Providing market intelligence for more than 35 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

Amazon Opens Prime Video To Monthly Memberships In A Challenge To Netflix

Surveys by consulting firm Parks Associates found that many people who signed up for Prime Video's free 30-day trial were not converting to subscribers. About 34% of people surveyed by Parks Associ...

Euro SVOD Lags The US

New research from Parks Associates shows that in the UK, 55% of broadband homes watch OTT video. In France, the total is 51%. The levels of OTT usage lag that of the US, where 70% of broadband home...

SVODs Are Hot, But Subscribers Are Still Fickle

A new study from Dallas-based research firm Parks Associates has found that 20% of US broadband households (approximately 90 million homes) cancelled at least one OTT or SVOD subscription in 2015....

More Americans now pay for streaming video content than cable television, survey finds

Netflix is also preparing to crackdown on illegal account sharing via new artificial intelligence software, which will be able to analyze which users are logged in and then flag shared accounts. Th...