it is low pass By Junko RoettgersA newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of technology and entertainment, syndicated exclusively for The Verge Customers once a week.
Every year, TV manufacturers flock to CES in Las Vegas to show off bigger, brighter, and better-looking displays. And every year, those same companies use the show to throw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall as they try to figure out how to sell those big TV sets to consumers busy watching TikTok videos on their phones.
In recent years, tv’s got cameras For video chat and AI-powered workouts. They became cloud-powered game consoles, smart home hubs, and art displays. Two years ago, Samsung also wanted to make people believe that their television would A great telehealth platform – for pets.
I’m in Las Vegas this week, walking the show floor and talking to industry executives to find out what’s next for TV. Not in terms of picture quality and quantum dot technology, but in terms of the apps that run on these devices, the platforms that make them work, and the bells and whistles that manufacturers resort to to get us to watch from our phones.
TV sales are stagnant, so everyone is betting on what’s going on
The last few years have been tough for the TV industry. Covid disrupted supply chains, tariff threats created a lot of uncertainty, and fears of an economic recession have forced consumers to reconsider large purchases. As a result, TV sales have stagnated. Global TV shipments declined 0.6 percent year on year in Q3, according to omdia,
In that environment, many TV makers are betting on what works, which is why everyone is making art TV now. SAMSUNG invented the category with its Frame TV almost a decade ago, and crossed 1 million In Art TV’s annual sales in 2021. Since then, Hisense, TCL and many others have copied the concept. Just this week, Amazon Pur: It has its own Artline TV at CES.
“TVs are often a big part of the rooms they’re in,” says Aidan Marcus, vice president of Fire TV, when asked about the success of the category. “I think these appliances look great in those rooms. They become part of the room’s furniture.”
Amazon also came to Vegas to show off its newly revamped Fire TV user interface, which will launch on a bunch of Amazon-made devices next month and expand to additional TVs later this year. This is the first major revamp of Amazon’s TV interface in years, and a lot has changed in that time. Consumers are subscribing to more streaming services than ever before, and companies like Amazon keep adding their own features on top of that.
“We’re adding things in terms of capabilities,” says Marcus. “Sports, art, music. (It’s) hard to organize.” He explains that the new UI is meant to remove that complexity.
TV makers love AI
As streaming becomes more and more complex, how do you keep TV simple? It’s a question many TV manufacturers are trying to tackle, and the industry is increasingly looking to AI for answers. For example, the latest version of Google’s Gemini on TV not only tells you what to watch next after you’ve finished a show, but also patiently explains why you should watch. separation If asked to do so. Alexa Plus lets you add titles to your watch list, and LG even turns viewing recommendations on your TV’s homescreen over to a family member based on voice recognition.
But TV makers’ use of AI doesn’t stop there. Samsung used it first look event sunday night To picture a vision of a future in which you’ll ask your TV for anything from sports predictions to recipes — recipes you’ll share with the displays in the kitchen, because who needs cooking instructions in the living room. Hisense demonstrated an AI integration that identifies products displayed at select shows, and then makes ordering from your phone simple with QR codes.
Amazon showed off Alexa Plus on TVs, complete with the ability to instantly access Prime Video movie scenes by describing them. And Gemini’s new features also include the ability to create custom “deep dives” on a topic and, for example, generate age-appropriate explanations of the solar system for your kids.
Google also emphasized generic AI by bringing both Veo and Nano Banana to TVs. In one demo I saw, someone asked VO to make a video from a photo of a woman on the beach. After giving the signal, we had to wait patiently for about two minutes, only to see it strangely come to life for a full eight seconds. Why anyone would want to do this on their TV is beyond me, but the company clearly thinks there is a use case for it.
Many of the new AI features shown at CES also suffered from severe screen real estate degradation. Frequently, booth personnel would ask the TV a question about something happening on the screen, and the video would be cut short, with sports scores, trivia facts and other information taking up precious screen space. As noticeable as this was on the larger 70-inch demo display, I imagine it would be a nightmare on a screen sized 50 inches or less.
Hisense inadvertently made that case with an internally developed prototype AI agent that was capable of displaying each player’s statistics during a soccer game. This required so much screen real estate that the company even built a prototype TV sized 21:9 for the showcase. Here’s another idea: Why not let people look at the same information on their phones as they have for years?
real killer app for tv
Some of the AI integrations shown off in Vegas were certainly quite useful. Gemini will let you change display settings on supported TVs, and Samsung and others also use AI to adjust sound on the fly. But these enhancements are largely in service of actual TV viewing, not a distraction from it. This may ultimately be the best use of AI on TV: something that’s working in the background to help you get more out of the onscreen action.
It’s a lesson that also rings true for TV makers and their eternal quest to find out what’s next for their products. Certainly, TVs are increasingly becoming part of the smart home, and cloud gaming may have a place on the big screen. But what people actually want from these big screens is often quite prosaic: “Primarily, consumers are using their televisions to watch content,” says Chris Hamdorf, TCL’s sales and marketing executive. “That’s where most of the usage is.”
In other words: Even in the age of AI, the real killer app for TV might just be watching TV.
