Forecasts from Omdia last year suggested that the North American CTV operating system (OS) market was set to be dominated by US retail giant Walmart, thanks to its $2.3 billion acquisition of TV manufacturer VIZIO. In Europe however, the picture looks quite different, with new entrants to the market rapidly gaining market share, according to the research outfit’s latest projections.
Four years ago the European OS market was largely controlled by three major players, namely Samsung’s Tizen, Google TV and LG’s webOS. But according to Omdia, these companies are expected to lose share gradually to new entrants that did not even exist in the European market in 2022, including VIDAA, Titan OS and TiVo.
These OSs are forecast to control 28 percent of the European OS market by 2030, up from 21 percent in 2025. At the same time, Google TV’s market share is projected to fall to 26 percent in 2030, down from 32 percent in 2025. Omdia said the three new competitors “represent a growing group of independent operating systems that are successfully challenging Google TV in Europe.”
Behind the screens
As the CTV space evolves in Europe, the research suggests that the growing role of advertising is driving this transition. As profit margins decline on the sale of TV devices themselves, advertising and data opportunities have emerged to offer TV manufacturers ongoing revenue streams after the initial hardware sale. “This rapid shift underscores how TV brands are increasingly prioritising advertising revenue from the TV OS over traditional hardware revenue,” according to Omdia.
These “independent” OSs offer TV manufacturers revenue-sharing models that allow them to monetise home screen ads and FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels, versus the “walled garden” approach of incumbent market leader Google TV, which largely keeps advertising and data revenue within the Google ecosystem.
Omdia also cited the leaner Linux-based architectures of the three new systems, making them more cost-effective to run compared with the more resource-heavy Google TV. They also provide TV manufacturers with greater control over the user experience (UX) and viewer data, according to the research firm, allowing brands like Philips (Titan) and Hisense (VIDAA) to maintain their brand identities and access their own audience analytics.
And as a European company, Titan OS has focused on integrating local European broadcasters into its homepage, with similar efforts undertaken by TiVo. Last year, the two businesses announced a deal naming Titan as strategic monetisation partner for TiVo OS across Europe, enabling advertisers and agencies to buy CTV inventory across the two independent TV operating systems. Omdia said this partnership gives the pair “the collective ad reach needed to attract major European advertisers, making their revenue-sharing promises more realistic for TV brands.”
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