How to Make a Smart TV App: A Step-by-Step Guide

As you probably know, a smart TV is simply a TV with the capabilities of a modern computer: running an operating system, connecting to the internet, and hosting applications to extend its functionality. 

These days, you can buy a brand-new 4K smart TV for less than $200 at your local electronics store. Thanks to their incredible affordability and attractive feature set, smart TVs have become a technological staple for households around the world.

When you think about where and how to distribute your enterprise video content, smart TVs may not be the first place you think of – but given the prevalence of smart TVs, you likely can’t afford not to reach your audience there. In this post, we’ll dive into the step-by-step process for how to make a smart TV app, so you can tap into this important distribution channel for your videos.

Table of Contents

• Why Smart TV Apps for Enterprises?
• Planning Before You Create a Smart TV App
  • 5 Key Features in a Smart TV App
• Development of Your Smart TV App   
• Launching Your Smart TV App
• Work with Maestro

Why Smart TV Apps for Enterprises?

So, why should you develop a smart TV app for your business? 

For one thing, the smart TV provides a direct channel between you and your audience. You can widen your reach and engagement with audiences on large screens, which may serve as a big boon for your brand awareness.

Another major benefit of the smart TV app is your ability to monetize it and collect data on customer behavior and interaction patterns, which will allow you to tailor future content based on what most engages your viewers.

Assuming a smart TV app aligns with your business objectives, there are a lot of potential benefits to enjoy after developing one for your brand!

Planning Before You Create A Smart TV App

While a smart TV app can add significant value to your business, exactly what value it offers is up to you. When you’re sitting down to plan out your app, you and your team should define the goal(s) you have for this new smart TV app.

Some of the most common include: greater brand awareness, higher revenue, an increase in user engagement, and an expanded total viewership. However, if you could only pick one, which would it be? This clarity will help inform your decision-making during the development process.

Another important consideration is your audience. As we mentioned earlier, many households have a smart TV now, but the distribution of users may vary – younger consumers may be more likely to access content on their phones, for example.

So, you should be aware of your target demographic and their viewing habits and preferences to determine how to make an app that will appeal to them. One good way to do this is by evaluating similar smart TV apps in your industry, including those of your competitors. When possible, see if you can find gaps in their offerings that you can fill with your own smart TV app.

5 Key Features in a Smart TV App

As far as designing your app, there are a few essential front-end and back-end features that you should keep in mind: 

• Accessible UI - It should be intuitive and easy to navigate your app on a smart TV. This will have a huge impact on app usage and retention of users.
• Personalization - You should provide personalized content suggestions, ideally through a recommendation algorithm. This will boost user experience and engagement with the app.
• Quality video - First and foremost, your smart TV app is a delivery mechanism for your video content. Make sure you have a quality online video platform like Maestro behind your live streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) content.
• Analytics - You should be able to track how users are interacting with your app and content, as well as evaluate content performance. This data will help you optimize your video content strategy.
• Monetization - There are many ways to monetize video content, including subscription, advertising, and transactional (i.e. video rentals). Your app should support at least some of these to help you translate your viewership into revenue.

Development of Your Smart TV App

Once you know who your app is for and you’ve thought about how you’ll incorporate key features into it, then you’re ready to start developing your app!

The most popular smart TV platforms right now are Samsung, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV. If you’ve done your due diligence on the target audience you’re aiming for, then you should know which platform(s) your users prefer. You should consider this alongside the relative market share for each TV OS – in the US, Roku is currently 34%; Samsung is 20%; Android and Amazon Fire are 15%; and Apple TV is 8%. Globally, Samsung is the undisputed leader.

Ultimately, you’ll want cross-platform compatibility with your app, but it’s still helpful knowing which OS is most important to your business. 

Next, you’ll need to decide how to make a smart TV app. Here are a few possibilities:

• Repurpose your existing mobile app. Do you already have a mobile app on Android or iOS? It’s possible to simply convert your app to work on a smart TV operating system like Android TV or Apple’s tvOS. The biggest difference is that input will switch from touchscreen to remote control. 
• Develop your own app. If you develop a smart TV app from scratch – either with a third-party developer or in-house talent – then you’ll get a custom-built solution that’s specifically designed for a smart TV. 
• White-label an app. You can always use an OTT app provider like Maestro to adapt a white-labeled app and turn it into your own fully-branded app. This may be the best of both worlds, giving you a lot of flexibility in how your app looks and feels to users, but at a fraction of the cost of developing it from scratch. 

All three are valid ways to make your smart TV app a reality. Just note that each smart TV platform is powered by its own unique set of tools: 

• Roku uses BrightScript and Roku SDK
• Amazon Fire recommends Android Studio and its Fire TV SDK
• Apple TV is best with XCode or Swift through the tvOS SDK
• Android TV relies on Android Studio and the Android TV SDK

Fortunately, you may not need to hand-code every app if you leverage tools like React Native or Flutter to create a cross-platform compatible app. Whichever way you decide to build your app for smart TVs, we hope you’ll turn to Maestro as a resource!  

Launching Your Smart TV App

Now, it’s finally time to launch your smart TV app. Here’s what to know.

First of all, make sure your app has the minimum viable functionality you need. Test all of the key features you’ve worked on, as well as the app’s usability across platforms, to ensure it’s ready to go. 

Each smart TV platform has its own guidelines and requirements for app submissions, so you should make sure your app meets those standards before you submit for approval. If you can, a beta testing period is incredibly valuable for quality assurance before launch.

When it comes to your smart TV app store listing, it should include quality screenshots, compelling descriptions, and relevant keywords to ensure that users will be able to find your app and want to use it.

After submitting your app to a smart TV platform, you’ll have to wait for approval. Of course, once your app is finally live, the launch is far from over – you’ll need to notify your current audience to encourage them to download the app on their smart TV. 

Assuming you want widespread adoption of the app, promote and broadcast your app announcement across all owned channels, including your company’s website, social media profiles, and email list. Consider other opportunities beyond owned channels to get the word out as well, such as partner marketing, influencer marketing, and even public relations.

In the end, with a successful launch behind you, it’s just a matter of regularly monitoring customer feedback and releasing consistent app updates to keep improving your app across platforms. Don’t forget to monitor your analytics to help you not only figure out how to make the app better, but also to create and publish more of the video content that gets the most engagement!

Work With Maestro

Maestro is a long-standing leader in the online video platform (OVP) market. Our service isn’t just a way to customize the front-end for your videos, but a fully-featured platform with advanced monetization options, in-depth analytics, robust security features, and interactive tools that cater to enterprise-level businesses.

Now, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve opened up a whole new opportunity for reaching your customers using smart TV apps. 

Are you ready to launch a smart TV app with Maestro? Contact us now to learn more!

→ Contact us to get started