According to recently released data from our Consumer Technology Monitor™, 50% of US households with broadband access, now have Smart TVs. This number is up 8.6% from the previous year and 45% over the past five years. As one would expect, Millennial households are the top adopters at 59%, followed by Gen X homes at 49%, and Boomers & Seniors at 35%.

When asked about usage, 80% stated they are accessing internet services more often then they have in the past. Specifically, there has been a significant increase in viewing streaming-based services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and others.  Over the past three years, there has been a 65% increase in the average number of minutes spent on streaming services. Today, the average adult spends 41 minutes a day viewing content compared to 25 minutes three years ago.

Other activities that adults do are 40% play interactive video games, 35% listen to music via apps like Pandora or Spotify, 20% look up information on the internet, and 20% use voice-based commands to control features.

It will be interesting to see how these trends evolve. Many streaming-based services are coming to the marketplace, and Apple is entering the gaming space with Apple Arcade. Is this the start of the end of set-top boxes and gaming systems? Time will tell.