Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Paid streaming for cheapskates is having a moment

“This is a lot of catalog content,” says Parks Associates entertainment research director Michael Goodman, using industry shorthand for titles making up Hollywood’s back catalogs.

“There is not one business model that fits everybody,” says Goodman. Adding ad-free streaming to its portfolio is a smart move for Roku, he argues. “You need to have multiple platforms to reach the consumer.”

If Howdy catches on, other free streamers may follow with their own paid plans, predicts Goodman. “There is potential for this to expand to other services.”

“Subscription growth at any cost — that’s not the model today,” says Goodman, alluding to the billions of dollars the industry poured into streaming a few years ago.

When services like Apple TV Plus and Peacock launched in 2019 and 2020, respectively, they bet on undercutting Netflix with deeply discounted subscription plans — only to double the costs of those plans in the following years.

Could the same eventually happen to Howdy subscribers? Goodman thinks so. “Over time, the price will rise,” he says.

From the article, "Paid streaming for cheapskates is having a moment" by Janko Roettgers

Previously In The News

Being Smarter About Smart Home Alarms

But by the end of the 20th century that market growth leveled off and stagnated. Fast-forward to the past 10 years, with heightened acceleration the past three to five, and (according to Parks Associa...

Google Adds New Tools for Retailers to Cloud Platform

In other news, new research from Parks Associates that came out during CES 2023 has shown that 63 percent of U.S. households with internet access own a smart TV – a 38 percent increase from 2015. Addi...

Study: Smart home offerings drive resi security

Smart home offerings have boosted residential security by more than 15 percent in the past two years, according to Parks Associates in its report, “The New Face of Home Security—2015 Edition.” Smar...

The IT Shop Partner Profile

Parks Associates’ (News - Alert) study on IT support spending for small business finds that small businesses (those will less than 250 employees) spend only $150 per month for IT services. That number...