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

Smart thermostats are tough sell, but ComEd hopes rebates boost interest

A study released this month by Parks Associates found only 18 percent of consumers would buy a smart thermostat at $250, but offering a $100 rebate more than doubled the pool of interested buyers....

The streaming wars are flooding us with TV

Password sharing cost streaming companies about $9.1 billion last year, according to data from the research firm Parks Associates. From the article "The streaming wars are flooding us with TV".

Amazon Prime Video app arrives on Oculus Go VR headset

Despite a respectable amount of content and games for virtual reality headsets – and options like Oculus Go driving down the cost of ownership – virtual reality has yet to tap into much of the U.S. ma...

Password sharing denies streaming services $9 billion in fees

According to analysis by research firm Parks Associates, password piracy and sharing cost streaming providers like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney Plus $9.1 billion in 2019 alone. Why aren’t these companies...