San Francisco, Jul 25 (IANS): More than 665 million homes worldwide owned a Smart TV by the end of 2020 (34 per cent of global households) which is set to rise to 51 per cent by 2026 when Smart TV ownership will reach 1.1 billion homes, a new report has showed.

The sales of Smart TVs grew by 7.4 per cent in 2020 to reach 186 million units, accounting for 79 per cent of all Flat Panel TVs sold, according to Strategy Analytics.

Samsung was the leading Smart TV manufacturer in terms of annual sales units for the ninth straight year in 2020 while TCL climbed above LG and into second place for the first time.

"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.

"While many have decided to partner with the likes of Google's Android TV and Roku in order to avoid the ongoing costs of maintaining their own platform, several brands including Samsung, Vizio and LG are going it alone and are looking to capitalise on the fast growing Connected TV advertising business," he explained.

The Smart TV market continues to coalesce around a handful of TV streaming platforms or operating systems.

Samsung's Tizen leads the way but major third-party software platforms such as Android TV and Roku TV OS have made strong gains in recent years.

The top four Smart TV operating systems accounted for over 50 per cent of total sales in 2020, up from 33 per cent in 2015.

"Smart TV usage is growing and is on a path towards becoming the preferred platform for accessing online video content," said David Watkins, VP, Media and Intelligent Home Practice.

"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," Watkins added.