They follow content rather than platforms, not platforms
Across more than 70 million Samsung smart TVs in Europe, a quiet but profound shift has completed itself: viewers no longer choose platforms, they chase content wherever it lives. Samsung Ads' 2026 Behind the Screens report captures an audience in perpetual motion, averaging five apps per household and generating 18.4 billion app launches in a single year. The television set has become less a destination than a crossroads, and the moment of stillness — the home screen, visited more than five times daily — is now the last reliable point of contact between a scattered audience and those who wish to reach them.
- No single streaming service, broadcast network, or gaming platform can claim the full CTV audience anymore — fragmentation is no longer a trend but the permanent terrain.
- Younger viewers are accelerating the disruption hardest, using 21% more apps than older cohorts and following content with zero loyalty to the platforms that carry it.
- The audience has split into distinct tribes: 27% stream exclusively and never touch linear TV, while 24% of TVs account for 81% of all traditional broadcast viewing.
- The home screen has emerged as the one fixed point in the chaos — accessed 5+ times daily and used by nearly 9 in 10 viewers as their primary content discovery moment.
- Advertisers are being forced to abandon channel-by-channel logic entirely, replacing it with holistic planning that maps audience behavior across the full fragmented ecosystem.
The television in the living room is no longer a television — it is a portal. Samsung Ads' 2026 Behind the Screens report, drawn from over 70 million Samsung smart TVs across Europe, reveals an audience that has stopped thinking in terms of platforms altogether. Viewers no longer decide to "watch Netflix" or "watch linear TV"; they decide what they want to watch and go find it, wherever it lives. Last year, the average household accessed five different apps on their TV, contributing to 18.4 billion total app launches — an 8 percent increase on the prior year.
Younger viewers are leading the shift most dramatically, using 21 percent more apps than older audiences and rotating between subscription and free platforms with equal ease. The report makes clear that no single viewing environment captures the full audience: 27 percent of TVs stream exclusively and never watch traditional broadcast, while just 24 percent of TVs account for 81 percent of all linear viewing. The audience has fractured into distinct segments, each with its own rhythm.
What has held its value in this fragmented landscape is the home screen itself — the central hub viewers return to more than five times a day before deciding what to watch next. Nearly nine in ten use it as their primary discovery point. Subscription habits have reorganised around this reality: 60 percent of households maintain multiple services year-round for distinct purposes, while 18 percent rotate between platforms depending on available content.
Gamers stand out as a particularly engaged segment — 88 percent more likely than average to follow home screen recommendations, and 135 percent more likely to research advertised products. Seventy-two percent of them watch TV in groups, confounding assumptions about solitary play. Meanwhile, viewing still peaks at 7 p.m. across both streaming and linear formats, suggesting that prime time endures as a shared social experience even as everything around it fragments.
For advertisers, the old logic of buying time on a single channel or platform no longer reflects how audiences actually move. As Samsung Ads' Director of Analytics and Insights Matt Bryan observed, fragmentation is now the baseline. The opportunity lies not in recapturing platform loyalty — that era has passed — but in understanding the full arc of an audience's journey and meeting them at the one moment attention is still briefly concentrated: the home screen, before it scatters again.
The television set in your living room is no longer a television. It's a portal. Walk into any home with a Samsung smart TV, and what you'll find is not someone watching a channel, but someone navigating—constantly, fluidly, without loyalty to any single service. This is the picture that emerges from Samsung Ads' 2026 Behind the Screens report, a sweeping analysis of viewing patterns across more than 70 million Samsung smart TVs in Europe. The data tells a story of an audience in motion, one that has fundamentally reshaped how we should think about what happens when people sit down in front of a screen.
The numbers are striking in their specificity. Last year, the average household accessed five different apps on their television. Across all Samsung TVs in the study, app launches totaled 18.4 billion—an 8 percent jump from the year before. But these figures don't simply mean more choice. They mean audiences have stopped thinking in terms of platforms at all. A viewer no longer decides to "watch Netflix" or "watch linear TV." They decide what they want to watch, and then they go find it, wherever it lives. The distinction matters because it upends the traditional logic of television advertising and audience planning.
Younger viewers are leading this shift most dramatically. They use 21 percent more apps than their older counterparts and move between subscription services and free platforms with equal ease, following content rather than maintaining any sense of brand loyalty to a streaming service. The report found that no single viewing environment—not streaming, not linear television, not gaming—captures the full audience anymore. Twenty-four percent of Samsung TVs account for 81 percent of all linear viewing, while 27 percent of TVs stream exclusively and never watch traditional broadcast television at all. The audience has fractured into distinct segments, each with its own viewing pattern.
What has emerged as genuinely valuable in this fragmented landscape is the home screen itself. This is the central hub that viewers return to repeatedly throughout their day—more than five times on average—as they decide what to watch next. Nearly nine in ten respondents use the home screen as their primary decision point for content discovery. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, more than 650 football matches from Europe's top leagues competed for attention alongside over 100,000 unique titles on major streaming platforms and 90 new gaming releases. The home screen has become the critical moment of influence, the one fixed point in an otherwise fluid viewing experience.
The report reveals how viewers construct their subscription habits around specific content needs rather than platform identity. Sixty percent of households maintain multiple subscriptions year-round, each serving a distinct purpose. Another 18 percent rotate between services depending on what content is currently available. Fourteen percent rely primarily on free or ad-supported platforms, while 8 percent subscribe only occasionally for specific shows or events. The television has become less a destination and more a tool for accessing whatever content matters in that moment.
Linear television and streaming have not disappeared; they have simply become interconnected parts of a much larger ecosystem. Viewing peaks at 7 p.m. across both formats, suggesting that prime time remains a shared social experience. The living room continues to function as a communal space, with co-viewing common across all types of content. Gamers represent a particularly interesting segment—they are 88 percent more likely than average to follow home screen recommendations and 135 percent more likely to research products they see advertised on television. When gamers do watch TV, 72 percent of them watch in groups of two or more, making them a highly social audience despite their reputation for solitary play.
For advertisers, the implications are substantial. The old model of buying time on a channel or a platform no longer maps onto how audiences actually behave. Matt Bryan, Director of Analytics & Insights at Samsung Ads, framed the challenge directly: fragmentation is no longer a trend but the baseline reality. Younger audiences are driving this shift most aggressively, and they are following content across a landscape that now includes streaming services, linear broadcasts, and gaming platforms all competing for the same screen time. The opportunity lies not in trying to recapture platform loyalty—that ship has sailed—but in understanding the full reach of an audience across this fragmented ecosystem and planning with greater precision about where and when to reach them. The home screen, in this context, becomes not just a feature of a television but a critical advertising moment, the place where attention is still concentrated before it inevitably scatters again.
Notable Quotes
Fragmentation is no longer a trend—it is the reality of today's TV landscape. Younger audiences are driving this shift, using over 20 percent more apps on average and moving fluidly between subscription and free platforms.— Matt Bryan, Director of Analytics & Insights at Samsung Ads
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
So when you say the home screen is accessed five times a day, what does that actually look like? Is someone really turning on their TV five times?
Not necessarily turning it on and off five times. It's more like they turn on the TV, watch something, then when they finish or want to switch, they return to the home screen to browse and pick the next thing. It's the moment of decision—the pause between content.
And younger viewers using 21 percent more apps—does that mean they're more indecisive, or are they just more willing to try different services?
It's not indecision. It's that they've never developed loyalty to a single platform the way older viewers might have. They grew up with choice. They're not asking "which service do I subscribe to?" They're asking "where is the show I want to watch right now?" If it's on three different platforms, they'll use all three.
The report mentions 650 football matches in Q1 alone. Why does that matter for the fragmentation story?
Because it's one example of how much content is competing for the same screen at the same time. You've got sports, you've got 100,000 streaming titles, you've got gaming releases. The audience can't watch everything, so they're constantly making choices. That's what drives the app-hopping.
If 27 percent of TVs never watch linear television, does that mean linear is dying?
Not quite. It means linear is no longer the default. For some audiences, it's completely irrelevant. For others, it's still a significant part of their viewing. But the days of linear being the primary way people consume video are over. It's now one option among many.
What does this mean for someone trying to advertise something?
It means you can't just buy a time slot on a channel and expect to reach your audience. You have to think about where they actually are—which apps they're using, when they're using them, and crucially, that moment on the home screen when they're deciding what to watch next. That's where you still have their attention before it fragments again.