MARINA DEL REY, Calif. -- Revealing one of the most damning data points yet for makers of connected TV dongles and sticks, Vizio executive Katherine Pond said that only 7% of viewing on Vizio smart TVs is now coming via third-party HDMI-enabled streaming gadgets.
Pond, who serves as group VP of platform content and partnerships for Irvine, Calif.-based Vizio, made her surprising declaration in a keynote session about 40 miles north Tuesday at Parks Associates' Future of Video conference.
Pond said the share of Vizio viewing from third-party gadgets has dwindled at an accelerating level of late.
Also read: Pundits Declare OTT Dongles 'Dead' Following Samsung NewFront Presentation
Half of Vizio TV viewing, she added, is on the smart TV maker's own SmartCast TVOS platform, which as 16.5 million active accounts.
"The dongle is dead," Pond declared.
Her "7%" figure -- first cited in September by Vizio's Chief Financial Officer Adam Townsend -- is notably low. Video industry analysts have for some time indicated that streaming consumers, more and more, are defaulting to the native OS of their smart TV to watch TV.
But nobody beyond Vizio is describing dongle and stick usage as a single-digit-percentage.
UPDATED: The data apparently came from a user survey conducted by Vizio over the summer. Hat tip to FierceVideo contributor Matthew Keys for pointing that out to us.
Making a similar point in May at Samsung's New York NewFront presentation, for example, video biz gadfly Evan Shapiro said that about 61% of viewing now comes via the native TV OS vs. 39% for dongles and sticks.
