Web browsing and other smart TV services in decline, says uWand

Watching catch-up TV from smart televisions is on the rise, but other services like gaming, internet browsing and watching video clips are “gradually decreasing in popularity,” according to a new study.

The report, by remote control technology firm Philips uWand, claims that the adoption of internet-based catch up services increased by 13 percentage points – from 48% in 2012 to 61% in 2014.

However, despite widespread adoption of social networking, the use of these services on smart TVs decreased fell from 30% in 2012 to 10% in 2014, according to uWand’s Smart TV Report – a survey of US professionals working across the TV, telecommunications, and technology industries.

Similarly, time spend browsing the internet on smart TVs was found to have decreased from 44% in 2012 to 25% in 2014, while gaming on smart TVs dropped from 28% in 2012 to 12% in 2014.

“Even though smart TV sales are on the rise, users are still turning to other devices to watch online content that is readily available on TV. But this does not represent a lack of interest,” said Navin Natoewal, general manager at Philips uWand.

“As many viewers currently have to rely on button-based remotes instead of direct pointing control, it’s no surprise they prefer to use other devices for more complex smart TV services like gaming. The user experience is at the heart of service interaction, which explains this decline.”