Parks Associates released data this week showing the market share in the increasingly important category of smart TVs. 

According to Parks' Consumer Insights Dashboard, Samsung remains the top brand in the category in the United States, followed by LG, going by the metric of "smart TVs purchased or received in the past six months." Sony has shown major growth, overtaking Vizio for the third spot, while TCL is fifth. 

"Samsung continues to lead smart TV adoption, and it currently comprises over one-fourth of all consumers' primary smart TVs in the US," said Paul Erickson, Parks Associates' director of research, said in the release. 

"While smart-TV adoption is at all-time highs, there may be short-term saturation and conservatism in effect while consumer smart-TV purchasing settles following dramatic increases in 2020. Sony still managed to grow in purchasing - despite downturns for the traditional top three brands - which may be related to its first-mover release of new Google TV Bravia models over 2021."

Parks also noted that smart TVs, as opposed to streaming boxes or other devices, are now the main way people consume streaming content. Per the survey, 56 percent of respondents said that they own a smart TV. 

"This is notable given that the aggregate trend across categories has been a very gradual decline in overall usage since 2017," Erickson said in the release. "Smart TVs have become the most-important media centerpiece for the home, and their prominence offers the industry numerous integration opportunities for smart home and connected health ecosystems."

Parks Associates will be presenting at the NAB conference in May, where it will host a Future of Video session called  "OTT Churn: Marketing and Retention Strategies" The session, Parks said, will "examine the role of the smart TV in driving consumption and subscriptions for video services as well as strategies to keep viewers engaged." This is especially a high priority for many in the business, following Netflix's announcement Tuesday of its first subscriber loss in a decade. 

Another recent survey, from WiFi provider Plume Cloud and cited by Fierce Video, found that "data consumption" from smart TVs jumped 31 percent on Super Bowl Sunday in February, compared to that of a typical Sunday. Sony devices, Plume said, showed the largest increase, followed by Samsung, LG, and Apple.

"We are very excited to conclude that, despite with the vast number of more personalized small screen streaming devices we see across Plume-powered networks, our data suggests that major sporting events are still about the big screen social experience for many smart home users," said Bill McFarland, CTO of Plume, in a statement. 

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters.