Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Streaming wars will force media companies to choose between pricey subscriptions and ads

Parks Associates, a research firm that tracks the connected home, found in a recent survey that one-third of U.S. broadband households use a free, ad-based streaming service, up from 24% a year earlier.

“Consumers are turning to ad-supported streaming services as subscription fatigue continues to settle in,” Brandon Riney, a researcher at Parks, told CNBC in an email. “When discussing attitudes regarding ads on these streaming services, more consumers are willing to endure the ads to watch the content than completely resisting them.”

“As the purse strings of OTT consumers tighten, there is tremendous opportunity for free ad-based services to thrive,” wrote Steve Nason, an analyst at Parks Associates, in a post in November. “A service can establish a foothold in this space by delivering a unique offering of high-quality content in an engaging advertising-based environment.”

From the article "Streaming wars will force media companies to choose between pricey subscriptions and ads" by Megan Graham.

Previously In The News

Standalone Pay TV Service ARPU Declined 10% From 2016-2018: Research Company

"Traditional pay TV providers (MVPDs) have faced continued subscriber losses due to increasing consumer choice from OTT services, so they are deploying skinny bundles and vMVPD services to create more...

OTT Video Churn Steady at 19%: Study

Parks Associates attributes a chunk of that OTT churn to consumer experimentation. “These are not free trials but instances where consumers are spending real money to try out new OTT services. One-...

What Apple Can Learn From Its TV Failures

A new report from market-research firm Parks Associates places Apple fourth in terms of market share for streaming media players like the Apple TV, a sign that consumer infatuation with Apple products...

Netflix Leads the Top-10 Subscription OTT Video Services

HBO Now leaped into the top-five for the first time, YouTube Red solidified itself into the top-10 for the first time, and both Showtime and Starz moved up or entered the list compared to 2016. "Wh...