How to Develop a Smart TV App in 2025?

The Smart TV app market has immense potential and is expected to reach a valuation of $571.58 billion by 2031. As apps continue to go beyond smartphones and tablets, how can you build an app for Smart TV?

With technology modernization affecting everything we interact with, it’s no surprise that our TVs have gotten a lot smarter and feature-rich. It all started with internet connectivity, and now, Smart TVs come with seamless interfaces, AI-powered voice assistants, streaming applications, etc. 

The reason why Smart TVs have become a popular platform for user engagement is because they enable you to view content on much larger screens with richer, louder sound quality. It also provides you with the luxury to browse through different apps and shows at a much higher screen resolution for a grander experience. 

Mordor Intelligence predicts that the US Smart TV market size is expected to hit 34.68 Million units by 2029.

If you’re a business owner looking to invest in Smart TV app development, here’s a heads up: Not every partner is capable of developing apps that offer end-to-end capability across different Smart TV platforms and operating systems.

You’ll need a specialized app development company that can build a Smart TV app for you that’s loaded with features and offers a responsive user experience. 

Read More: Leading Business Benefits Of Mobile App Development

In this write-up, we’ll be guiding you on how to develop a Smart TV app and the intricacies of this process.

What is a Smart TV App?

A Smart TV app brings the power and versatility of mobile apps to the big screen. They allow you to access on-demand entertainment, interactive services, and useful information directly through your Smart TV.

In simple terms, a Smart TV app is a specialized software application designed for internet-connected televisions. Just like smartphones have customizable apps that serve different functions, Smart TV platforms have their own eco-system of downloadable apps customized for large screens and massive interfaces.

From video streaming giants like Netflix to more niche offerings focusing on music, sports, kids’ content, and more, Smart TV apps enable you to personalize your TV experience. No longer are you limited to whatever shows are being broadcasted – Smart TV apps put you in control.

How is a Smart TV App Different from Regular Android Apps?

Smart TV apps may seem similar to the apps you use on your phone or tablet, but they are designed very differently to provide an optimized big-screen experience. From the interface and navigation to technical considerations, several key factors set Smart TV apps apart from regular mobile apps.

Designed for Bigger Displays and Remote Controls

Mobile apps are built for compact touchscreen interfaces, while Smart TV apps have to provide easy navigation on much larger screens. Smart TVs are operated with remotes rather than touch, so apps need simpler layouts with magnified UI elements optimized for viewing from a distance. 

No one wants to navigate through a complex user experience with their remote. This is why intuitiveness is the most critical aspect of a Smart TV app.

Less Processing Power

The hardware within Smart TVs generally offers less processing muscle and RAM than current mobile devices. So, Smart TV apps have to be lightweight and optimized for smooth performance, even on entry-level models with basic specifications.

Specialized Platform SDKs

Developers have to use specific SDKs and tools customized for each Smart TV platform, such as Tizen, Android TV, or LG webOS. This differs from mobile app development, which can use cross-platform frameworks like React Native. The codebase and languages also vary a lot.

Greater Focus on Optimized Video Streaming

Since the main appeal of Smart TV apps is enhanced video entertainment, they need to be designed to handle features like 4K streaming, HDR, and surround sound that smartphone apps do not emphasize. Elements like subtitles, external device connectivity, and casting options are also integrated by our Smart TV app development teams.

Differing Monetization Models

Monetization models can vary greatly between mobile and Smart TV ecosystems due to differing user expectations and app longevity. For instance, Smart TV users expect most streaming apps to be free or subscription-based rather than expecting in-app purchases during the viewing experience. 

Current Smart TVs are also not on par with mobile devices in terms of security features. This is why integrating features like in-app purchases can be quite risky.

Read More: Proven Strategies of App Monetization

Smart TV App Development – 10 Steps to Consider

If you want your app idea to become the next showcase app on the home screens of leading Smart TV brands, here are the ten crucial steps to guide your product journey:

1. Research Your Target Audience and Market Gap

As with any app development project, the foundation lies in truly understanding your target user. Based on available usage research data, analyze the viewing habits, preferences, and pain points of Smart TV owners in your focus demographic and geography.

This helps extract key insights like:

• Preferred genres/categories based on most downloaded apps
• Peak viewing times to optimize UI/UX accordingly
• Average session length and retention patterns
• Screen interface size distribution (HD/FHD/4K) to optimize layouts, etc.

In parallel, conduct a competitive analysis on the app store and media landscape to identify any market gaps your app concept can meaningfully address. Find opportunities where consumer pain points remain unaddressed by existing options. This shapes your unique positioning and associated feature priorities.

2. Map Out the Ideal Content Strategy

For any streaming and entertainment-focused Smart TV app, the lifeblood is the ability to continually engage viewers with fresh, relevant, and captivating media content. Whether producing original content or adding third-party media, editing workflows and licensing agreements need to be fleshed out in detail while staying aligned to platform guidelines.

Partnerships with content creators and strategic integrations with OTT services can significantly improve chances for initial launch success as well as longer-term retention. Consider blending both exclusive originals as well as a long tail of third party media.

3. Design an Intuitive Big Screen Experience

Smart TV app interfaces differ fundamentally from mobile-first designs, given the shift from compact touch interfaces to expansive displays navigated via basic remote controls or emerging voice commands.

• Minimize dense information hierarchies in favor of full-screen hero imagery/video and intuitive navigation. 
• Maintain a strong visual hierarchy focusing on media assets rather than dense text content. 
• Use appropriately sized textual elements and sufficient negative space for visual clarity. Voice integration adds hands-free convenience for search, recommendations, and playback control.
• Test out interactive wireframe prototypes with family and friends on an actual large display TV setup while sitting 10+ feet away to gather UX improvement feedback even before development.

4. Select Target Smart TV Platforms

Before moving forward with app development, you need to finalize the specific Smart TV platforms to target basic market share, demography, feature support, etc. Leading options include:

• Android TV: Mass market reach but fragmentation across brands except for Sony. Need Java/Kotlin skills.
• Samsung Tizen: Consistent experience but confined to their models only. Needs knowledge of C++ and Tizen SDK.
• LG WebOS: Optimized for LG’s lineup. Build with web technologies like HTML5/JS/CSS.
• VIZIO SmartCast: Delivers casual entertainment apps that meet the user base’s demands.
• Apple tvOS: Technically robust but mainly valuable for Apple ecosystem fans.

Ideally, apps should be built natively for 2-3 leading platforms using specialized development kits and tools to utilize that environment’s capabilities. This requires resourcing skilled developers who are familiar with each platform.

5. Define Optimal Tech Architecture

Carefully evaluate the technical constraints and capabilities the shortlisted Smart TV platforms support to deduce optimal architecture for smooth app performance. Often, slower processors, limited RAM, and the addition of AI features call for efficient programming.

For apps focused on streaming multimedia over IP connectivity into the Smart TV system, ensure format compatibility for video codecs (HEVC key), audio (Dolby Digital integration), image support (4K assets), etc.

6. Monetization Modeling

To make your app development project commercially viable for the long term, have a clearly mapped out monetization roadmap factoring platform policies, target user psyches, and stage-wise evolution:

• Freemium access offers a limited content library incentivizing premium monthly/annual subscriptions, unlocking full catalog access.
• Contextual ad placements across free content to maximize fill rates after building substantial viewership.
• One-time in-app purchases for downloading full series or individual episodes without ads.

You can measure KPIs like subscriber conversion, content consumption trends, and session metrics to optimize pricing strategy and predictive catalog development. We also recommend offering annual plans and family-sharing options as value boosters.

7. Crunch App Development Cycles

With creative and technical direction aligned through previous steps, realizing your Smart TV app vision requires flawless app development within selected platform SDK environments.

Employ skilled developers intimately familiar with the quirks of each target platform with proven success in building entertainment-focused apps coded efficiently for Smart TVs.

Agile sprints ensure regular stakeholder visibility into build progress while enabling continuous integration and deployment pathways to facilitate faster tester feedback loops. 

8. Rigorous Testing across Matrix

Given device and connectivity level fragmentation that exists, apps have to be validated across the following parameters:

• Diverse HD/UHD/4K Smart TV sizes and models
• Different operating system versions
• Varying network bandwidth conditions (wired/WiFi) measuring load times
• CPU utilization, memory, and battery drain monitoring
• Failover and error-handling flows

This ensures any imperfections are addressed pre-launch rather than compromising end-user experiences later on.

9. Craft Market Launch Strategy

The launch strategy requires both managing early user expectations as well as leading growth hacking initiatives:

You must focus on:

• Onboarding the first wave of users as brand evangelists providing referrals and ratings/reviews
• PR activations across both industry media and targeted end-user tech publications
• Prelaunch coverage builds anticipation for network effects
• Contest giveaways and influencer promotions to drive installs
• Achieving featured app visibility in Smart TV app stores
• Driving cross-promotions from your other owned channels

10. Continuous Improvement Roadmap

Treat your TV app as a constantly evolving product rather than a one-time project. Add more value with:

• New functionality releases keep experiences fresh
• Content library expansions across genres
• Localization into more languages
• Platforms support addition
• Personalization and recommendation recipes

Closely monitor usage metrics and insights to craft a data-driven product journey.

Read More: How Do You Validate An App Idea Before Building It?

Smart TV App Development Costs and Estimates

In order to make a Smart TV app, you need to put forward a significant amount of investment. Depending on features, complexity, platform targets, and customization needs, Smart TV app development costs can vary.

Here is an overview of estimated budgets to help set expectations:

Basic Apps

For relatively simple apps focused on video streaming from online sources or lightweight games, basic costs can start around $55,000 if using templatized code and flows from the development vendor.

• It adds support for one mainstream Smart TV platform, interface design, ingesting your media assets, and testing. 
• It allows quicker market validation before additional investment.

Mid-Range Apps

For apps with more custom-designed experiences, original interactive elements, multi-platform support, customizable themes and expandable media libraries, plan budgets in the $65,000 to $80,000 range.

• It covers costs for original UX/UI design, native development for 2-3 Smart TV platforms, and more robust content management.
• It also involves end-to-end quality assurance testing and infrastructure needs.

High-End Apps

For maximal customization, premium content licensing, multi-lingual setups, gamified elements, and diverse codebases, costs scale up further from $90,000 onwards.

• It facilitates large scale media encoding needs, advanced streaming infrastructure, rich analytics pipelines.
• Such apps also require full-stack engineering capacity and provisions for 3D animation or AR integration.

Additional Cost Drivers

Ongoing enhancements, content acquisition/production, customer support, and user acquisition efforts require separate budgets in addition to basic Smart TV app development costs.

To optimize costs, identify the right development partner that combines deep programming expertise, reusable components, and fair pricing models customized to the growth stage of your venture.

Read More: App Development Cost Breakdown

Build a Smart TV App with Cubix

Smart TV app development is quite a unique market segment with immense potential. Capitalizing on this opportunity will surely be profitable for your business.

However, considering how uncommon this niche is, you might not have a team specializing in building Smart TV apps.

As a trusted app development company, we would love to partner with you and help you achieve your app vision. We boast diverse app development expertise and have what it takes to make intuitive apps that work flawlessly across different Smart TV platforms.

Let’s make apps that shine on the big screens!