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

HBO Max: Everything you need to know about HBO's bigger streaming app

But two crucial streaming devices don't have HBO Max apps. Neither Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices supported HBO Max, even though those devices represent the vast majority of streaming devices in the...

Apple explored a TV-streaming dongle as a cheap alternative to Apple TV

Apple's commitment to the high end has crimped its market share of streaming players, preventing it from dominating an exploding market. The number of households with a streaming player has quadrupled...

Fitbit, Apple Watch could bring new era of health monitoring

Sixteen percent of US households with broadband connections report owning at least one smartwatch, according to data from Parks Associates, a market research firm. That's up from 4 percent in the firs...

At CES 2019, Apple finally sets iTunes, AirPlay loose

The number of households with a streaming player has quadrupled in the last five years, according to Parks Associates, but Apple trails Roku and Amazon in market share, and it seldom discounts its pri...