2024 has already seen one company shake up its choice of TV operating system, with Panasonic announcing that it will be doing away its My Home Screen software, in favour of Fire TV. Philips, on the other hand, is doing the complete opposite; ditching an established operating system in favour of a nicher solution, but not on all of its TVs.
TP Vision (the company that licenses Philips TVs in Europe and other select markets such as Latin America) has revealed that it will partner with Titan OS S.L, a European software development company that has created its own smart TV platform called Titan OS. It will feature on its upcoming entry-level Mini LED and LCD TVs, including the PML9009 Xtra Mini-LED and "The One" LCD (also known as the PUS8909).
It's not only coming to Philips TVs though, as TP Vision has announced that it has also partenered with UK technology retailer Currys to launch Titan OS on its selection of JVC TVs. For those unitiated, Currys manufacturers and distributes JVC sets here in the UK,
Interestingly, Philips has shopped around the TV smart platforms in recent years. Just last year it swapped from Android TV to Google TV on the OLED808 and OLED908. However, after being plagued with various licesning issues between Google TV and Freeview Play, the company had to delay its latest OLED TVs to October of last year, hence our surprise when it already announced replacements for these models just three months on. That being said, it will continue to use Google TV on the newly announced OLED+959 and OLED+909.
So what does Titan OS have to offer? From what we can see, it features a majority of the apps we'd expect to see, including Disney Plus, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, as well as regional services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV X and Channel 4. However, there was no mention of Apple TV or Now (formerly Now TV) in Philip's most recent release, so we can't confirm if these services will feature on the platform.
In the brief look we've had at the platform, it appears to be a fusion of Google TV and webOS in design. It features a top-mounted navigation bar to swap between home, apps, channels and a search function, while the bottom of the home screen features content suggestions and a selection of favourite (possibly recently used) streaming apps.
Philips is also highlighting Titan OS' capabilities when it comes to advertising, noting that the Titan Advertising portion of the company will be launching alongside this partnership. Philips suggests that Titan will "enable TV manufacturers to extend their business beyond hardware", allowing them to access "continuous revenue streams for the 40% of the TV market that lacks its own operating system". Could this be a dig at LG's webOS and Samsung's Tizen OS?
You can expect to see Titan OS launch on the two afformentioned Philips models in the first half of 2024. We might be reading too much into Philips' word choices here, but it did say that this it will "initially feature on two Philips branded 2024 models", meaning we could see the software on more Philips models coming later down the line.
MORE:
Read our full Philips OLED808 review
As well as Philips OLED808 vs LG C3: which is the better step-down OLED?
And our list of the best TVs