On mobile, the operating system race finished years ago. iOS and Android split the phones between them. On the TV, the race is still running and that was the premise of the keynote I gave last week at Google’s Playtime event in the UK, to a room of app developers.
The clearest signal came in June, when Fox agreed to buy Roku for $22 billion. That money buys Roku’s home screen, which by Roku’s own count reaches more than 50% of US broadband homes. It’s the first thing those viewers see when they switch the TV on every night.
Europe starts on the TV too. According to RTL AdAlliance’s Living Room Study, 58% of Europeans begin their viewing on the CTV home screen. In the video I walk through who is fighting to own it: Sky licensing Entertainment OS to other TV makers and telcos, Telekom’s Magenta teaming up with Hisense, and TiVo, Titan and Red Squid launching independent operating systems.
Getting picked is the hard part. Samsung, with 70 million active TVs in Europe, says viewers used 5 apps on average in 2025.
I also cover why the company holding the credit card sells both the subscription and the ad, why Walmart bought Vizio and why I think Apple TV has failed on the big screen (Apple should have been the one buying Roku).
The home screen is today’s fight. However, the next one is already underway and it lies in the answer your TV gives when you ask it what to watch.
That’s it for today but before you go:
