences and viewing history,” LG said in its announcement. 

WebOS 6.0 will support voice commands for both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. 

The new Magic Remote, meanwhile, includes dedicated buttons for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and LG’s curated channel. 

“The latest version of our user-friendly open TV platform webOS 6.0 represents the most significant update since we first introduced webOS in 2014,” said Park Hyoung-sei, president of LG Home Entertainment, in a statement. “With the new edition of webOS, LG is demonstrating its commitment of offering services, products and technologies that respond to the needs and wants of our valued customers.” — DF

Smart TV set maker LG Electronics has acquired a controlling stake in data and analytics company Alphonso for $80 million.

LG said it plans to create an ad platform for its TV using Alphonso software and services, including linear and over-the-top analytics, ad targeting, media planning and artificial intelligence capabilities.

Other TV set makers, including Samsung and Vizio, already have ad businesses. 

Alphonso will continue to operate as an independent business under its current brand and leadership based in Silicon Valley.

“Our investment in Alphonso is a key component of our digital transformation strategy focusing on AI, big data and cloud to fundamentally change how consumers interact with their devices,” said Park Hyoung-sei, president of the LG Home Entertainment Co. “With Alphonso’s TV data analysis capabilities, LG will be able to provide even more customized services and content to consumers and we are proud to welcome Alphonso to the LG family.” 

Alphonso said it last raised money in 2017, which it got $5.6 million in funding led by Manifest Investment Partners.

“LG and Alphonso have a shared vision for advancing the smart TV ecosystem through innovative software and services oriented toward modern new consumer experiences on one end, and highly flexible, lucrative advertising, planning, and measurement offerings for brands, agencies, and broadcasters on the other,” said Ashish Chordia, founder and CEO of Alphonso. “Becoming part of LG Electronics gives Alphonso the backing of one of the world’s leaders in home entertainment products, with access to a massive global inventory of connected TV screens. We can now maximize our mutual impact on the TV marketplace as we bring our products together and deliver immense value for the ecosystem.”

Korean electronics companies Samsung and LG are being sued in a Delaware federal court for patent infringement by DivX LLC, a San Diego, Calif.-based developer of video codec technology owned by an IP-focused subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank. 

The suit claims the electronics makers, and LG’s RealTek Semiconductor unit, have infringed on four DivX patents via video processing components found in products including smart TVs. (The suit was obtained by Law Street Media.)

Three of the four patents have been filed at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the last year. The older patent, which was filed in 2011, relates to “multiphase adaptive bitrate streaming.” The newer patents pertain to various video encoding techniques aimed at establishing secure, encrypted connections. 

DivX LLC is owned by Fortress Investment Group, an IP company purchased by SoftBank for $3.3 billion in 2018. Fortress controls more than 1,000 patents and has engaged in a litany of patent infringement lawsuits in recent years, involving companies including Netflix and Hulu, just to name a few defendants. 

According to Statista data (see below), Samsung is the top U.S. smart TV seller this year, controlling about 32% of the market. LG ranks fourth at 12$ market share. 

Smart TVs are becoming more popular than streaming boxes, sticks and dongles as the primary means for enjoying connected TV in the American home.

Smart TV adoption is up to 54% in the U.S., according to Parks Associates, vs. 47% a year ago. Meanwhile, U.S. adoption of HDMI-connected streaming devices from brands like Roku, Amazon and Apple has only reached around 42%.

According to Consumer Technology Association predictive data, the gap will get wider: Consumers are forecast to buy 35 million smart TVs this year, compared to 22 million streaming devices.

The emergence of Asian smart TV manufacturers as drivers of the global connected TV market has major implications for the media technology business. It comes as the biggest streaming platform operators, Roku and Amazon, have evolved to no longer be neutral platforms. They now compete against third-party streaming services that have traditionally programmed their platforms.

Within the last 90 days, two new, big media-backed streaming services, HBO Max and Peacock, have launched without support on Roku or Amazon Fire TV largely due to this negotiating tension. Together, Roku and Amazon control two-thirds of the U.S. connected TV market, but the quickening emergence of smart TV manufacturers threatens that dominance.

Korea’s Samsung, which integrates its own streaming OS into its smart TVs, was the U.S. market-share leader. But China’s TCL, which began selling feature-rich smart TVs at a significantly lower price only a couple of years ago, usurped Samsung in 2019 as the leading shipper of smart TVs to the U.S. market, according to IHS Markit.

TCL’s U.S. market share went from just 1% in 2017 to 27% last year. Its fast rise mirrors the proliferation of Roku, whose operating system TCL has used to power its smart TVs since 2014. On Wednesday, during its Q2 earnings call, Roku revealed that it reached 43 million active users in the second quarter, up 41% over the last year.

Indeed, one in three smart TVs sold in the U.S. is powered by Roku. But TCL is the catalyst.

In May, TCL threatened to upend Roku’s growth momentum, announcing a separate OS partnership with Google to begin selling smart TV’s powered by Android TV.

Since Google is known for sacrificing short-term revenue for long-term adoption goals, this partnership threatens to undercut Roku.

Roku’s dominance seems safe for now, with TCL also just announcing an expansion of its partnership to begin selling Roku-enabled smart TVs in Europe and South America this year.

But TCL is clearly driving Roku’s growth. And even more smart TV competition is on the horizon. For example, TiVo’s new parent company, Xperi, just announced that it plans to have smart-TV makers deploy new sets based on its TiVo Stream 4K platform as soon as late 2021.

Dish Network’s Sling TV remains the lowest priced full-feature virtual MVPD service, and one of the ways it has maintained that price point is by paying only a limited amount of its programming budget to broadcast retransmission licensing fees.

On Thursday, Sling TV announced yet another way its users can conveniently view their local channels free and over the air, rather than having them be part of the license Sling TV service offering.

Now, Sling TV subscribers who use 2020 LG smart TVs enabled with the webOS 5.0 operating system, and connected to an OTA antenna, can port their local channels directly into their Sling TV user interface. That means ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS appear alongside ESPN, CNN and the rest of the licensed cable channels carried in the Sling TV user interface.

With rival vMVPDs including YouTube TV now priced at $65 a month and up, Sling TV has kept its two programming tiers “Sling Blue” and “Sling Orange,” priced at $30 a month.

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Orange comes with ESPN, but no local broadcast networks. Blue has NBC and Fox in select markets. It has a slightly different, more news- and less-sports focused selection of cable networks, with no ESPN. ABC is available on both tiers as a $5-a-month “broadcast extra” add-on.

CBS locals aren’t licensed at all by Sling TV.

If Sling were to license ubiquitous local access to the major broadcasters on all of its tiers as, say, YouTube TV has, its price point would be a lot closer to $65 a month than $30.

Dish and Sling have been working on porting OTA channels into the app environment for several years. Last year, for instance, they debuted the AirTV 2, a device that connects to an antenna and sits on the user’s WiFi network. Local channels are then accessed through app from network-situated devices ranging from iOS smart phones to Roku streaming boxes and sticks.

Roku, meanwhile, is doing something similar with its fast-developing live/linear program guide, surfacing OTA channels alongside licensed live/linear networks within the app’s guide.

"The best value in TV today is Sling TV plus free live locals," said Jon Lin, VP of product for Sling TV. "We're making it easier than ever to watch free local channels directly within the Sling TV app, making 2020 LG Smart televisions an amazing value for those who appreciate a quality viewing experience, live local programming and OTT content from Sling TV.”

ViacomCBS’s Pluto TV streaming service said it reached a global distribution deal with LG Electronics. 

The agreement will make 99 of Pluto TV’s channels available later this year via the LG Channels experience on smart TVs made by LG

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We’re thrilled to be able to bring Pluto TV and our leadership in free, ad-supported streaming television to LG’s lineup of critically-acclaimed smart TVs,” states Brendon Thomas, VP, distribution, Pluto TV. “Through this partnership, we are excited to have another opportunity to accelerate our mission to entertain the planet by bringing an unparalleled lineup of programming, with instant discoverability through the LG Channels experience, to millions of LG users, for free.” 

Pluto TV is available now in the U.S. on 2020 LG models. Pluto TV will be available on sets made from 2016 to 2019 in the fall. Expansion plans for other areas of the world will be announced later, the companies said.

LG’s LG Channels give users 200 channels to watch for free.

“In the highly unusual times we are living in, people are turning to home entertainment in even larger numbers than ever before,” said Matt Durgin, director, North America Partnerships at LG Electronics. “With the debut of Pluto TV on LG smart TVs, our customers now have access to an even more expansive and diverse roster of free streaming content that will keep everyone entertained and engaged at home.”

NBCUniversal made a deal that puts its Peacock streaming service on smart TV sets made by Vizio and LG when it rolls out nationally on July 15.

When Peacock launches nationally it can be accessed through the LG Smart TVs Home Launcher or the built-in application on the Vizio SmartCast Home screen.

This follows an announcement Tuesday of an agreement with Google to support the Peacock app on Android mobile and Android TV OTT devices, as well as Chromecast OTT dongles and Chrommebook computers. 

“We want to provide fans of Peacock’s vast programming a choice of how and where they consume our content when we launch nationally next month, said Matt Bond, chairman of content distribution for NBCU. “Vizio and LG are great partners that will help provide these fans the viewing experience they’ve come to expect from us at NBCUniversal.”

When it launches nationally July 15, Peacock will offer a free tier featuring live channels and 7,500 hours of on-demand shows and movies. Peacock Premium will also be available for $4.99 per month with more than 15,000 hours of content. Viewers may also upgrade Peacock Premium to ad-free for an additional $5.00 per month. 

Peacock is currently available to cable and broadband subscribers of NBCU parent company Comcast. 

In addition to Google devices and Comcast cable set-tops, NBCU has already locked down Peacock device support for Apple's iOS, tvOS and Mac gadgets, as well as Microsoft's Xbox One. (Peacock will also be available for free to subscribers of Cox Communications's Contour platform, which is based on Comcast's X1 blueprint.)

NBCU has yet to announce device support deals with Roku and Amazon. 

Fox Corp.’s Tubi made a multi-year deal to have its mobile app pre-loaded onto LG phones in the U.S. and Canada.

The agreement should cover tens of millions of phones and marks the first AVOD service to be pre-loaded by LG on mobile devices.

“We’re excited to be the streaming video pioneer to be pre-loaded on premium LG devices,” said Andrea Clarke-Hall, VP of Business Development, Tubi. “Now more than ever is a time to make content accessible to everyone, and Tubi’s partnership with LG further delivers on our mission to democratize content.”

LG Phones with Tubi are available from T-Mobile now, and soon from MetroPCS and US Cellular. In Canada, Rogers, Bell and Telus will offer the LG phones with Tubi.

“Our partnership with Tubi is a great opportunity for LG customers to experience streaming content on their smartphones,” said Yongsuk Kim, VP of strategy, LG Mobile. “While taking advantage of the LG Dual Screen and 5G on the all-new LG V60 ThinQ 5G, this venture reinforces LG’s mobile phones commitment to meet the increasing demand for entertainment consumption on handheld devices.”

Tubi is also available on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, Cox Contour, and on OTT devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and soon on Hisense TVs globally. Consumers can also watch Tubi content on the web at http://www.tubi.tv/. 

LG Electronics has struck a deal with Hollywood’s digital locker of choice, Movies Anywhere, to provide access to more than 7,900 movie and TV show titles on webOS-enabled smart TV models made in 2017 and beyond. 

WebOS is the user interface that posers LG smart TVs. (Users must have version 3.5 or later).

Movies Anywhere is the digital locker that lets purchasers of movies and shows from Disney, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. access films bought from a wide variety of digital stories in one centralized location. 

Participating movie sellers include Apple, Amazon, Comcast Xfinity and FandangoNow, Walmart/Vudu, Google Play, Microsoft and Verizon. 

LG smart TVs and webOS already support a wide variety of popular OTT apps, including Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Apple TV. 

LG is the second biggest manufacturer of TVs in the world, controlling 12% of the global market, according to Technavio.

CBS and LG Electronics have made a deal that adds the CBS All Access streaming service to LG’s smart TV platform.

The integration means viewers with LG smart sets don’t need an additional streaming device to watch CBS All Access programming.

“Smart TVs and connected devices continue to be a significant driver of CBS All Access viewership,” said Rob Gelick, Executive VP and general manager, CBS Entertainment Digital. “Bringing CBS All Access to the popular LG webOS Smart TVs introduces more consumers to the fantastic offering of live programming, original series, CBS hits, classic series and so much more that the service provides.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.

CBS All Access costs $5.99 with limited commercials and $9.99 a month commercial free. 

Consumers with LG smart TVs running webOS 4.0 and higher from 2018, 2019 and 2020 can find CBS All Access at the LG App Store.

Programming on CBS All Access includes original series such as Star Trek: Discovery, The Good Fight, No Activity, Tell Me a Story, The Twilight Zone and Why Women Kill. Upcoming originals include Star Trek: Picard, Interrogation and The Stand. 

AVOD platform Xumo announced renewal of its agreement to integrate an enterprise version of its streaming service onto LG smart TVs in the U.S. and Canada.

The Irvine, California-based streaming company’s service is also now powering the LG Channels platform in France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Mexico.

Related: Xumo Expands to Comcast X1, Android TV

LG’s so-called “Channel Plus” platform, which includes Xumo’s enterprise service, is available on webOS-enabled 2012-2018 LG smart TVs. It has been rebranded for 2019 LG smart TVs as “LG Channels.” It’s currently available in 45 million U.S. households.

Xumo has powered Channel Plus for the last three years, offering 180 free-to-consumer, curated channels across 12 programming genres. Hours streamed on the service have been increasing at a clip of around 10% a month, Xumo said.

“Our initial and ongoing partnership with LG has laid the groundwork for Xumo to deliver what has become the next generation of television programming,” noted Colin Petrie-Norris, CEO at Xumo, in a statement. “We’re thrilled to continue powering a wealth of streaming content to not only existing Channel Plus viewers in the U.S. and Canada, but to consumers the world over who demand wide choice and premium, live and on-demand streaming entertainment.”

Comcast has announced the availability of its set-top-free Xfinity Stream service on LG smart TVs.

The Xfinity Stream app lets users watch live, on-demand and cloud-DVR pay TV service, delivering most of the features found in Cocmast’s flagship X1 experience, without a proprietary set-top, save for key elements like Voice Remote. Xfinity Stream relies on streamed content delivered over managed network. 

The app is now usable on LG 4K Ultra HD and HD smart TVs made from 2017-2019 and running the webOS operating system.

The debut of the LG app expands access for Xfinity Stream, which had previously been available for Roku connected devices and enabled smart TVs, as well as Samsung smart TVs.

The LG app was long in the making. In 2017, LG joined Comcast’s Xfinity TV Partner Program, which develops apps for Comcast’s service that eschew set-tops. 

In the battle for OTT supremacy, controlling the operating system of a smart TV is called “pole position.”

Whether it’s Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung’s Tizen or Android TV, once a buyer takes a new flat panel out of the box, they tend to most often use the OS native to their television, regardless as to whatever connected device is plugged into HDMI 1.

And one of the unintended consequences of the Trump Administration’s trade war with China has been a major shakeup in terms of which OTT ecosystem gets into the most living rooms.

According to a report released over the summer by research firm IHS Markit, 89% of smart TVs sold in the U.S. are smart TVs. And of the smart TVs sold in the U.S. in the first quarter, 37% were powered by Roku, which was up from 23% in the fourth quarter.

Roku surpasses the previous market leader, Tizen, which is the operating system powering Korean consumer electronics brand Samsung, as well as webOS, which belongs to another Korean brand, LG. Roku also surpassed Amazon Fire TV and Android TV.

The Roku OS primarily powers smart TVs made in China, such as TCL. With the Trump Administration upping tariffs on Chinese-made goods like TVs to 15%, effective in the fourth quarter, IHS Chinese manufactures upped their shipments to the U.S. in the first half of the year.

"The boom in Chinese TV sales put Roku at the top of the North American market for the first time since the third quarter of 2017," said Paul Gray, research director, IHS Markit. "Roku outstripped Samsung’s Tizen and LG’s webOS because of the popularity of the low-priced Chinese smart TVs.”

Beyond Trump’s trade war with China, the smart TV market is about to get even more complex. This month, China’s OnePlus—a company widely known in the smart phone market—will release a new smart TV line that, among other premium features, will include eight speakers. The new devices will run on a customized version of Android TV. 

Hollywood’s biggest filmmakers and studios don’t like what the motion smoothing feature in modern Ultra High Definition (UHD) TVs is doing to their films. And with the help of trade group the UHD Alliance, they’ve banded together and convinced leading consumer electronics makers to create a feature that automatically turns off motion smoothing for movies.

On Tuesday, shortly after the UHD Alliance hosted a star-studded press event to announce the coalition in Los Angeles, Vizio said that it would enable the so-called “Filmmaker Mode” in its 2020 smart TV collection.

LG and Panasonic have also committed to support the standard, which is designed as to not require the user to enter menu settings. Filmmaker Mode can be triggered automatically by metadata in the content, or manually via a dedicated button on the remote. 

“Current TVs use advanced video processing capabilities to offer consumers a broad range of options in viewing various types of content, ranging from sports to video games,” reads a press release issued by the UHD Alliance, a coalition of 4K technology stakeholders. “Filmmaker Mode will allow viewers to enjoy a more cinematic experience on their UHD TVs when watching movies by disabling all post-processing (e.g. motion smoothing, etc.) so the movie or television show is displayed as it was intended by the filmmaker, preserving the correct aspect ratios, colors and frame rates.”

The UHD Alliance attached a gaggle of big-name Hollywood directors to its initiative, including Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryand Coogler, Patty Jenkins, Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan. Executives from Universal Pictures and Amazon Prime Video were also quoted in the coalition’s press release.

“Most people today are watching these classic films at home rather than in movie theaters, making Filmmaker Mode of particular importance when presenting these films which have specifications unique to being shot on film,” Scorsese said in the announcement. 

FuboTV’s new 24-hour sports channel, Fubo Sports Network, will now be available on Samsung and LG smart TVs.

The fledgling sports channel will be available within the the Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels OTT ecosystems starting today. According to Statisa, market leader Samsung and LG controlled half of the U.S. smart TV market in 2018.

Last month, start-up FuboTV soft-launched Fubo Sports Network, a digital channel that it hopes will some day become a full-fledged, 24-hour network devoted to event coverage and studio analysis, similar to how Cheddar, recently acquired by Altice USA, gestated around financial news.

But until today, the channel has only been available in the basic tier of virtual pay TV service, FuboTV, as well as AVOD platform Xumo.

Related: FuboTV Seeks to Follow Cheddar Playbook with Sports Network Launch

“It’s still early days for Fubo Sports Network, and I’m pleased partners like Samsung and Xumo are embracing the power of the network to reach sports fans,” said David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, fuboTV. “Our goals for fubo Sports Network are ambitious yet simple: We plan to deliver sports programming 24/7 that’s a bit edgy, always fun and with a clear point of view, and make it free to sports fans on multiple platforms and on every device.”

FuboTV said 90% of viewing of its vMVPD platform occurred on connected TVs in the second quarter.

The company said “talent-driven” original programming will debut on Fubo Sports Network “in the coming weeks.”

“We’re thrilled to expand the reach of fubo Sports Network to LG Channels powered by Xumo and Samsung TV Plus so quickly after our soft launch just a few weeks ago,” said Min Kim, vice president, business development, fuboTV. “24/7 live networks are a natural fit on smart TVs and, with our viewers wanting sports content nonstop, we're excited to bring the fubo Sports Network free to consumers on two of the largest smart TV platforms."

About four months after announcing its “Recommended TV” program at CES, Netflix this week revealed the identity of the models that made the cut, based on Netflix’s evaluation of criteria that covered areas such as streaming performance (how rapidly the apps launch, resume and playback video), ease of access to apps, and features such as “instant on” – how quickly a TV can wake up and display its  menu of apps.

TVs that make the grade get the “Netflix Recommended TV” label at retail. This video goes into some of the details, but the overall goal of the program is to tell consumers which models deliver a “superior smart TV experience,” at least when viewed through the Netflix lens.

These models made Netflix's first cut:

-LG 4K UHD TVs w/ webOS 2.0

-Sony Android Full HDTVs

-Roku TVs from Hisense, Insignia, and TCL

“We’re particularly excited about the Instant On functionality supported by Roku TVs and the Sony Android Full HDTVs,” Brady Gunderson, Netflix’s director of product development;  and David Holland, the company’s director of business development, noted in the blog post announcing the selections. “These TVs wake up quickly, remembering where you left off, similar to how smartphones and tablets behave today.”

They also liked some “optimizations” on the LG 4K model that allowed for the quick launch of Netflix and an interface that lets users toggle easily between live TV and OTT.

Netflix, they added, plans to add more smart TV models to recommended list over the next couple of months.

While adding the Netflix label might help some consumers make a buying decision in a market that is flooded with smart TVs, it’ll take some time before we know whether this distinction helps these TV makers move the needle at retail compared to attributes such as price, screen size, and whether the TV supports 4K/Ultra HD video.