Blog articles from 06/2012

By Jim O'Neill, Research Analyst, Parks Associates Making content discovery easy for the consumer was a cinch when there were just a handful of channels from which to choose. But as channel counts rose to dozens, then hundreds, and now thousands with the increasing flow of professionally generated content online, it’s become anything but. That massive fragmentation has made it challenging for broadcasters to deliver the targeted audience advertisers increasingly are demanding....

Approximately 71% of all U.S. households will have broadband by the end of 2012. Service growth is down as a result of near saturation in developed countries, so service providers are anxious to compensate. Opportunities for value-added services span such categories as entertainment, technical support, home management, energy services, and healthcare. Each one offers a unique value proposition, and service companies view these services as means to retain customers and as platforms...

The Justice Department is conducting an investigation about whether cable companies can reject competition from online video. Cable companies provide their consumers with access to television channels and Internet access. With broadband Internet, consumers can choose to watch programs through online video services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc., bypassing the company's traditional bundles of channels. While having invested billions of dollars into building their...

E3, the largest yearly event for the video game industry, took place last week in Los Angeles. Nintendo showed its new Wii U console but, all things considered, it failed to impress most of the public and the media, raising serious questions about its market potential. On the positive side, the Wii U will have a Mario title available at launch, increasing the appeal of the new platform among Nintendo fans. Microsoft continued its push to transform the Xbox 360 into a multimedia hub...

The two-day executive conference, produced by Parks Associates in association with ESNA, 13-14 November, in Amsterdam will address new partnership opportunities for operators and utilities, the rising demand for services beyond entertainment, and growth and monetization strategies for OTT and multiscreen services. CONNECTIONS™ Europe provides this necessary perspective through sessions and networking with international executives and potential partners. Parks Associates’ research...

Please join Parks Associates and Technicolor for the "OTT Services: Moving from Integration to Revenues" webcast this morning at 8:30 CENTRAL. Register right now for this complimentary webcast . This webcast includes a panel of NSP market professionals providing insight into into the opportunities & challenges with OTT service integration. They will discuss value-added services that increase increase subscriber satisfaction and contribute to the bottom line: Video and...

Written by Brett L. Sappington, Director of Research Although Viaccess and Orca have been bedfellows for some time, the recently announced merger of the two companies highlights a trend among CA/DRM providers. As the multiscreen/TV Everywhere battle among solution providers has grown, content security providers have either been the precipitators or targets of vertical integration into full-featured multiscreen solutions. Irdeto acquired Cloakware and moved to add content management...

Seagate launched a new external hard drive that continues the proud GoFlex tradition, but with a few new features and a totally new name: the Seagate Backup Plus line. The newest feature is the social media integration. The Backup Plus line is the world’s first external hard drive that provides backup for content on social networks. The refined dashboard can save pictures from a Flickr or Facebook account with one click and a separate share...