The emerging question of whether people buy smart TVs and then make them dumb—in effect, using them as TVs and not Internet-connected TVs—has been looked into by research firm Parks Associates.

"The percentage of smart TV owners connecting the device to the Internet has steadily increased from approximately 40 percent in 2010 to 56 percent today," Pietro Macchiarella, a research analyst with Parks Associates said in a news release.

Odds of this happening are also more likely since, the report found, the number of Internet-connectable TVs shipped is going from 1 percent in 2008 to over 45 percent in 2012.

The news release pointed out three report findings that could leave traditional pay TV providers scrambling to find answers:

• 75 percent of smart TV owners who connect to the Internet—as the qualifiers go—watch on-demand online movies at least once a month; in 2011 the number was 57 percent.
• 71 percent of that same group watch online TV shows at least once a month as opposed to 51 percent in 2011.
• 30 percent watch movies and 32 percent watch TV shows on a "near-daily" basis.

"Smart TVs have the potential to be both a threat and an opportunity for pay TV providers" who can use them as new conduits for their own online content in competition with OTT players like Netflix," said Brett Sappington, Parks' research director. "In addition, pay TV providers can potentially use smart TVs to lower subscriber CPE costs, an important consideration in a highly competitive market."

From the article, "Research: more people using smart TVs to watch online video" by Jim Barthold.

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