Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

How Many Consumers Actually Have VR Headsets?

Parks Associates released new consumer research this week showing that 2 percent of U.S. broadband households, or 2.3 million households, own a virtual reality headset. The survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households reportedly reveals that 5 percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a VR headset in 2016, an increase from only 1 percent who made a purchase the year prior.

“The big change in VR for 2016 has been the availability or pending availability of VR headsets from companies such as Facebook (Oculus Rift), Google (Google Cardboard) and HTC (Vive). Sony PlayStation VR is expected to be released in October. We expect gamers to be the initial market for VR,” Barbara Kraus, Parks Associates director of research, says. “VR is an immersive experience, and more is better for gamers – more immersion, better sound, better graphics, and more players. The mass market is more likely to adopt mobile VR, which will be less expensive and uses a tool – the smartphone – that the majority of U.S. consumers own.”

From the article "How Many Consumers Actually Have VR Headsets?" by Laura Hamilton.

Previously In The News

Streaming service bundles are a new way to attract subscribers

The demand for over-the-top (OTT) media services exploded when the global coronavirus pandemic forced millions of people to refrain from social gatherings and stringent lockdown measures heavily regul...

The Top Retailers in Home Entertainment 2019: The Golden 12

Amazon also offers transactional (both purchase and rental) and subscription streaming through Amazon Prime Video, continuing to forge partnerships with cablers such as Cox, which added the service to...

Is The Increasingly Crowded Streaming Marketplace Going to Turn Consumers Back to Piracy?

In the short term, consumers are more than happy to keep paying for multiple services. According to a report published by Parks Associates in June 2021, 46 percent of US homes with broadband-level Int...

Parks: Live-Streamed Video Consumption Increases to 40% Among Internet Households

New data from Parks Associates found that 40% of internet households live-streamed content over the past 90 days. The Dallas-based research firm found that live-streamed video consumption reached near...