Best Streaming Platforms for Your TV

We began by lining up what each system is, because the names get used loosely. Roku and Fire TV are both a software platform and a family of sticks and TVs. Google TV is software that sits on Sony, TCL, Hisense and other sets and also on Google’s own Streamer. Tizen and webOS are the operating systems on Samsung and LG TVs respectively and are rarely seen anywhere else. Apple’s tvOS runs on one family of boxes. Vizio’s system now has a second life on Walmart’s house-brand TVs. When we compared how reviewers and analysts described them, we found that most disagreements came down to which of these categories a number included.

Roku is the platform that tries hardest to stay out of your way, and in exchange it earns money from ads and from the placement of services on its home screen. Samsung’s Tizen and LG’s webOS are what you get when you buy those brands, so the real decision is which TV you like, not which OS you prefer.

Fire TV is the cheapest way to add smart features to a TV, and the question now is whether its newer locked-down version suits you. Google TV is the most helpful at suggesting what to watch across services, and Apple TV is the fastest and the most expensive. Vizio’s system is the one to watch, because its owner is now the largest retailer in the country.

Parks Associates released its latest platform ranking on April 22. It put Roku OS at 28% of connected-TV platform usage in U.S. broadband households and Samsung’s Tizen at 23%. Amazon Fire TV, LG webOS and Vizio were described as mid-tier, and Apple tvOS, game consoles and Android TV as smaller, though the release did not print their percentages. The Desk, reporting on the same data, noted that the figure counts both smart TVs and standalone devices, and that Roku makes both. Parks did not state a sample size or fieldwork dates in that release, so we treat the numbers as a reasonable picture, not a precise measurement.

The earlier snapshots help. In summer of last year Parks put Roku at 25%, Tizen at 23%, Fire TV at 17% and LG webOS at 10%. So Roku has been gaining modestly while Samsung has held steady or dipped. But in January, at CES, Parks reported a different slice: counting smart TVs only, without standalone sticks or monitors, Samsung led with 34%, with LG webOS second, Vizio third and Roku TV fourth. This is the cleanest example of why you will read “Samsung is number one” in one place and “Roku is number one” in another. Both are accurate for their definitions.

A third set of figures comes from Roku. In April the company said it passed 100 million streaming households worldwide, counting accounts that streamed in a 30-day period, and that its devices are used in more than half of U.S. broadband households. BGR, meanwhile, wrote that Roku devices are in nearly 28% of U.S. homes. Those two statements look like a contradiction until you notice that one counts any household using a Roku device and the other is Parks’ share of primary platform use. Roku’s own “more than half” is a reach figure; the 28% is a main-platform figure. We would not use either to say how many people prefer it.

The pattern started in late June with Apple, which raised its older Apple TV 4K from $129 to $199 and the Ethernet model from $149 to $249 without changing the hardware. Cord Cutters News blamed memory costs, quoting that “DRAM and NAND prices have exploded.” Roku followed in the week of July 24. Android Authority listed the changes as the Streaming Stick going from $29.99 to $39.99, the Streaming Stick Plus from $39.99 to $59.99, the Streaming Stick 4K from $59.99 to $79.99, and the Roku Ultra and Streambar SE each from $99.99 to $149.99. Roku had made no announcement, and its own store listed the products at sale prices equal to the old list prices as a limited-time offer.

Amazon came next. Cord Cutters News reported the Fire TV Stick 4K Max rising from about $60 to $85, the 4K Plus from $50 to $70, the Cube from $140 to $200 and the HD stick from $35 to $40. PCWorld reported at the end of August that sale prices were much lower, at $17.99 for the HD stick, $19.99 for the 4K Select, $39.99 for the 4K Plus, $49.99 for the 4K Max and $109.99 for the Cube. Those sale prices were measured against list prices of $39.99, $49.99, $69.99, $84.99 and $199.99. PCWorld did not say how long the sales would last or whether the list prices were before or after the increase. Finally, on August 31, Google raised the Google TV Streamer from $99.99 to $149.99, citing “rising component costs,” at Google’s own store and Best Buy.

One conflict is worth flagging. Cord Cutters News reported that the Roku Streaming Stick 4K went from $50 to $80, but Android Authority’s list has the previous price at $59.99. We trust the Android Authority list, which gave a full table, over the single rounded figure, but you should check Roku’s store for the current price. BGR, citing The Desk, also reported in July that the Roku Ultra went from $100 to $150 and the basic Streaming Stick from $30 to $40, which matches.

A stick that costs $80 sounds worse than one that costs $60, until you divide by how long you will use it. We assumed five years of use, which is an assumption and not a promise, and divided each current list price by 60 months. The Roku Streaming Stick 4K at $79.99 works out to about $1.33 a month, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max at $84.99 to about $1.42, the Google TV Streamer and the Roku Ultra at $149.99 each to $2.50, and Apple’s new box at $299 to about $4.98. Walmart’s onn 4K Pro, which TechRepublic put at about $60 and described as running Google TV with 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM, would be $1.00 a month.

The takeaway is not that cheaper is always better. A $150 stick that stays smooth for six years beats a $40 stick you replace in two. But the differences are small enough in monthly terms that speed and update support should drive the choice more than the sticker price.

Automated content recognition, or ACR, is the feature at the center of the story. As Medianama described it, ACR periodically captures frames or audio from what is on screen, makes a fingerprint of the content and sends it to a server to match against a database, much as a music-identification app recognizes a song. The result is a record of what you watch, which can be sold to help target ads. The catch is that it works on whatever is on the screen, not just on the TV’s own apps, so a game console or a cable box plugged into the HDMI port can be recognized too.

In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL. The complaint alleges that the companies collect personal data through ACR without consent and use it to sell ads. Medianama’s summary of the suit says Sony’s ACR allegedly began around 2013 and covers up to 50 million Sony smart TVs in the U.S., and that it allegedly used third-party providers to build profiles that included sensitive categories. Those are allegations in a lawsuit, not findings by a court, and the companies are free to contest them. What has happened since is more concrete. Malwarebytes reported on March 2 that Samsung settled and agreed to stop collecting ACR data from Texans without explicit, informed consent and to rewrite its on-screen privacy prompts. Medianama reported that on May 11 Texas and LG submitted an agreed settlement to a Bell County court, awaiting approval, under which LG must obtain affirmative express consent before processing user data. For Sony, Hisense and TCL, the reports we read gave no settlement or ruling.

What do viewers think? The Reviews.org “State of Consumer Data” survey, reported by Cord Cutters News on June 16, found that 77% of Americans own a smart TV and that 71.5% knew a smart TV can detect and log what is on screen. Some 83% said they would support a law requiring manufacturers to explain collected data in plain language, and 78% said they would disconnect a device that collected more than they expected. The article did not give a sample size or the dates of the fieldwork, so these are attitudes, not measurements.

The finding that interested us most is the workaround. About 62% of respondents said they use a separate streaming device instead of the TV’s built-in apps. But privacy was the stated reason for only 16.5% of them, ranking below better app selection and performance. And only about 54% knew a separate device may limit the TV maker’s data collection. We found that this is where people get the wrong idea: plugging in a stick can reduce what the TV maker sees from its own apps, but the stick has its own advertising and data settings, and the TV’s ACR can still see the stick’s picture unless you turn it off.

The longest commitments we found came from the TV makers. BGR’s roundup of the longest software commitments listed Samsung as promising seven years of support for TVs launched in 2024, including the S95D, which runs through 2031, and some 2023 models were included. LG’s webOS Re:New program promises four major version upgrades over five years, so a TV launched with webOS 24 should reach webOS 28 in 2028, and coverage starts with 2022 models. Some Hisense models are promised up to eight years, but “up to” is a ceiling, not a floor, and VIDAA, Hisense’s own system, is uncommon in the U.S.; BGR recommended checking the model code to see what you are getting, where G indicates Google TV, F indicates Fire TV and V indicates VIDAA.

Amazon’s promise is narrower. For its 2025 Fire TV Omni QLED sets in 50, 55 and 65 inches, and for certain other lines, security updates are guaranteed until December 31, 2030, and devices bought directly from Amazon get at least four years from the purchase date if that runs past the fixed date. BGR pointed out that major Fire OS upgrades and long-term app compatibility are not guaranteed. In other words, your set stays safe, but the apps you want may stop supporting it.

For Roku, Google TV, Apple and Vizio, we did not find a clear published update policy in the material we reviewed. We are not suggesting they have none. We could not verify a number, so we left it blank rather than guess. For a stick, the question is less urgent, because replacing a $40 to $85 device costs far less than replacing a TV.

AFTVnews documented the change. Amazon’s developer page, updated in October of last year, said that starting with the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, all future Fire TV sticks would run Vega OS. The product page for the 4K Select states that only apps from the Amazon Appstore are available for download. Earlier Fire TV devices run an Android-based system called Fire OS, which allowed sideloading, meaning installing apps from outside the store. In April, reports citing multiple sources said all future sticks would use Vega OS, and AFTVnews reported that Amazon had confirmed the plan months earlier. AFTVnews also noted that Amazon recently began blocking certain piracy apps at installation, and that an “Unauthorized APK installation detected” message can block sideloading even on some Fire TVs that still run the older system, though that article said this was not a full ban.

Who should care? If you only use mainstream services from the Amazon store, there is no practical difference, and the cheaper Vega-based stick is fine. If you rely on a niche app that is only distributed outside the store, the newest stick is the wrong choice. We would also be careful with sideloaded apps in general: a lot of what circulates that way is unlicensed, and research on unauthorized streaming sites points to elevated malware and scam risk. Anyone who bought a stick specifically for that purpose is likely to be disappointed.

Walmart closed its Vizio acquisition less than a year before The Desk reported, on November 25, that Walmart had begun selling a 43-inch onn TV running Vizio’s operating system for $89 online. It was a Black Friday deal, a full-HD screen at 60Hz that works with Apple Home, Alexa and Google Home. The Desk read it as the replacement for the Roku-powered onn TVs of earlier years and noted that Walmart reportedly renamed Vizio’s SmartCast as Vizio OS, with Google Cast and AirPlay support. By July 30, Cord Cutters News checked and found no Roku-powered onn TVs in stores within 100 miles and no 4K Roku onn models listed online, with a Kids HD model still online but not stocked nearby. In their place are onn sets running Vizio OS and onn sets running Google TV.

The analysis from Cord Cutters News was that Walmart is steering customers toward platforms it can influence more directly, which could expand its control over advertising and data. That is an opinion, but the facts underneath it hold up: the owner of the shelf has also become the owner of the software on the shelf. For a shopper it means two things. If you wanted a cheap TV with Roku built in, Walmart is no longer the easy place to find it, and the cheapest route to a bargain TV now often means Vizio OS. And because Vizio’s system is now tied to a retailer, the privacy settings in the previous section matter just as much on a bargain set.

Fox agreed to buy Roku for about $22 billion. As reported earlier this month, shareholders of both companies approved the transaction on October 14, and the Justice Department’s second request for documents extends the antitrust review. Fox has said it expects to close in the first half of next year. BGR, writing about whether Roku would stay a cheap platform, reported that Fox expects about $400 million in annual savings after the combination, that Roku devices accounted for 43% of streaming-player purchases at the start of the year, and that the company’s shareholder letter warned “higher memory costs will weigh on device margins in the second half of the year.” Roku’s CEO, according to BGR, said the company had kept costs down by using less memory and more flexible memory types. The author’s conclusion, which is an opinion, was that the era of Roku as the cheap option was ending. TrendForce, cited in the same piece, expects memory prices to rise another 10% to 18% over the next several months.

Our reading: the memory-cost trend is the stronger force behind rising hardware prices, because Apple, Amazon and Google all moved too. The Fox deal adds uncertainty about how Roku will price and promote services, but nobody has published a plan, and promises about keeping services separate can change after a close. If you are choosing a platform today, the sensible response is not to avoid Roku. It is to avoid paying full price for it, and to avoid building your whole viewing life on features that depend on a single company’s good behavior.

Take a household with an older smart TV that has gotten sluggish, a mix of subscriptions and a wish for free channels. We would put a Roku Streaming Stick 4K on it, switch off the TV’s own viewing data, add the Apple TV or Netflix apps as needed, and check the Roku privacy settings. Total spend is $79.99 at list or less on sale. For the same household with a bigger budget and a Google account, the Google TV Streamer at $149.99 makes the home feel connected, but we would not buy it at that price over Roku’s stick without a particular reason like Matter and Thread smart-home support, which TechRepublic noted the Streamer includes.