Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

DirecTV is making an Android-powered streaming box. What gives?

“If (AT&T) had a box that came in at $35 or under, consumers would be interested,” Brett Sappington told me. He’s the senior director of research at Parks Associates, which pays extremely close attention to the over-the-top (OTT) — meaning Internet-based TV — space. “They’d buy it just to see if it worked.”

Sappington reasons that a new streaming box isn’t dead on arrival, so long as it has a stellar user interface, is feature-rich, is open to all TV app developers and is relatively cheap. An existing DirecTV Now customer, for instance, may be compelled to test out the company’s box if it promises better streaming performance — say, no buffering during any live streams — and comes with some sort of service-plus-box deal.

From the article "DirecTV is making an Android-powered streaming box. What gives?" by Jennifer Van Grove.

Previously In The News

Parks: Netflix retains OTT top-spot in the US

“Importantly, all of these services have increased their subscriber base over the past year. The top five OTT services have stayed consistent, primarily through maintaining or growing the massive user...

Comcast says traditional TV viewing is up, but subscribers are down across the board

According to a recent report on TV viewership from Parks Associates, 20% of US broadband households don't have a pay-TV service, while 12% of those homes cut the cord in 2018. The report found that f...

AT&T gooses $45 prepaid plan with cheaper iPhones

And, as a recent report from Parks Associates noted, consumers are increasingly drawn to the simplified pricing offers in prepaid. The firm said that “currently postpaid carriers are starting to explo...

Cord-Cutting On The Rise In The US

“Pay TV subscriptions have dropped each year since 2014, falling to 81% of US broadband households in Q3 2016,” said Brett Sappington, senior director of research, Parks Associates. “Several factor...