This year has brought the rise of the “art TV,” a thin flat-screen TV with a library of high-res digital art that turns the device into an ever-changing framed piece of art, or something resembling it, when idle. While any device can show art or photographs, characteristics such as a thin silhouette, frame-like border, subtle backlighting, and matte-finish screen make an art TV resemble a “museum-quality” print on the wall when it is not showing movies or sports. Such devices have been around for a while, but 2026 has brought new players, more sophisticated and flexible offerings, and lots of attention.
The category provides opportunities for licensors of art IPs and other property types, and the number of content partnerships is on the rise. Manufacturers are increasingly looking to expand and elevate their offerings with officially licensed imagery, typically available to art TV owners through a subscription, as a way to differentiate in an increasingly crowded market. Makers also offer public domain artwork, some exclusively and others in combination with licensed content.
Some of the manufacturers and brands that have taken the licensing route to date include:
- Samsung’s The Frame. Samsung is the longest-established player and the most active in the licensing space so far, signing agreements with a range of IP owners for art and beyond. Just this year, it has partnered with museums and other arts organizations (Whitney Museum of American Art, Munch Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Louvre); entertainment/character licensors (the Moomin brand, studio A4); artist estates (Tamara de Lempicka, Maria Prymachenko), and independent creators (e.g., via Minted). Other property types are in the mix as well; last month a deal with the National Park Foundation and its agency Seltzer Licensing brought 40 photographs of U.S. national parks by Jonathan Irish to Samsung’s portfolio. As of March of this year the Samsung Art Store had 80 partnerships, with the number expanding since then, and more than 3,000 individual artworks tied to everything from Disney and Keith Haring to Cultured Magazine and Marimekko.
- LG’s Gallery TV. Last month, LG collaborated with The Met to bring more than 100 artworks from the museum’s collection to its LG Gallery+ subscription service. The Gallery TV launched at the beginning of 2026, with 4,500 images available; since then it has signed deals with partners ranging from contemporary textile artist David Nott to late TV personality and painter Bob Ross.
- Skyworth’s C2 Canvas Art TV. Skyworth, a Chinese brand known as the television licensee for brands such as Panasonic and Philips, launched the C2, a smaller, more flexible version of its existing art TV line that is meant to work in more places throughout the home, earlier this year. As of August, it had made available more than 400 images, including licensed as well as public domain artworks, through its Art Time software.
- Sony’s Bravia featuring Leon’s Studio Frame. Through the Sony Art Frame Gallery, owners of the Studio Frame-enabled Bravia TV can select from more than 150 works from Sony’s Alpha photography collection, plus images from the online art gallery Singulart and other sources. The Studio Frame feature also allows the artworks to be paired with music via the Leon Sound Bar.
- NetGear’s Meural Smart. NetGear has partnered over the years with crypto art and NFT platforms such as Async Art and SuperRare to offer digital art for display on its art TVs. More recently, it has brought in content from The Little Prince brand, the New York Public Library, Magnum Photos, and Bridgeman Studio, an online platform for contemporary artists, printmakers, graphic artists, and illustrators.
Other brands are also active in the art TV sector, including the Hisense Canvas TV, the Amazon Ember Artline, and the TCL Nxtframe.
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