TikTok arrives on smart TVs in Europe; Australian tellies sure to follow suit…
TikTok has announced it will be making its app instantly available on smart TVs in France, Germany and the UK as part of the channel to move into people’s living rooms.
The short-form video sharing platform is already very popular in its use through mobile phones, and boasts over 1 billion users as of January 2021.
TikTok announced a version of its app will be available from today on Android TV sets in the aforementioned countries, as well as on television models by Hisense, Sony, Sharp, Phillips, Panasonic and Toshiba.
The move follows the announcement last year of a TikTok app for Samsung smart TVs, and will make watching TikTok vids as easy as streaming Netflix or Stan.
Samsung has been quick to release onto market a television screen designed specifically for TikTok videos and Instagram feeds. The ‘Sero’ is a vertical 4K TV set that looks like something out of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Oddysey. The screen flips to be viewed horizontally or vertically, and we think it’s pretty neat!
“You have this new dynamic of discovery and growth and pushing things into the mainstream,” said TikTok managing director, Rich Waterworth. “And you bring that to the very established behaviour of sitting down together on a chair or sofa around a shared screen, which has been a cherished part of family life.”
Whether this mean Nan who’se been sitting lazily on her armchair might suddenly start jumping around, making her own videos to Cardi B’s WAP is something we’ll have to wait for and see.
If the appearance of TikTok on TVs in Europe and the UK proves a success, it shouldn’t take long for the app to appear on Australian smart TVs.
Antonino Tati
CREAM MAGAZINE 
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