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But this report is a nice bookend to another one from Parks Associates, “Consumer Segmentation: OTT Video Buyers” that concludes 17% of current broadband subscribers in the U.S. will purchase the new HBO OTT service when it becomes available, that 91% of them currently subscribe to a pay TV service, and that about half will cancel the pay service when they the new HBO Go. That survey also happened in the fourth quarter of 2014.

So 2015 is the OTT year when “someday” happens. ...read more

As the U.S. mobile market has reached a point where there are few new customers left to grab, wireless companies might want to begin looking at creating other revenue streams, particularly when it comes to healthcare technology.

According to Parks Associates, more than 40 million current smartphone owners use at least one wellness or fitness app (including 25% of heads of household), a figure that will likely grow as more products — including Apple’s smartwatch — come to mar ...read more

HBO’s coming entry into the over-the-top world could be the thing that brings wholesale change for the entire pay-TV industry.

According to Parks Associates, 17% of U.S. broadband households said they would be likely to subscribe to the premium channel’s video service once it is offered later this year. Of them, 91% already subscribe to a pay TV service, and about a half of those subscribers said they would consider canceling their pay-TV service after subscribing to HBO’s O ...read more

More connected home devices means greater opportunities for consumers to have issues with them, and thus, more opportunity to help fix them.

According to research from Parks Associates, more than half of U.S. broadband households with a connected home device are willing to pay a nominal fee a month for home tech support services. The research found that 56% of households were willing to pay $9.99 per month, while 43% were willing to go as high as $39.99 per month for the pea ...read more

A new report from Parks Associates caught my attention for this one blunt fact/assertion: The “OTT Playbook: Success Factors for Video Services” contends that 25% of consumers under the age of 34 believe that online video is just as good as pay TV.

That seems ridiculously high, even if you happen to be one of the people who think like that. And with people at the younger end — viewers 18 to 24 — the percentage is closer to 30%.

From the article "25% Of Under-34 Viewers T ...read more

According to other, new data from Parks Associates, about one in 10 broadband homes bought streaming device so far this year. Then there’s this stunning assertion from Barbara Kraus, director of research for Parks: “Nearly 50% of video content that U.S. consumers watch on a TV set is non-linear, up from 38% in 2010, and it is already the majority for people 18-44, The market is changing rapidly to account for these new digital media habits. Roku now offers a streaming stick, and ...read more

Based on previous purchase patterns this year, consumers are likely to give smartwatches and streaming media sticks as presents this year, according to research company Parks Associates. Among the connected consumer electronics devices acquired in 2014, 37% of smartwatches and 25% of streaming media devices were given as gifts.

In the streaming media category, the emergence of streaming media sticks, such as Google’s Chromecast and Roku’s HDMI streaming stick (along with Ama ...read more

If predictions from Parks Associates are correct, this should be a good season for connected devices like Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV and Roku. That's mainly because they’re cheap and small and, if you ask me, because they represent the holiday tradition of giving family members gizmos that are, in some vague way, futuristic.

The streaming sticks and similar dongle devices have that allure. They can be given to “the man who has everything” because they’re something that man m ...read more