Smart TV online searches double in a week

Smart TVs have just skyrocketed in online search popularity by almost double with Euro 2012 underway and the Olympics incoming. A Switched On Tech report suggests online searches for the top brand smart TVs went up by 88 per cent last week. Is the sporting summer the perfect battlefield for smart TVs to wage war on their dumb predecessors?

It certainly looks that way, and the the bevy of camera angles, 3D options and multi-feeds mean the best way to filter all that lovely sweaty action is to use a smart TV. Ideal for the 34 million Brits that will – according to a Freeview report – be taking in this summer’s sport through the goggle box.

The Freeview report also reckons over 180 million sports related tweets will be posted during the Olympics. It looks like smart TV may come to the rescue there too with gesture and voice controls (on some TVs) letting you enjoy sport socially from your comfy sofa, by overlaying your Facebook and Twitter feeds live on the screen.

And even if sport isn’t your thing, smart TVs are still the best way to watch catch-up TV, like BBC iPlayer, which was viewed a whopping 118 millions times in April alone – a rapid growth of 40 per cent on last year's figures.

So smart TVs are growing in popularity and, with the huge demand this summer of sport will create, we could finally see the platform take off in a huge way – especially if an Apple Television makes an entrance soon.

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