Investor's Business Daily

Consumers who dreamed of the a-la-carte TV future might soon wish for a return to the good old days when cable and other pay-TV services packaged channels of programming for them.

"We're about to test the consumer limit on streaming video services," said Brett Sappington, senior research director and principal analyst at Parks Associates. "The number of services per household continues to go up. We've been watching the number of households that gets three or more services an ...read more

But many consumers are leery. News articles questioning the privacy and security of home networks and connected devices, including always-listening smart speakers, have put off potential buyers. The science-fiction fantasy of a truly smart home has hit a harsh reality where most consumers don't share the enthusiasm of technologists.

"In 2018, the industry did not reach a substantial number of new buyers," said Chris O'Dell, an analyst with Parks Associates. "What we did see ...read more

Parks Associates estimates that 30% of Netflix (NFLX) subscribers are getting the premium service tier, up from 21% in late 2017. Meanwhile, the share of subscribers getting the lowest-priced tier has fallen to 27% from 35%, the research firm reported Thursday.

From the article "Netflix Subscribers Upgrading To Premium Service Tier" by Patrick Seitz.

The hottest smart-home purchase this holiday season is likely to be a smart video doorbell.

As many as 14% of U.S. households with broadband access say they're pretty likely to buy the device that lets you see who's at the door and communicate with them, according to a recent survey by research firm Parks Associates.

From the article "Amazon, Google, Wal-Mart Fight For Your Smart Home" by Jed Graham.

The market research firm Parks Associates estimates that as many as 16 million North American households will have smart-home security by 2021, compared with 10 million forecast for traditional security platforms. As security gets smarter, analysts also see a greater opportunity for Alarm.com to take share in small to medium-sized businesses, vacation homes and medical monitoring — and eventually in overseas markets.

From the article "This Company Wants To Secure Your Home W ...read more

A report out Thursday from Parks Associates showed that 18% of U.S. broadband households own a wearable fitness device such as a smartwatch or a fitness tracker.

Parks said 12% of U.S. broadband homes own a fitness tracker, such as those made by Fitbit and Garmin (GRMN). That's up from 10% in the third quarter of last year.

From the article "Fitbit Runs Higher As Fitness Wearables Market Grows" by Patrick Seitz.

With the growing number of streaming services, churn will be an issue as consumers experiment with different offerings, Brett Sappington, senior director of research for Parks Associates, told IBD.

There were 101 subscription streaming video services available in the U.S. market as of March, Parks reported.

Beyond major services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, there are a host of smaller niche services. They include NBCUniversal's comedy network Seeso, anime video service ...read more

But can Home overtake Echo? If we look at two other competing devices from the companies, the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Google Chromecast, the two were virtually tied with 22% of streaming media player sales in 2015, according to a Parks Associates report out Tuesday.

From the article "Amazon In Trouble? How Google Aims To Outsmart Alexa With Home" by Alissa Williams.