European broadcasters accuse Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung of skewing smart TV recommendations

European broadcasters have asked the European Commission to designate the smart TV platforms and virtual assistants of Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung as market "gatekeepers". In their view, built-in search and recommendations increasingly decide what viewers actually see on screen.

Why the dispute arose

On 23 March 2026, several industry associations of television and radio broadcasters sent a letter to European Commission Vice-President Teresa Ribera. Their argument is simple: the connected TV market is rapidly consolidating around a few large ecosystems, and access to audiences depends less and less on the quality of the films, series or channels themselves, and more on how the TV interface presents them. If a platform controls the home screen, search and voice control, it can quietly steer users toward a chosen service and away from competitors.

The authors believe this is exactly where the risk of skew arises. Built-in recommendations, search suggestions and system settings can favor content that benefits the platform owner. To users this looks like ordinary convenience, but for broadcasters this logic turns the TV from a neutral device into an intermediary that influences distribution.

The European Commission has already confirmed that it will review the appeal, and the smart TV dispute immediately became part of the broader European antitrust fight against American tech giants.

Who is gaining ground

The letter cites 2025 market research: from 2019 to 2024, the share of Android TV grew from 16% to 23%, Amazon Fire OS from 5% to 12%, while Samsung Tizen held 24% of the market. For broadcasters this indicates not just popularity but concentration of power at the entry point to content. The operating system decides which apps appear on the first screen, how search works, what makes it into recommendations, and how easily a viewer can move from one service to another without extra barriers.

"A small number of operators are gaining growing power over access to

audiences," the broadcasters' letter says.

What the broadcasters want

The coalition asks that the DMA, the EU's Digital Markets Act, be applied to the largest TV platforms. A service designated as a gatekeeper faces stricter requirements: it must not abuse its control over the interface, must not promote its own services at the expense of others, and must not prevent competitors from reaching users.

The broadcasters also raise the issue of virtual assistants separately. They already exist in the law as a distinct category of platforms, but in practice no such assistant has yet received special status, even though assistants increasingly become the first point where people choose content.

• designate major smart TV operating systems and assistant providers as "gatekeepers"
• if the formal thresholds are not met, open a market investigation based on qualitative criteria
• revise the overly narrow definition of "business user" for virtual assistants
• prevent downgrading the visibility of third-party apps and forcing users into the platform's own ecosystem

The argument about assistants matters especially in the age of generative AI. The letter says such systems are quickly moving beyond the TV: they run on smartphones, smart speakers and in-car media systems. If regulation fails to keep up with this shift, AI assistants could become the de facto dispatchers of media consumption, with no obligations on neutrality and interoperability. The platform would then influence not only which service a user picks, but the very process of choosing: what to open first, where to search and whose subscription to buy.

What this means

The smart TV story shows that the battle over AI is fought not only in chatbots but also in the everyday interfaces through which people get content. If the EU backs the broadcasters, antitrust pressure will fall not only on search engines and app stores, but also on TV shells with voice assistants. It is an important signal for the market: today, competitive advantage comes not only from content itself, but from whoever controls the road to it.