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This past decade is the one that altered the very definition of Hollywood. (Verb: to stream.) Streaming services, of course, have been challenging the Hollywood status quo for years. Netflix began streaming movies and television shows in 2007 and has grown into a giant, spending $12 billion on programming, in 2019 alone, to entertain more than 158 million subscribers worldwide. There are 271 online video services available in the United States, according to the research firm Par ...read more

In 2018 a jaw-dropping 48 percent of U.S. consumers polled by Parks Associates said they planned to buy at least one smart home device; that number constituted an even more astounding 66 percent rise year-over-year. The expanded investments and continued technological improvements we're seeing are evidence of the sales-driven market revolution surrounding connected homes.

From the article "5 Future Jobs You've Never Heard of But That Your Kids Will Flock to " by Tom Popomaro ...read more

Even more troubling, some major ad providers are no longer providing any disclosures on their widgets. Google, which used to dress its text ad units with a straightforward “Ads by Google” label, now provides widgets sporting a lonely blue triangle icon from AdChoices. In many cases, the AdChoices text doesn’t even appear unless a user hovers over the triangle. A recent survey by Parks Associates found that unfortunately only a minority of consumers understood the intent of the b ...read more

But when it comes to hot spots, the biggest issue is whether there's actual revenue being generated from the networks built on steep investments. According to a recent study by Dallas-based technology market research firm Parks Associates, 30 percent of Internet households polled had heard of hot spots but were not familiar with them, 33 percent were familiar with but had never used hot spots, 2.5 percent had used them but were not subscribers, and a mere 0.1 percent were hot sp ...read more

While higher income families have been the first to integrate networks and home theater systems, the demand for these products is growing in other segments. "Trickle down high quality is becoming more and more prevalent. The middle-income household is one in which Mercedes and Lexus cars are being purchased. These used to be the realm of high-end households, but there seems to be a mindset that [middle-income households] want to have the best," says Kurt Scherf, vice president o ...read more

The answer: in-home networking. This new application uses existing telephone wiring or radio-style receivers to link PCs within a home or small office, effectively creating a local area network. By year-end, some 280,000 households will use "no new wires" applications for in-home networking, according to Parks Associates, a residential technologies market research and consulting firm. By the end of 2000, that number should rise to 580,000; by 2004, it will approach 7 million.

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