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Parks notes that rising stars like Showtime and CBS are making big plays to capture market share in OTT. And MLB.TV has seen increases through partnerships, such as T-Mobile’s offering of a free subscription of MLB.tv at the beginning of baseball season.

In general, about 63% of U.S. broadband homes have an OTT service, up from 57% at the start of 2015. Parks adds that Latino and Hispanic homes are fueling growth -- adoption in those homes is 15% higher than the rest of U.S. ...read more

The idea of consumers treating smartwatches as voice communication devices to make and receive phone calls hasn’t quite materialized.

Rather, smartwatches are being used more as devices for activity tracking and text-based communication, based on a new study.

Last on the list of what people’s daily smartwatch activity is making or receiving phone calls, according to the study by Parks Associates.

From the article "Top Smartwatch Daily Activities: Fitness Tracking, No ...read more

Almost half (40%) of smartphone owners already use voice recognition capabilities from Apple’s Siri, Google Now or Microsoft Cortana, according to a 10,000-person survey of broadband households conducted by Parks Associates.

From the article "40% Already Use Voice Recognition Software, 70% Satisfied With It" by Chuck Martin.

The number of over-the-top subscriptions has ramped up by 12% over the last two years. That’s the finding of a new research study from Parks Associates reporting that consumer adoption of services like Netflix and Hulu has increased since the third quarter of 2014, even though password sharing is also up.

Some of this growth comes from Hulu’s change to a subscription-only service, but even the number of OTT video subscriptions is expected to continue to jump through the end ...read more

Parks Associates estimates that worldwide revenues from OTT subscription revenues will double to $30 billion in 2020 from $15 billion in 2015. It also says OTT video subscriptions have increased by 12% since third quarter of 2014.

A separate study by Parks said Netflix, WWE Network, and Hulu have the highest "net promoter" results among major OTT video services in the U.S. Net promoter measures the likelihood of subscribers recommending a product or service to others.

Fr ...read more

According to new research from Parks Associates, 71% of consumer electronics buyers only consider one brand when when making a purchase. Factoring into that consideration (or lack thereof) is price (which was cited by 15% of buyers as their reason for considering only one brand), product quality (cited by 10%) and general brand preference (19%).

“Brand strength comes from a variety of factors, like high-quality and disruptive products,” Barbara Kraus, director of research fo ...read more

Besides smartwatches, other IoT devices win the attention of millennials. In a survey of 1,300 U.S. adults conducted by Parks Associates for Coldwell Banker, 61% of millennials expressed an interest in smart homes.

Millennials have grown up digital and the Internet of Things is simply adding to their internetworking.

From the article "Smartwatch Ownership: Millennials 44%, Non-Millennials 23%" by Chuck Martin.

Meanwhile, connected TV viewing continues to increase, and connected TV apps are playing a role in driving the growth. Research firm Parks Associates teamed up with online video shop Ooyala to study video apps on connected devices. “Video apps on connected devices are again playing a key role in the competitive landscape of digital video entertainment,” Parks says.

From the article "Cord-Cutting Steady, Connected TV Apps On Rise" by Daisy Whitney.