Smart TVs sit at the intersection of household hardware, television viewing and streaming subscriptions. The available evidence shows a large but changing installed base, continued importance of the TV screen, sharp age differences in viewing, and substantial pressure on subscription value and device waste. The measures below cover different populations and periods, so ownership, screen viewing and service adoption should not be treated as interchangeable.
Contents
- Ownership, capability and energy use
- UK viewing scale and streaming mix
- Age differences in television use
- U.S. TV-screen platform shares
- Subscriptions, prices and churn
- Waste, recycling and measurement limits
Ownership, capability and energy use
The U.S. installed base contained an estimated 285 million televisions in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Energy report Display Energy Use in Homes: Ownership, Power, Usage, and Trends. This is an installed-base estimate, not a count of sets sold during the year. Among U.S. owner households, the average was 2.4 televisions. The installed base was 19% below its 2010 peak, indicating that a large population of screens can coexist with a long-term decline in the number of sets in use.
The composition of that base also illustrates why “television” and “smart TV” are not identical categories. LCD or LED sets represented 90% of U.S. televisions in 2020. The average screen measured 42 inches, compared with 39 inches in 2017. Smart- or connected-capable televisions accounted for 58% of the installed base. That figure groups smart and connected capability together and does not isolate particular operating systems or guarantee that a household uses the built-in apps.
| U.S. installed-base measure | 2020 result | Scope or limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Televisions in homes | 285 million | Installed-base estimate, not sales |
| Televisions per owner household | 2.4 | TV-owning households |
| LCD or LED share | 90% | Installed-base composition |
| Smart- or connected-capable share | 58% | Does not isolate operating systems |
| Average screen size | 42 inches | Installed-base average |
Energy use depends on both the hardware and how long it is operating. U.S. televisions averaged 81 watts in active mode in 2020, and televisions were on for an average of 5.8 hours per day. The Department of Energy source estimates that televisions used about 54 terawatt-hours of electricity in U.S. homes that year. The usage figure was measured during the COVID-19 period, and actual power draw varies by model and settings.
Efficiency improved over the longer period covered by the same evidence. Average LCD television power density fell 80% between 2005 and 2015 across more than 9,000 models in the U.S. California Energy Commission and ENERGY STAR model databases. Those model averages were not sales-weighted, so the result describes the models represented in the databases rather than the exact change in the average television owned by households.
UK viewing scale and streaming mix
Ofcom’s Media Nations: UK 2024 reports Barb as-viewed measurement for people aged 4 and over. In 2023, UK individuals in that population watched 271 minutes of in-home video per day. The TV set accounted for 84% of total in-home video viewing, but that is a screen-route measure across TV sets and other in-home devices, not a smart-TV ownership rate.
The daily mix shows that connected viewing complements rather than simply replaces traditional categories. Live TV contributed 109 minutes per day, recorded playback 25 minutes, broadcaster video-on-demand 20 minutes, SVoD/AVoD 38 minutes, and video-sharing platforms 49 minutes. Ofcom’s SVoD/AVoD figure excludes viewing of NOW as described in the source notes, so it should not be read as a complete measure of every subscription service.
| UK in-home video category | Minutes per person per day, 2023 | Population |
|---|---|---|
| All in-home video | 271 | Age 4+ |
| Live TV | 109 | Age 4+ |
| Recorded playback | 25 | Age 4+ |
| Broadcaster video-on-demand | 20 | Age 4+ |
| SVoD/AVoD | 38 | Age 4+ |
| Video-sharing platforms | 49 | Age 4+ |
The TV set was also an important route for online video. The share of YouTube viewing occurring on TV sets in UK homes rose from 29% in 2022 to 34% in 2023. This does not establish that the viewers owned smart TVs: it identifies where the viewing occurred, and the route can include connected devices attached to a television.
Age differences in television use
The UK averages conceal substantial differences by age. In 2023, viewers aged 16–24 watched 203 minutes of in-home video per day, including 93 minutes with video-sharing platforms. Video-sharing platforms represented 46% of their in-home video time. Among viewers aged 25–34, SVoD/AVoD contributed 65 minutes per day and represented 28% of in-home video time.
Older groups recorded more total viewing and more live television in the Ofcom/Barb measures. Viewers aged 55–64 watched 329 minutes of in-home video per day. Live TV accounted for 240 minutes per day among viewers aged 65–74 and 281 minutes among viewers aged 75 and over. These are age-group averages, not forecasts of how any individual household will use a smart TV.
Weekly broadcast reach moved in the opposite direction for younger audiences. Ofcom’s Gen Z swerves traditional broadcast TV as less than half tune in weekly reports that 48% of UK people aged 16–24 watched broadcast TV in an average week in 2023, down from 76% in 2018. The corresponding weekly reach among children aged 4–15 was 55% in 2023, down from 81% in 2018. Ofcom defines these figures as reaching at least 15 consecutive minutes in an average week, so they are not the same as minutes watched or ownership.
U.S. TV-screen platform shares
Nielsen’s The Gauge measures content consumed through a television screen. For the interval June 30–July 27, 2025, streaming accounted for 47.3% of U.S. TV viewing time. Broadcast TV represented 18.4%, while cable represented 22.2%. These shares describe viewing time through the TV screen, not the percentage of households with a smart TV or the number of streaming subscriptions.
The same July 2025 measurement reported a 28% increase in U.S. broadcast-news viewing. The MLB Home Run Derby averaged 5.3 million viewers and was the top cable telecast in July 2025. Together, these results show why a connected television can serve several roles: streaming applications, broadcast programming and cable-delivered events can all contribute to the time measured on the screen.
Deloitte’s 2025 press release, A Competition for Consumer Attention: Are Social Platforms Overtaking Traditional Studios in Entertainment and Advertising?, provides a separate U.S. survey perspective. Among 3,595 consumers aged 14 and over surveyed in October 2024, respondents identified SVOD as their most frequently used paid media-and-entertainment service at a 53% rate. Among surveyed U.S. SVOD subscribers, 54% had at least one ad-supported paid service. Among surveyed Gen Z respondents, 56% said social-media content was more relevant than traditional TV shows and movies; that measures perceived relevance, not viewing time.
Subscriptions, prices and churn
Deloitte’s 2025 Digital Media Trends reports that 49% of surveyed U.S. consumers had a cable or satellite TV subscription in 2025, down from 63% three years earlier. Among cable or satellite subscribers, 43% cited live news as a reason to pay and 41% cited sports. Those reasons were not mutually exclusive.
The survey fielded in October 2024 also captured different cancellation intentions by generation. Within the surveyed cable subscribers, 23% of Gen Z respondents and 18% of millennial respondents intended to terminate within 12 months, compared with 8% of boomers. These are intentions, not completed cancellations. Live-streaming TV subscriptions had remained around 40% of U.S. households for the previous two years in the study; this was a reported historical level, not a forecast.
Reported monthly spending was higher for cable or satellite than for the surveyed SVOD group. U.S. cable or satellite subscribers reported an average of $125 per month. SVOD subscribers reported an average of $69 per month across four paid services, while live-streaming TV subscribers reported spending 35% less per month than cable or satellite subscribers. All three are self-reported comparisons and should not be treated as universal prices.
Content preferences help explain the trade-off. Forty-three percent of surveyed U.S. Gen Z and millennial consumers said they would pay more for streaming subscriptions with live sports, and 27% of U.S. consumers said live sports were the content they spent the most time watching on SVOD. At the same time, 41% said SVOD content was not worth its price in 2025, up five percentage points from 2024. Separately, Deloitte’s press release reported that 39% of surveyed U.S. consumers had cancelled at least one paid SVOD service in the six months before the October 2024 survey.
Waste, recycling and measurement limits
Television-specific disposal rates are not established by the supplied evidence. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Durable Goods: Product-Specific Data places televisions inside broader categories. In 2018, durable goods generated 57.1 million U.S. tons of municipal solid waste, representing 19.5% of total U.S. municipal-solid-waste generation. The category includes consumer electronics and many non-TV products.
The United States recycled 10.6 million tons of durable goods in 2018, a durable-goods recycling rate of 18.5%. Landfills received 37.4 million tons of durable goods. EPA also estimated that 2.7 million tons of consumer-electronics goods were generated in U.S. municipal solid waste that year, but consumer electronics includes televisions and other products. None of these figures is a smart-TV recycling rate.
These boundaries matter when interpreting smart TV statistics. DOE figures describe a U.S. installed base and energy use; Ofcom figures are UK Barb as-viewed measures; Nielsen measures U.S. viewing through a television screen; Deloitte figures are U.S. survey responses; and EPA figures cover broad waste categories. Ownership, capability, viewing time, subscriptions, spending and disposal therefore answer different questions, even when they all describe the modern television ecosystem.