Smart TV App Development Company: Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, Android TV, Roku, Fire TV and Apple TV Apps

Updated October 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

A smart TV app development company designs, builds and certifies the app a viewer opens with a remote: Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, Android TV and Google TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. We build smart TV apps for streaming services, broadcasters, publishers, fitness and education video brands, hotels and consumer brands, from the platform plan and the 10-foot interface to DRM playback, testing on real televisions and store submission. If your project is the streaming back end, the video player service or a subscription platform across phones and web, start with our video streaming page; if the problem is the television itself, start here.

What does a smart TV app development company build?

It builds the application a viewer launches from a television home screen, plus everything that app depends on to play video reliably: the interface for a remote control, the connection to your catalog and accounts, protected playback and the packaging each store demands.

TV app development company services, from plan to store

A tv app development company worth hiring covers the whole path. TV app development services start with discovery and a platform plan, then the TV interface, the build, the video player and DRM, analytics, store submission and later maintenance.

Who commissions a smart TV app

Streaming and OTT services, broadcasters, publishers, fitness and education brands with video libraries, hotels and cruise lines, retailers with product video, and agencies that need a build partner. We work with businesses; this is not a consumer service.

When casting or a phone app is enough

If viewers already hold your phone app, casting or AirPlay from it may be all you need. A television app earns its cost when viewing is long-form and repeat, when people expect to find you on the TV home screen and when you want the big screen to be the main way your content is watched.

How do smart TV apps work?

A smart TV is a television running an operating system with a store. An app is software for that system, written with that platform’s tools, that plays your video and talks to your accounts.

Apps, channels and the platform store

Every platform has its own software kit, its own store and its own review. Samsung describes submitting apps through its Seller Office, Roku reviews new and updated public apps before they appear in its store, and Apple reviews tvOS apps under its App Review Guidelines. Roku’s developer material says app, while buyers still say channel, so both words appear on this page.

The remote, the focus and the 10-foot screen

Nobody touches a television. A person moves a highlight with arrow keys or a pointer and presses select. Android’s TV pages put it plainly: design layouts that read from 10 feet away and navigate with a directional pad and a select button.

Where the video and the accounts come from

The app does not hold your catalog. It asks your content system, video platform, delivery network and entitlement service for what to play and whether this viewer may play it. We integrate the ones you have or build the missing piece through our API development work. The streaming side is covered on our video streaming page.

Which smart TV platform should you launch on first?

Which smart TV platform is better depends on where your viewers already are. Check your own analytics and your support tickets before reading market share charts.

Are Android TV and smart TV the same?

No. Smart TV is the category, a television that runs apps. Android TV is one platform inside it, alongside Tizen, webOS, Roku, Fire OS and tvOS. An Android TV app does not run on a Samsung or LG set without being rebuilt.

What smart TV platform does Samsung use, and what does LG use?

Samsung televisions use Tizen. LG televisions use webOS. Each company runs its own developer site and store, which is why a Samsung build and an LG build are separate submissions even when they share code.

Newer TV platforms: Titan OS, VIDAA and others

Other smart TV operating systems are emerging. Titan OS describes itself as a European independent OS for connected TV, and VIDAA is a smart TV platform from VIDAA International Holdings. We cite no audience figures for either. If a launch plan depends on one, we read its current developer terms before we scope it.

Samsung Tizen app development

Samsung Tizen app development covers televisions made by Samsung. Samsung smart TV app development uses web technology or Tizen .NET, depending on the app. Samsung TV app development also includes the submission side, which has its own rules.

How to develop apps for Samsung TV

Samsung’s developer pages offer guides for web apps and for Tizen .NET TV apps, which Samsung says are based on a C# framework. The SDK, described on its TV SDK page, includes Tizen Studio, a TV simulator, an emulator and Web Inspector. We build in the SDK and then test on real sets.

Is Samsung Tizen based on Android?

Samsung’s developer pages describe Tizen as its own platform with web and .NET app models, not as an Android system, and Tizen.org presents Tizen as an open source project hosted by the Linux Foundation. An Android app is not something Samsung’s TV pages describe running as is.

Samsung Seller Office review

Samsung’s TV Seller Office page lists the submission steps: confirm the package meets the requirements in the launch checklist, test against Samsung’s quality guidelines, supply an app description and test accounts that reach your content server, and register icons and screenshots. Content must also meet Samsung’s content policy. Review time varies by platform; check current documentation.

LG webOS app development

LG webOS app development targets LG televisions. LG webOS TV app development is closest to web development, with TV-specific libraries layered on top, and LG TV app development ends in LG’s own submission.

Web apps and Enact on webOS TV

LG’s webOS TV developer site says webOS TV supports standard web APIs and offers the webOS.JS library for TV-specific features. Enact is a React-based framework with a TV-centric UI library; LG’s home page does not mention it, so we confirm LG’s current guidance before choosing it.

Can webOS run Android apps?

LG’s developer pages do not describe running Android apps. They describe web apps and, as announced there, Flutter apps built with the flutter-webOS SDK. Plan a webOS build as its own target.

LG Seller Lounge submission

LG describes a seller portal called the LG Seller Lounge, an approval process and a self-checklist to run before submission. Published apps appear on the LG Apps portal. Installing a test build on a television through the platform’s developer tools is a one-line step in our test plan.

Android TV app development and Google TV

Android TV app development reuses Android skills and breaks Android habits. Google’s TV developer pages say TV apps use the same structure as phone apps, and in the same breath say the interaction model is substantially different.

How to build Android TV apps

Google calls Compose for TV the modern approach for Android TV interfaces and provides the androidx.tv:tv-material library for it, with a migration guide away from the deprecated Leanback toolkit. The manifest also declares the leanback launcher so the app appears on the TV home screen. Our Android app development team handles the Android side.

Do all Android apps work on Android TV?

No. The TV app quality guidance asks for full navigation with a five-way D-pad, a Back button that returns to the TV home screen, no text cut off by screen edges, a banner and icon for the launcher, and no requirement for a touchscreen. A phone app that needs touch fails that list. Android smart TV app development is mostly reshaping, not rewriting.

Google Play TV requirements

The same quality guidance requires Android App Bundles and, from August 1, 2026, support for 32-bit and 64-bit architectures and 16 KB page sizes. Google’s 64-bit page adds that an app using only Kotlin or Java code already supports 64-bit devices, and that each native 32-bit architecture needs its 64-bit counterpart. Dates change, so we recheck before every release.

Roku app development

Roku app development uses a stack found nowhere else, which makes it a separate workstream even for teams that ship on every other platform. Roku TV app development and Roku channel development are the same job under two names.

BrightScript and SceneGraph

Roku’s developer program describes SceneGraph as its XML framework for the interface and BrightScript as the scripting language for behavior, working together much as HTML and JavaScript do on a web page. A roku app development company needs people who write both, since none of the code carries over from Android or the web.

Roku certification

Roku’s certification page says Roku reviews new and updated public apps, and that criteria include a fully rendered home screen within 15 seconds, video starting within 8 seconds, closed caption support, deep linking and Roku Pay for transactional content. Roku says that when extra testing is needed, feedback comes within a week of submission. A code change means recertification; changes only to streamed content do not.

Ad-supported Roku channels and the Roku Advertising Framework

The Roku Advertising Framework is the video ad library in the Roku SDK. It parses VAST and VMAP responses and supports client-side ads and server-side ad insertion samples. Roku’s certification rules say apps that monetize with ads must integrate it.

Fire TV app development

Fire TV app development targets Amazon’s televisions and streaming devices. Amazon Fire TV app development has the shortest path from an existing Android app, with differences that matter.

Fire OS and Vega OS

Amazon’s Fire TV page says Fire TV runs Fire OS, a fork of the Android Open Source Project. The page we read does not mention Vega OS, so we make no claims about it and check Amazon’s current developer pages whenever a client asks.

Sharing an Android TV build with Fire TV

Amazon says most Android apps work on Fire TV and that the main difference is its own services in place of Google’s. What carries over is the interface and most of the code. What must change is anything tied to Google services, and every release gets tested on Fire TV hardware. Amazon also supports HTML5 web apps and React Native.

Amazon Appstore submission

Amazon publishes a guide to submitting a Fire TV app to its Appstore. We prepare the package, listing and test materials against that guide, and the submission goes through your developer account.

Apple TV app development

Apple TV app development ships on tvOS and reaches viewers through the App Store. It feels closest to iPhone work, and tvOS app development differs most in how the person moves around.

Swift, SwiftUI and the tvOS focus engine

Apple’s tvOS page describes SwiftUI as the way to build for all Apple platforms, with UIKit, AVKit and Metal available for richer apps, and says SwiftUI can port iOS apps to tvOS. Focus, the way a highlight moves from tile to tile, is the central design problem; we test it on a real Apple TV.

Top Shelf, the Siri Remote and voice search

Apple says apps can support voice commands with the Siri Remote, matching the Apple TV app, and can present video in picture in picture and in 4K with Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos. We read Apple’s current Top Shelf guidance before designing that area.

App Store review for tvOS apps

Apple’s App Review Guidelines apply. Guideline 2.4.3 says people should be able to use an Apple TV app with no hardware beyond the Siri Remote or third-party game controllers. Guideline 3.1.1 requires in-app purchase to unlock features or content such as subscriptions.

Designing for the 10-foot screen

A television interface is read from a couch and driven by a remote. The principles are few, and platforms differ in details.

Focus states and D-pad navigation

Exactly one item should show focus at a time, focus should move in the direction the viewer pressed, and Back should do what the platform expects. Android’s guidance requires full D-pad navigation; the same discipline helps on every platform.

Type sizes, safe areas and overscan

Text must be large enough to read at distance and stay clear of screen edges. Android’s quality list says no text or functionality may be cut off by overscan. We take exact sizes and margins from each platform’s current design guide rather than printing numbers here.

Rails, tiles and search by voice

Most TV apps are rows of tiles with a hero area and a search. Voice search belongs in the plan from the start, since remotes with microphones are common. Our UI and UX design team designs the system once and adapts it per platform.

Playback, DRM and testing on real televisions

Playback is where TV apps succeed or fail. Protected video, adaptive streaming and old hardware meet here.

HLS, DASH and adaptive bitrate on TVs

HTTP Live Streaming is defined in RFC 8216, an informational document from August 2017 describing a protocol for transferring unbounded streams of multimedia data. MPEG-DASH is promoted by the DASH Industry Forum, which publishes interoperability guidelines and the dash.js reference client. Adaptive bitrate means the player switches between encodings as the connection changes; on TVs we tune start-up time and switching against memory limits.

Widevine, PlayReady and FairPlay by platform

Three DRM systems matter. Google calls Widevine its content protection system for premium media, and says full documentation depends on licensing. Microsoft’s PlayReady lets providers control things such as expiration and resolution. Apple’s FairPlay Streaming protects HLS playback on Apple platforms. Which a given television supports is confirmed on that television.

Why emulators cannot sign off DRM

PlayReady’s documentation lists security level and output protection levels as concepts, and how a particular television enforces them can only be seen on that television. An emulator can prove the app flow; only the set proves protected playback.

A device lab plan

A lab covers several model years per platform, at least one low-memory set (Android’s guidance sets memory limits for low-RAM devices) and a way to throttle the network. Results are logged per set, so a regression points to a model, not a guess.

OTT app development: what it means on the television

OTT app development is the work of delivering video over the internet to televisions and other screens. OTT app development services on a television add the platform and remote constraints above to the usual streaming stack. We cover the service pieces; the streaming back end is on our video streaming page.

What is OTT in software development?

OTT, over the top, means video delivered over the internet rather than cable or satellite. In software terms it is an app, a back end and a delivery network that together stream a catalog to a viewer who has signed in.

OTT platform pieces we build and pieces you license

An OTT app development company usually builds the apps and the integration, and licenses the pieces that are products in their own right: the content management system, the video platform, the delivery network, the DRM license server and the analytics service. We tell you which of those we recommend licensing and why.

CTV app development for ad-supported services

CTV app development means apps for connected television, usually ad-supported. The work adds an ad server connection, ad insertion and measurement. The IAB Tech Lab describes VAST as a universal XML schema for serving ads to digital video players; its latest numbered version is 4.3, released December 2022. Our ad tech software work covers deeper ad systems.

Monetization options for TV apps

How the app earns decides which features it needs. Choose the model before the interface, because it changes the sign-in, billing and ad code.

SVOD, AVOD, FAST and TVOD

Many services mix models, such as a free ad-supported tier and a paid tier without ads. The table lists what each model asks the app to do.

Subscriptions bought on the TV versus on the web

Store rules decide where a viewer can buy. Apple’s guidelines require in-app purchase to unlock subscriptions and premium content, with separate treatment for reader apps and, in United States storefront apps, no entitlement needed for external purchase links. Roku requires its Roku Pay for transactional content. We read each store’s current rules before choosing a billing design.

Client-side and server-side ad insertion

Client-side insertion has the app request and play ads. Server-side insertion stitches ads into the stream before it reaches the viewer. VAST describes server-side support from version 4.0. The Roku Advertising Framework includes server-side samples. The choice changes who measures the ad and how much work the television does.

Frameworks: native, web and shared codebases

No framework covers every television. The honest plan shares what can be shared and builds the rest natively.

Web-based TV apps on Tizen and webOS

Both Samsung and LG describe web app models, so a web codebase can serve both with separate packaging, testing and submission. See our progressive web apps and web app development pages for the web side.

React Native tvOS and Flutter on television

The react-native-tvos project is a fork of React Native that adds Apple TV and Android TV support, and it cannot be used alongside the core package in one project. Amazon also lists React Native support for Fire TV, and LG announces Flutter support for webOS. Compare the options on our React Native development, Flutter development and React Native or Flutter pages.

What a shared codebase cannot share

Roku’s BrightScript code, DRM integration and store packaging stay platform-specific. A shared codebase also needs per-platform shells and per-platform tests. Our cross-platform apps page explains the trade.

Hotel, cruise and enterprise TV apps

A hotel TV app is a television app for guests, and an enterprise one is a television app for staff or visitors. Both run on the platforms above or on a vendor’s room system.

In-room and lobby screen apps

The app layer covers guest information, casting and links to ordering or service requests. The in-room hardware and the middleware that controls it usually belong to your vendor, and we design to the vendor’s app platform.

Signage and kiosk crossovers

Lobby screens and wall displays overlap with our kiosk software work, since both run one app full screen without a keyboard.

Managing a fleet of televisions

A hotel with hundreds of sets needs a way to update apps, lock a set to one app and change settings remotely. Plan this with the vendor early. Marketing a property is covered by hotel marketing and its site by hotel websites.

Privacy, captions and accessibility on TV apps

Video apps carry their own legal and accessibility rules. We build the support; your counsel decides how the rules apply.

Viewing data and the Video Privacy Protection Act

The Video Privacy Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. 2710, makes a video tape service provider liable for knowingly disclosing personally identifiable information about a consumer, with exceptions. Its consent rule asks for informed, written consent in a form distinct from other terms. Whether it covers a given app is a question for counsel.

Closed captions for internet video

The FCC says its rules require programs captioned on TV to be captioned when re-shown on the internet, and that the rules apply only if the video was shown on TV in the U.S. with captions, per the FCC guide. Roku’s certification separately asks for closed caption support. We build caption support into every player.

Screen readers on TV platforms

Each platform has its own accessibility settings and rules. Android’s TV quality tiers list items such as audio descriptions, subtitle styling and high-contrast mode. We test with the accessibility features each set offers and report what we found.

How AI assistants answer questions about TV app developers

Buyers ask assistants which developers build Roku, Tizen or tvOS apps and how long certification takes. Assistants repeat what a developer publishes plainly, and ignore what is vague.

What buyers ask

Platform lists, cost, timeline and frameworks. The honest answers include that review times vary by platform and that cost follows scope.

What a TV app developer should publish

A smart TV app development company should publish specific pages for each platform, a stated process and no inflated claims. This page states what we build and what we do not claim: no clients named, no platform partner status and no store certifications.

Smart TV app development cost and timeline

Smart TV app development has no standard price, because two projects with the same platform can differ by a back end, a DRM setup and an ad system. Cost drives are listed here, and the price follows a written scope. OTT app development cost and tv app development cost follow the same rule.

What drives the cost

Number of platforms, DRM systems, the back end, ads, analytics, content ingest and the device lab. Each is a line in the scope.

How we quote

Every TV app is quoted after a written scope, with no price before it. Our how app pricing works page explains how app projects are priced in general.

Phased delivery

Build the first platform, then the next two, then the rest. Review times vary by store, so dates are set by scope and by each store’s current process.

How to choose a smart TV app development company

Choosing among smart tv app development companies comes down to evidence on real televisions. Smart tv app development services are easy to describe and hard to deliver, so ask for proof of the hard parts.

Questions to ask TV app developers

Which devices do you test on? What DRM work can you show? Have you handled submissions on the platforms I need? Who owns the code and the store accounts? Good tv app developers answer in writing.

Warning signs in a TV app proposal

One codebase promised for every platform with no caveats, emulator-only testing, platform partner claims you cannot check and a price with no written scope.

Smart TV app development companies in the USA or offshore

We are based in New York City, work in US time zones and deliver remotely worldwide. We make no claims about other companies. See our app developers in New York page, or hire app developers if you want to extend your own team.

More app development services

These pages cover the work that sits beside a television app.

• App development agency
• Android app development
• iOS app development
• Native app development
• Cross-platform apps
• Music and audio apps
• React Native development
• Flutter development
• A first release
• Product design
• Cloud back ends
• Cloud hosting
• AWS, Azure or Google Cloud
• Fitness apps
• News apps
• Video advertising
• Video production
• Education software
• Custom software
• Enterprise apps
• Website builds

Frequently asked questions