The Wall Street Journal

In general, AddictingGames, Newgrounds Inc. and other companies post games on their Web sites and allow users to play them for free. They make money off of advertising revenue, so the more games people play, the higher the earnings. Some Web sites, however, sell subscriptions or charge a fee to download and play the games.

Overall, revenue for the casual-gaming market — including downloads, subscription fees and advertising sales — reached nearly $1 billion last year, accordin ...read more

Netflix Inc. and Vudu Inc. both use set-top boxes to stream movies over the Internet to a subscribers' television, but the titles are restricted to the companies' movie databases. This month, Netflix and Microsoft Corp. inked a deal where owners of the Xbox 360 can use the videogame console to stream movies and other programming from the Internet to their TVs.

"Research still indicates that the idea of connecting a PC to the TV seems a daunting and cumbersome task for most con ...read more

"Kurt Scherf, an analyst with Parks Associates, a market-research firm, says that one of its surveys of U.S. households with Internet connections found that 35% of the 1,090 households where members originally planned to buy a high-definition TV set this year would be delaying the purchase, with the economy getting the blame. That's one reason Sony Corp. recently said it would introduce more "entry-level" TV sets this year that cost between $500 and $1,200 -- that's about $200 le ...read more

In 2007, out of about 50 million U.S. households with a game console, about 11 million had one console connected to the Internet, according to Parks Associates, a technology research firm.

From the article, "Videogaming for Dollars? You Bet," by Christopher Lawton.

Just 1.5% of homes in the U.S. now use wireless monitoring systems, but that percentage is expected to reach 5% to 6% by 2012, according to market researcher Parks Associates.

From the article, "Keeping Watch for Burglars (And Tabs on the Kids)," by Christopher Lawton.

Despite such complications, high-definition technology is becoming more prevalent. The percentage of U.S. households with a high-definition TV is expected to increase to 41% this year from 30% in 2006, according to market-research firm Parks Associates. It expects the percentage to rise to 69% by 2011.

From the article "Camcorder, Meet TV: The High-Def Hookup,"  by Christopher Lawton.

As Internet connections have become faster, analysts have expected the next big potential market to be in downloading movies and television shows. Some analysts believe it could be significantly larger than the digital music market. Parks Associates, a market-research and consulting firm, estimates that annual revenue from Internet video, including ad-based and user-paid services, could exceed $7 billion in the U.S. alone by 2010.

Apple offers video-compatible iPod devices and ...read more

The market for home-monitoring systems is expected to grow from $91 million in 2007 to $400 million in 2012, according to Parks Associates, a Dallas research firm.

From the article "Beaming up your home may soon be routine," by Kate Goodloe and John Jurgensen.