I built one of these as I couldn't find anything online satisfying this niche!
I always want to charge my phone while on the couch but hated unsightly cables hanging around the armrest or underneath.
Plus, it gave me a convenient spot to put my surround speakers without needing to wall mount.
It's a reasonably easy project for someone with little woodworking experience.
I am using a beamer and my TV is the whole wall on the opposite side of the living room. And as mentionned in another post, I like to have space for when I have some visits which allows having chairs around our table.
Besides not all living rooms are equals, I live in a 85m2 flat so the living room is probably much smaller than the one you would see in a typical suburbian house in the USA. And there are a lot of people living in much smaller places.
my apartment used to have a second bedroom, when it was 'opened up' into the living room, we used a sofa extending 'out' from the wall to separate the room
the hardest part was finding a sofa where the back wasn't just a void or some scrap fabrics
Behind-the-sofa consoles might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about furniture, but it's definitely the thing I will do in my house. I'll use them to store books, hide away cables, and add some USB chargers. Sometimes the most practical solutions are the ones you don't even realize you need until you see them somewhere.
There are also electric recliner sofas that have USB and AC built into to the armrests or center console. The recliner needs power anyway, the marginal cost of exposing that power via USB is low enough to justify the utility.
Many years ago, I bought 2x IKEA LACK tv consoles for exactly that purpose. Less than 30€ and is now used to store/display a lot of books right where I need them when relaxing on the sofa :)
It's a reasonably easy project for someone with little woodworking experience.