Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Joining a crowded market, NBCUniversal launches $4-a-month online comedy service in January

NBCUniversal's latest effort to target millennials is coming: An online video service focused on comedy that costs $4 a month.

The service, Seeso, will have original content and NBC shows like "30 Rock" and "The Office," ''Saturday Night Live," standup and the "Monty Python" movies. It will be available for most people in January.

NBCUniversal and its owner, cable and Internet giant Comcast, have been trying different ways to get young people's attention as live TV viewing declines. If Seeso had been born 15 years ago, it would have launched as a cable channel, said Evan Shapiro, Executive Vice President of NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises. But online viewing today is "clearly part of the mainstream," and to reach comedy nerds, Comcast is launching Seeso as an online subscription service.

Comcast has also launched a YouTube-like video service, Watchable; is trying out an Internet-based basic cable TV alternative that doesn't require a cable box in some markets; and invested in new media outlets like BuzzFeed and Vox.

But Seeso will have to compete for attention in a crowded market.

"In the past year we keep seeing more and more services coming up, more niche services," said Glenn Hower, an analyst with market research firm Parks Associates.

From the article "Joining a crowded market, NBCUniversal launches $4-a-month online comedy service in January" by Tali Arbel.

Previously In The News

How Apple’s Purchase Of Startup Reveals Health Data Strategy

Harry Wang, senior research director for Parks Associates says that Apple is “known to be searching for the next $100 billion opportunity, and the gigantic healthcare industry is ripe for technology d...

OTT Sees Healthy Gains In Broadband Homes

Parks’ OTT Video Market Tracker also shows that Netflix, WWE Network and Hulu have the highest word-of-mouth consumer promotion scores. Parks looked at consumer behavior during Q3 2014 and compared...

Is DirecTV Now Still a Good Deal for Consumers?

That means no “Storage Wars, no “The Walking Dead,” no “Property Brothers,” and no “The Daily Show.” It's not unusual for services to reconfigure their plans after they launch, says Brett Sappingto...

Roku's New Streaming Media Players Support 4K And HDR Video

However at least two research firms have reported that Roku is leading the race in the OTT market: Parks Associates said earlier this year that Roku accounted for 30 percent of streaming media players...