Right on the heels of our post about LG Electronics adding Netflix Watch Instantly capability to its HDTV ranges, comes brand-new research commissioned by Internet TV software company Oregan Networks and semiconductor company Micronas, about consumer expectations of HDTV purchase drivers.

The study was carried out by Strategy Analytics, home of occasional Connected TV blogger David Mercer, so it’s worth taking note of its findings, which relate to the issue of ‘TV media browsing’ via the Internet.

Bearing out what we suggested in our LG/Netflix post, it turns out that the ability to access Video on Demand services without the need for a PC or any other equipment was considered to be the most valuable feature of a TV media browser, for all user segments. The second most valuable feature was considered to be the ability to search the home network for media and content stored on other devices. Ability to access user-generated content such as YouTube videos was ranked third on average overall.

In addition, 87% of respondents said they would select a TV with a media browser (if the option were available) because it would offer them more entertainment choices, while 71% of all respondents said they would prefer a default media browser to be installed.

Another interesting finding (which relates to our post on online video advertising) is that 51% of all respondents would prefer to watch movies for free with advertising. Of the remaining 49%, half (25%) would only pay to watch movies if they were still in theatres (this is pretty much a deal-breaker at present, it should be said - the studios are nowhere near releasing movies for VOD, on the Internet or otherwise, while they’re still showing in cinemas!). The other half (24%) were prepared to pay for movies with no ads.

Finally, the study also investigated key consumer concerns about browsing Internet media on TV, and found that the largest proportion of comments related to the perceived ability to download or stream media at a sufficiently high speed to provide an acceptable quality of audiovisual experience. 17% of respondents also had concerns about how user-friendly the browser would be, while 12% had concerns about the TV being more expensive to fix if it were to break. Only 6% of respondents were concerned how much the television would cost to buy - which is just as well considering LG’s reported $200-300 premium!

Implicit in the use of a term ‘browser’ is the ability to access different services, although the research did find that gated services such as Netflix were amongst those perceived as “adding most value to the regular TV feature set” (others included You Tube and Hulu). Nevertheless, insofar as the study provides evidence about consumer willingness to use their TVs to access Internet media material, it is clear that their enthusiasm relates to an open Internet model, rather than a walled garden. The jury is out on how much adding, say, only Netflix ‘browsing’ capability, would depress these findings.