Smart TVs are set to have more functionality due a new alliance between four major manufacturers to create a ‘develop once, multi publish’ system for app creators. Called the Smart TV Alliance, this system brings together LG Electronics, Panasonic, TP Vision (Philips) and Toshiba, which have a combined reach of 58 million units.

At the centre of this alliance is the Common Developer Portal, meaning that once an app is created, it can published to multiple systems and millions of TVs, without the need to reconfigure it.

More than 6,000 developers have registered to develop and publish their applications in the portal since it opened in June 2014,” the Smart TV Alliance said. “Developer participation has increased by an average of 1,000 registrations each month, filling a pipeline of new, multi-manufacturer smart TV apps in 2015.”