Multichannel News

More than half of all U.S. homes with broadband subscribe to both a pay TV service and at least one over-the-top video service, according to a new study by Parks Associates.

In its OTT Video & TV Everywhere: Partners, Alternatives and Competition report, Parks said 53% of broadband homes subscribe to both pay TV and OTT.

From the article "Most Broadband Homes Have Pay TV and OTT Subscriptions" by Jon Lafayette.

Parks Associates attributes a chunk of that OTT churn to consumer experimentation.

“These are not free trials but instances where consumers are spending real money to try out new OTT services. One-third of households that currently subscribe to an OTT video service have cancelled one or more services in the past year, which shows that there is quite a bit of experimentation occurring right now,” Brett Sappington, senior director of research at Parks Associates, said in a st ...read more

Per the study, 81% of U.S. broadband homes still have a pay TV subscription, but only one-third of them are “very satisfied” with the service. Notably, 31% of U.S. broadband homes take multiple OTT service subscriptions, Parks Associates said.

Additionally, twice as many subs downgraded their pay TV service (12%) than upgraded it (6%) in 2016, and only half as many cord-nevers adopted pay TV in 2016 (2%) versus 2015 (4%).

“Pay-TV subscriptions have dropped each year si ...read more

While the home is shaping up to be the battleground, cable operators and other service providers are jostling to position themselves as the aggregation and management point of this emerging class of smart-home services, which have already boosted profits.

It’s shaping up to be a good place to seek growth, as consumer adoption of smart-home technologies and services is clearly on the rise.

About 26% of U.S. broadband homes now have a smart home device, up from 19% at th ...read more

So, don’t expect Sling TV to move very far off its current core “Orange” and “Blue” packages that sell for $20 and $25 per month, respectively, each (or $40 for both), plus several add-on packages.

“We’re not about providing you with 100 channels. We’re about providing you with flexibility and customization,” Lynch said.

Lynch declined to announce Sling TV sub numbers (the service), but did tout a new Parks Associates study that found that Sling TV had jumped to number ...read more

Meanwhile, Parks Associates, in its "Disruption in Video Sourcing and Production" research report, found that nearly 35% of U.S. broadband households watch user-generated video on sites like YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion, more than 10 days per month. Three-fourths of U.S. broadband households access this content at least once per month, and -- back to the growing reliance on mobile access -- about 13% of U.S. broadband consumers said they have watched live-streamed video on a m ...read more

It’s no surprise that consumers are gravitating to OTT video services in increasing numbers, but a new study from Parks Associates sheds some light on the recent rate of adoption.

In its new OTT Video Market Tracker, which analyzes and profiles nearly OTT services in the U.S. and Canada, the research firm found that adoption of OTT video subscriptions have climbed 12% since Q3 2014, a rise that comes despite the growth of password sharing, which has risen 8% over that same ...read more

“While pay TV penetration has declined among U.S. broadband households, adoption has remained steady among Spanish-preferred and bilingual households over the past few years,” Brett Sappington, Parks Associates senior director of research, said. “Cord-cutting does not have the same impact in Spanish-language households as it does for the larger broadband population. In fact, most of their recent pay TV changes have been upgrades to more expensive services.”

From the article ...read more