Providing Market Intelligence for 40 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

Consumers' Dependence on Broadband Gives Comcast a Streaming Opportunity

However, that's not the most noteworthy detail of the Parks Associates report for Charter and Comcast shareholders. Curiously, only about one-fifth of those internet users questioned subscribe to a st...

'Game of Thrones' is gone, and so are some HBO subscribers

“I think churn is a big challenge for an industry that was essentially designed to allow it, where viewers can switch easily between services and there’s very little barriers to entry,” said Brett Sap...

Fake News: Here's Why Facebook Needs To Tackle The Problem, Urgently!

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publishes his manifesto outlining the company's ongoing commitment to filter out false news and hoaxes without undermining free speech, the findings from a new study by...

Smart Home: $20 Threshold, Lingering Privacy Concerns

According to Parks Associates, 50% of U.S. broadband households surveyed consider $20 or more per month for a comprehensive smart home service to be a good value. More than 26 million U.S. households...