Investor's Business Daily

Currently, over-the-top television is a supplement to existing cable, satellite and telco TV services. But tech companies like Apple and Google are interested in delivering programming packages over broadband Internet connections that someday could replace today's pay TV services.

Parks Associates reported in August that the number of U.S. broadband households with a streaming video device, such as a Roku box or an Apple TV, has doubled since 2011, reaching 14% in 2013. The ...read more

Smart TVs, DVRs, smart thermostats, and other new connected devices are an emerging market for tech support services, according to Parks Associates' consumer research. Technical Support for Emerging Devices reports over 25% of U.S. broadband households value support service for at least one of these "emerging" devices, with 17% interested in support for multiple devices.

"Emerging" devices in this consumer study are specifically defined by Parks Associates as smart TVs, conn ...read more

By 2016, 95% of all U.S. households with high-speed Internet service will also be equipped with home network routers, creating a market for technical assistance, says research firm Parks Associates.

About 78% of U.S. broadband households had a home network router in 2012, up from 54% in 2009, says Parks Associates.

The rub is that almost 35% of broadband households experience technical problems with home networks, says Parks Associates.

"With the wide adoption of wir ...read more

The range issue reflects a larger trend in home networking, Soares says. According to Parks Associates, 2011 will be the first year when the average American home will have more consumer-electronic gadgets on the Internet than computers. If you've got the latest technology, your TV, smartphone, tablet, music player and game console can all be connected to the Web via the same router.

From the article, "Netgear Leads in Home Neworking Devices" by Amy Reeves

Social and mobile games probably aren't drawing sales away from the console games business, but are "expanding the pie," said Pietro Macchiarella, an analyst with Parks Associates. "They attract people who didn't play games before."

But mobile games on iPad, iPhone and other tablets and smartphones could be eating into sales of mobile games for devices like Nintendo's (NTDOY) DS and Sony's (SNE) PlayStation Portable, he says.

From the article, "Farmville, Angry Birds Set ...read more

With visions of sweet profits dancing in their heads, HDTV vendors rolled out new features the past several months to entice people to pay top dollar for new televisions. Consumers didn't bite widely, though, so "vendors have been dropping prices by anywhere from 5% to 10%," said Kurt Scherf, an analyst at research firm Parks Associates. The cuts could continue, drawing buyers over the holiday ...

From the article, "A Holiday Present: High-Def TV Prices Falling" by Paul Korz ...read more

The history of Internet-video-on-TV is bleak, says Kurt Scherf, an analyst at research firm Parks Associates. Vudu, Akimbo, Joost, MovieBeam and USDTV are among those that have so far failed. "These are all good examples as to how difficult it is to overcome consumer inertia to try a new video service as a replacement to pay TV," Scherf said. "It shows how firmly pay TV is entrenched."

From the article, "Google TV Will Lag Startups" by Brian Deagon

Likewise, Parks Associates found that more than half of mobile phone users now have phones that are capable of downloading and playing mobile games.

According to Parks Associates, females make up 61% of people playing mobile games between one and four times per month, and 58% of the gamers playing more than four hours per month.

From the article, "Getting Your Game On — On The Go" by Paul Korzeniowski