EU vs Big Tech: Smart TV Showdown

In a dramatic escalation of the ongoing battle between traditional media and tech giants, the world’s largest broadcasters are calling on the European Union to tighten regulations specifically targeting big tech’s power in the smart TV market. The Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe (ACT) has formally urged EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera to designate major smart TV operating systems and virtual assistants as “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Major Regulatory Conflict

The core of this dispute lies in the growing control that big tech companies—Google, Amazon, Apple, and Samsung—wield over smart TV platforms. These companies dominate the smart TV operating system market through Android TV, Fire OS, tvOS, and Tizen respectively, effectively controlling how content is discovered, accessed, and consumed by millions of European households.

According to the broadcasters’ letter, these tech giants have “growing control over the operating systems of smart TVs and voice assistants, allowing them to act as ‘gatekeepers’ funnelling users towards some content and away from others.” This has created a significant power imbalance in the media landscape, where the platforms that deliver content have unprecedented influence over which content audiences actually see.

Smart TV Platform as Battleground

The living room has become a new frontier in the platform wars, with smart TV operating systems serving as the primary gateway between content creators and consumers. Unlike traditional broadcast television, where viewers tune in to scheduled programming, smart TV platforms use complex algorithms and interface designs to determine what content appears prominently and what gets buried in endless menus.

Smart TV platforms showing various content options

This control over content discovery has significant implications for both established broadcasters and emerging content creators. When a tech company’s own streaming service appears prominently on their platform while competitors are harder to find, it creates an uneven playing field that could fundamentally reshape the media landscape.

Market Dynamics

The market share data illustrates the extent of big tech’s dominance in the smart TV space:

Samsung Tizen OS: Approximately 24% market share
Google’s Android TV: Around 23% (up from 16% between 2019-2024)
Amazon Fire OS: Roughly 12% (up from 5% between 2019-2024)
LG’s webOS: Approximately 17%
Roku OS: Around 10%
Apple tvOS: Market share is less clear but part of the ecosystem

Together, these platforms control the majority of the smart TV operating system market, giving their owners unprecedented influence over what content European audiences consume.

Call for EU Intervention

The broadcasters are specifically requesting that the European Commission use the DMA’s provisions to:

Designate major connected TV OS and virtual assistant providers as gatekeepers
Open market investigations for designation of services where necessary
Amend the definition of “business users” in the context of the ongoing DMA review

The DMA, which came into effect in 2023, is designed to regulate large online platforms designated as gatekeepers to ensure fairness and contestability in digital markets. However, so far, no connected TV platforms or virtual assistants have been designated as gatekeepers under the regulation.

Digital Markets Act Context

The DMA establishes clear criteria for identifying gatekeepers, which include having significant market impact, acting as important intermediaries between business users and consumers, and enjoying an entrenched and durable position in the market. The broadcasters argue that major smart TV platforms clearly meet these criteria.

As the official EU DMA portal explains, the regulation aims to ensure that digital markets are fair and contestable by imposing specific obligations and prohibitions on the largest platforms in the EU.

Key Players and Stakes

This regulatory battle involves a who’s who of global media and technology companies:

Traditional Broadcasters: Represented by ACT, which includes major European broadcasters like Canal+, Disney, and Paramount+
Tech Giants: Google (Android TV), Amazon (Fire OS), Apple (tvOS), and Samsung (Tizen OS)
Regulator: The European Commission, specifically EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera

For the broadcasters, their very future viability may be at stake. As the industry letter notes, “with the future viability of many European TV broadcasters at stake, and with millions of EU businesses and consumers relying on CTVs to promote and access content, it is essential that the Commission swiftly addresses the significant imbalances that plague this market.”

Industry and Public Interest

This conflict has garnered significant attention from policy watchers, tech industry professionals, and media consumers, who are all concerned about platform control and content accessibility in the evolving media landscape.

The issue sits at the intersection of several major trends: the ongoing shift from traditional broadcast to streaming content, the growing power of platform companies, and the EU’s broader efforts to regulate big tech.

Illustration showing traditional media vs tech companies

Consumer advocacy groups have expressed concern about the potential for these platforms to limit consumer choice through self-preferencing—the practice of promoting their own services over competitors within their platforms. This could mean, for example, that Amazon’s Prime Video is more prominently featured on Fire TV devices than competing streaming services, or that Apple TV+ gets preferential treatment on Apple TV devices.

Broader Implications

The outcome of this regulatory push could have far-reaching consequences for the entire digital media ecosystem. If the EU designates smart TV platforms as gatekeepers under the DMA, it would require these companies to:

Allow third-party app stores on their platforms
Permit users to uninstall pre-installed apps
Provide equal access to platform features for competing services
Refrain from self-preferencing in search results and recommendations

Such changes could fundamentally alter how these platforms operate and potentially open up new opportunities for smaller content creators and streaming services to reach audiences.

Looking Forward

The European Commission has yet to officially respond to the broadcasters’ requests, and the tech giants involved have not issued formal responses to the regulatory push. However, the timing of this initiative—amid ongoing tensions between European authorities and U.S. tech companies—is unlikely to be coincidental.

With the DMA currently in its compliance phase, and with the European Commission having already designated Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft as gatekeepers, the stage appears set for a significant expansion of the regulation’s scope.

As the European Broadcasting Union noted in its coverage of the issue, this represents a critical moment for the future of content distribution in Europe. Whether the EU will heed the broadcasters’ call and bring smart TV platforms under the DMA’s oversight remains to be seen, but the stakes for all parties involved are undeniably high.

This regulatory battle reflects the broader challenges facing media and technology industries as they navigate the transition to an increasingly platform-mediated media landscape. In the smart TV wars, it seems the living room has become the ultimate prize, with regulators now being asked to determine who gets to control what audiences watch in their own homes.

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