YouView is planning a string of updates for the coming months, as it aims to take “connected TV into the mainstream.”

Speaking at the Westminster Media Forum seminar in London, YouView CEO Richard Halton said that it the next-generation UK Freeview service was lining up a second-screen app for Android devices in the coming weeks while infrastructure upgrades in the summer would bring further developments.

“We are working very hard on the second screen experience. There is a YouView app that allows you to set recordings to the box already for iOS, and there is one coming in weeks, not months for Android. That second screen application experience is going to develop a bit more over time. There’s lots of clues from other platforms as to how. I’m excited about the journey that we’re on,” said Halton.

He added that infrastructure improvements were “more or less now in place” which would lead to an “exciting summer ahead.”

Halton claimed that YouView had already had four major software upgrades since launch, including one this week that updated the EPG and programme filters and also now lets users go into their settings to see how many internet channels they have.

YouView launched in the UK last year and is backed by the UK terrestrial broadcasters BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five, as well as technology firm Arqiva and service providers BT and Talk Talk – which have both deployed their YouView-powered TV offerings.

Halton said that while it was still “early days” for YouView – which was hit by a string of delays before its launch – the service has been well received by consumers. He admitted that YouView was a “small fish in a very big sea” but said it had a mission to make connected TV a mainstream proposition, adding that it was an exciting time for the industry as a whole.

According to a Bloomberg report, which cites unnamed sources, the device will give viewers access to Amazon’s Instant Video store and Prime Instant Video pay-monthly service on their TV sets and will compete with the likes of Apple’s Apple TV offering and streaming devices by firms like Roku and Boxee.

Amazon’s Lab126 division in Cupertino is reportedly developing the device. Former Cisco executive Malachy Moynihan is said to be running the project.

The news comes just days after Amazon made  eight comedy pilots and six kids pilots available online, with viewers to decide which shows will go to series, as it moves forward with its own original content strategy.

Second screen experiences on smartphones are reflecting the “increasingly sophisticated nature” of what viewers expect from their connected TVs, according to Google executive George Panayotopoulos.

Speaking at the PEVE Entertainment conference in London yesterday, the Google industry manager for entertainment sales said that the interface for interacting with TVs needed to match the capabilities of smart TVs – at a time when younger viewers are increasingly turning to smaller screens as their primary viewing experience.

“One of the things that Google TV learnt in its first outing was that even a WiFi keyboard is a very poor interface to interact with extremely rich and deep content. I think some of the devices like Xbox Glass and YouTube’s own mobile app that syncs with YouTube applications on TVs are very much a reflection of that need of the users to do increasingly complicated things,” said Panayotopoulos.

However, he added: “We are now seeing an increasing number of zero TV households, particularly among youths. So the analogy of normally a teenager having a TV in their room – that’s actually decreasing somewhat – because they have a laptop, because they have mobile devices, because they have tablets and they can access the same services through those devices. It negates the need, in some cases for them to be a TV in a room.”

Speaking on the same panel, called ‘monestising the smart living room,’ Shazam’s vice-president of advertising Miles Lewis said that it was the desire for users of its music recognition app to find out about content on TV that led the firm to focus more directly on the TV space.

“We didn’t set out to create an app that links to TV or TV advertising, it was the consumer that drove us to that position. It was two years ago and we suddenly realised an awful lot of people were Shazaming TV,” he said, claiming that “now in the US, all 160 main channels are Shazam-enabled.”

Saffron Digital’s chief commercial officer, Amelia Gammon, however, warned that there could be “a little bit of a bubble” in the hype around connected and second screen activity.

“Everybody knows that there is a function and a reason for us to offer second screen apps, but I don’t think there’s some very, very good examples of how those are being used,” she said.

According to MRG, growth in cloud-based TV will be driven by the development of multiscreen and TV Everywhere services as well as cable networks’ migration from QAM to IP video networks.

Speaking to DTVE ahead of his keynote panel discussion this morning at TV Connect, Spotify’s global head of platform partnerships, Pascal De Mul, said that the firm was “was working hard to enable Spotify on TVs.”

“I think the TV is a great interface for the music experience in the home. It’s the only interface with a huge screen that can have real visual impact, as well as just audio impact,” said De Mul.

“Whether that is done through connected TVs as they get better and better, through games consoles or other means – we’re willing to work with any device that can create that great experience,”

Spotify launched an app for Samsung TVs last year and De Mul says that the firm is now working with “a number of manufacturers” to expand this further – provided the manufacturer is willing to work with Spotify to meets its customer experience standards; firms that “don’t just see music as a couple of bits and bytes that need to make it to a device.”

In terms of set-top deployments, Spotify is looking to build on the relationship it has with the likes of Virgin Media in the UK, whose TiVo box customers are able to download a Spotify app to their set-top box.

De Mul says the architecture it has for this app will make it possible to deploy onto different boxes and that Spotify is “already working with a couple of the set-top box players in the world to see how that can happen.”

The firm is also looking to build more partnerships with TV and mobile service providers, to offer simpler ways for users to sign-up and be billed for their Spotify account. The firm has already partnered with the likes of KPN in the Netherlands, Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Orange in Switzerland in a bid to make the service more accessible.

“What we are working on is making music as easily available to everybody. We have a full catalogue of 20 million tracks, we have instant availability on mobiles, on desktops, and we are working very hard to enable Spotify also on TVs and on audio equipment,” said De Mul.

The news follows Spotify’s recent announcement that it has reached 6 million paying subscribers and 24 active users globally. De Mul notes that the freemium-model firm is growing by roughly 1 million users a month and a million paying subscribers per quarter and is aiming for even higher growth rates by the end of the year.

LG has agreed to buy HP’s webOS software in a deal that it said would enhance and support its next-generation smart TV offerings.

The agreement, which was agreed for undisclosed terms, will see LG buy the source code, associated documentation, engineering talent and related websites associated with webOS.

Originally designed as a smartphone and tablet operating system by Palm, HP took ownership of the webOS software after buying out the latter for US$1.2 billion (€900 million) in 2010.

LG said that the deal would help it to bring “internet services directly to consumer electronics devices,” and will ensure the continued development of the software, at the same time allowing HP focus its resources on other strategic areas of its business such as cloud computing.

Skott Ahn, president and chief technology officer of LG Electronics said the deal ”creates a new path for LG to offer an intuitive user experience and internet services across a range of consumer electronics devices,” with the firm specifically saying that it will support its next-generation Smart TV technology.

“Integrated with LG, this team will be the heart and soul of the new LG Silicon Valley Lab, focused on bringing innovative technology solutions to market through the most popular platforms for sharing and consuming content and experiences,” added Ahn.

There was a sharp increase in the number of smart TV shipments last year with the total rising to 66 million, a 27% year-on-year increase. That represented a 27% market share of all new TV shipments.

By 2015, shipments will rise to 141 million, a 55% market share and marking the first time smart TVs account for over half of all new TVs.

The following year the total will be 173 million, almost two thirds of all new shipments.

The data and forecasts are contained within new research from IHS.

“Despite a decline in global television shipments in 2012, consumer demand for Internet-connected televisions soared during the year—and the surge in sales shows no signs of abating,” said Veronica Thayer, TV systems analyst at IHS. “Smart TVs are rapidly joining the mainstream as manufacturers refine their products to add new features and to make them easier to use.”

The Humax DTR-T1010, which provides access to the connected TV service developed by a partnership of the country’s main broadcasters and service providers BT and TalkTalk, is now available from the John Lewis retail chain, with others including Dixons likely to stock it from later this month. The box is black with a silver finish on the front and costs £299.99 (€348) for a 500GB version and £329.99 for a 1TB version.

The new YouView Humax DTR-T1010 will replace the YouView Humax DTR-T1000 in retail.

Yoon said he expected Samsung to turn in double-digit growth this year, thanks in part to its ability to offer products including OLED screens and Ultra HD screens as well as via its Smart TV platform. He said Samsung’s goal was to consolidate its market leadership rather than to grow profitability.

Yoon said he expected growth of over 50% in sales of screens bigger than 60 inches. Referring to Samsung’s Smart TV platform, he said that the company planned to offer users the possibility of personalizing their screens as well as developing the ability to promote programmes on the basis of user behaviour.

UK telco BT now has just over 60,000 TV customers with YouView connected TV boxes, the company has revealed.

BT said it signed up 21,000 BT Vision customers in the quarter to the end of December. The company ended its fiscal third quarter with 770,000 BT Vision customers.

YouView is a joint venture between service providers BT and TalkTalk, transmission services provider Arqiva and broadcasters the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

BT is proceeding with its multicast rollout and now offers 18 standard-definition linear and four HD linear channels, available to customers for an additional £2 (€2.33) a month.

The telco added 122,000 retail broadband customers in the quarter, and added 200,000 customers to its high-speed fibre offering.

BT’s retail division posted revenues of £1.8 billion for the quarter, down 3%, and EBITDA of £474 million, up 5%.