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There's simply no reason for Apple to jump into the crowded low-margin battlefield of smart TVs when it can sell its hardware at gross margins exceeding 40%. Steve Jobs reportedly once told employees, "TV is a terrible business. They don't turn over and the margins suck."

Perhaps Icahn will argue that Apple's brand appeal could convince people to buy $1,500 4K TVs. But in my opinion, TVs don't belong in the same category as smartphones or tablets. Plunging prices across the ...read more

Over-the-top TV platforms may be growing, but OTT providers may not be getting an apportioned amount of revenues from users. A third-quarter 2014 survey says 11% of all U.S. broadband home relying exclusively on shared OTT accounts when using subscription OTT services, according to Parks Associates.

The finding says that 8% are using a OTT video account held by someone outside of their home; and 6% are exclusively using a shared OTT account. Parks says 57% of U.S. broadband ...read more

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING: By now, it’s kind of established fact that nearly everybody in a household at any given moment is on some kind of device. New research from Parks Associates says 40% of 1,000 U.S. broadband households it studied have trouble with their wireless network, and more than half would be happy to to use a wired solution to fix that. The study, I should note, was sponsored by the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA).

Parks research discovered that in the pr ...read more

The companies behind the growing Internet of Things may have to do a little consumer massaging (and messaging) to allay some deep concerns before their products can reach heavy adoption.

Nearly half (47%) of U.S. consumers with broadband access are concerned about privacy and security when it comes to smarthome devices, according to new research from Parks Associates. Consumers were equally concerned with both hackers compromising the devices themselves and accessing company ...read more

TV consumers are spending more for paid, subscription Internet video -- including over-the-top TV services. Parks Associates says that for the average U.S. broadband consumer, spending has climbed nearly 30% to $9 per month from $7 a month in 2012.

The research company says nearly 60% of U.S. consumers subscribe to an OTT provider, such as Netflix, Hulu Plus or Amazon Prime Video. In addition, more than 75% of streaming media player owners have an OTT subscription.

Accor ...read more

So what happens now?

According to January research from Parks Associates, half of the people who say they are interested in the new HBO service will drop their pay-TV subscriptions altogether, which, the research company says, could cause a 7% dip in subscribers.

Since those defecting customers would still be paying HBO -- but for the new online service -- that would be a blow for cable and satellite TV.

But because HBO would also pick up something like 15 million on ...read more

55% of broadband households now subscribe to an OTT service, according to new figures from Parks Associates, reports Marketing Charts. And, a recent forecast from Digital TV Research predicts that Netflix will surpass 100 million global subscribers by 2020, while a separate forecast covering 51 countries expects OTT revenues to grow from $4 billion in 2010 to $42.3 billion in 2020, with the US hanging on to its position as the leading market at the end of the forecast period wit ...read more

The mobile privacy program will be enforced by the DAA’s independent accountability partners, the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association.

Of course, while the DAA is helping marketers do their due diligence for consumer privacy, there’s always the question of how many consumers are actually aware of these options -- or even that their personal information is being gathered in the first place. Last year research from Parks Associates showed th ...read more