"digital content" articles

Earlier this month, Netflix made an unpopular (but at the same time necessary) decision to raise prices. The price hike was $1 per month and only applied to its second tier of service, which includes HD video and allows for two simultaneous video streams. Speculation arose that the Netflix price increase was tied to issues with password sharing, which Parks Associates covered heavily in The Cost of Piracy earlier this May. Naturally, this reignited the conversation surrounding OTT...

I just finished attending AT&T’s annual industry analyst summit. This two-day event provides the analyst community a first-hand, interactive experience with AT&T’s leadership team. As usual, the event not only offered the latest visions from AT&T, but also allowed us to hear and probe AT&T’s reasoning and approaches behind their initiatives. Here are the five things that I believe AT&T has done differently, and better, than its archrival Verizon....

Credential (password) swapping has become a popular form of piracy in the connected world, one that has received little attention from service providers and content owners when compared to other forms of piracy like signal piracy, physical media piracy, and file sharing. Credential sharing has a measurable impact on video services, particularly in the OTT video service area, which impacts young subscribers most substantially. The impact on OTT video revenues— an estimated $500 million...

According to a recent article in Multichannel News , Verizon Communications has signed a multiplatform deal that will allow the telecom to offer HBO's streaming video service, HBO Now, to more than 100 million of Verizon's digital customers, as well as to non-Verizon mobile device owners. Verizon will offer HBO on its mobile-first video service and to stand-alone broadband customers for $15 a month. According to Parks Associates director of research Brett Sappington , at the...

Mio Babic , President & CEO at iStreamPlanet , offers insight into how OTT services are the key to the home entertainment market: What is the most important next step to engage consumers in smart home solutions, connected entertainment services, and/or value-added services like tech support and connected health?      The next step in the transition from traditional television broadcast to connected OTT services is to provide a consistent,...

Today, Parks Associates released industry reports that address the emerging opportunities, partnerships, and strategic recommendations for the connected CE industry. The report Under Attack: Assessing New Threats to Pay TV notes that while consumers watch over 30 hours of video per week on average, the number of households planning to cancel their pay-TV service (potential cord-cutters) has also increased, reaching 7% of U.S. broadband households with pay-TV service. "The...

Since HBO’s late 2014 announcement that they would go direct to consumer, the TV industry has been abuzz. Speculation about the impact of the service has ranged widely, from those who see the service as a valuable tool to reach Millennials to those who see it as the beginning of the end for pay TV as we know it. This speculation was heightened in the past few days. As has been reported in several of the cited articles, a recent Parks Associates survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband...

In keeping with its strategy to compete in the current OTT market, Amazon announced this month that it is adding original movies to its Amazon Studios productions. Currently, Amazon Prime Instant Video offers 7 original shows. In comparison, Netflix has 11 current original series, adopted and continued 5 series, produced 43 specials, miniseries, and films. Roy Price, the VP of Amazon Studios , said in their press release that the goal is to produce 12 movies a year. This increase...