Rapid TV News

According to Parks Associates’ OTT Video Market Tracker service, the overall churn rate for OTT services has been stable for the past year, with top services Netflix, Amazon and Hulu actually reducing their churn rates. At the end of 2015, 20% of US broadband households had cancelled at least one OTT video service in the past 12 months.

“The churn rate has held steady,” said Brett Sappington, senior director of research, Parks Associates. “These are not free trials, but inst ...read more

In its latest round-up of the strength of cord-cutting in the country, 360 View: Entertainment Services in US Broadband Households, Parks found that antenna-only usage has steadily increased since 2013 to reach 15% of high speed Internet homes, and observed declining pay-TV satisfaction in each of the last three years. In 2016, twice as many subscribers downgraded (12%) their pay-TV service than upgraded (6%) it, while the likelihood of non-subscribers adopting pay-TV has declin ...read more

“What makes Spain unique in Western Europe is that about half of households have broadband but not pay-TV, one of the highest Internet-only household rates in Europe, according to research firm Parks Associates. And consumers in Spain are also more likely than those in France, Germany and the UK to trade in a pay-TV subscription in favour of a digital video service,” says the analysis.

From the article "Booming Spanish SVOD Faces Lack Of Pay-TV Culture" by Juan Fernandez Gon ...read more

This is according to Parks Associates, which also found that three-quarters of US broadband households access this content at least once a month.

"Today's home entertainment is all about personalisation," said Brett Sappington, senior director of research, Parks Associates. “Consumers now expect video, music and gaming experiences to adapt to their needs, including anywhere, anytime and any-device access. Successful services are extending personalisation into all aspects of ...read more

There is an increasing install base for 4K: according to research from Parks Associates, among broadband households planning to purchase a flat-panel TV, 59% in the UK, 57% in France, 53% in Spain and 49% in Germany plan to purchase a 4KTV even though content is not yet widely available. This resulted in an average of 54%. Moreover, 17% of such households were planning to buy a flat-panel TV in the next 12 months and over half consider 4K to be an important or very important fea ...read more

“Services are experimenting with a variety of business models in order to differentiate themselves in this crowded market dominated by Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. Smaller OTT companies are experimenting with the freemium model in particular,” said Ruby-Ren Bond, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. “The subscription services with smaller bases are increasingly partnering with other players, such as Amazon, Hulu, and Roku, which allows them to remain viable in a crowded market domi ...read more

“The video services and delivery landscape has become incredibly complex, and concerns about piracy and password-sharing is growing,” said Glenn Hower, research analyst for Parks Associates. “Among digital video service consumers age 18-24, 20% admit to using someone else’s credentials to use a service, and this trend has made TV operators nervous as well. Flexible content security solutions that can adapt to nearly any delivery environment will be key to protecting content whil ...read more

“The big change in VR for 2016 has been the availability or pending availability of VR headsets from companies such as Facebook (Oculus Rift), Google (Google Cardboard) and HTC (Vive). Sony PlayStation VR is expected to be released in October. We expect gamers to be the initial market for VR,” explained Barbara Kraus, director of research, Parks Associates and an author of the VR report. “VR is an immersive experience, and more is better for gamers - more immersion, better sound ...read more