"digital media" articles

Parks Associates director of research Brett Sappington provides insight and commentary on the future acquisition of DIRECTV by AT&T : The merger did not really diminish competition in the U.S. market. Approval was widely expected. The bigger impact is clearly outside of the U.S., where AT&T is now making investments to build upon DIRECTV’s existing position in Central and South America. We expect AT&T to quickly roll out new voice,...

A+E Networks is the newest player to enter the OTT video services market after announcing the launch of a Lifetime streaming-only online video service this week. The service, named the "Lifetime Movie Club," will provide access to the channel's older content for just $3.99 per month and does not require an existing pay-TV subscription. Parks Associates research cited in the Wall Street Journal shows that Lifetime's entry to the OTT market could be a challenging one....

A multichannel network (MCN) is an entity that aggregates multiple online video channels and provides assistance in funding, promotion, partner management, digital rights management, monetization, and audience development. Channels are often branded in a multichannel network to provide a consistent cross-channel user experience, similar to how television channels are branded under the same network family. MCNs can present themselves on a video hosting site with easy access to individual...

Today, Parks Associates announced new research that revealed nearly 60% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to an OTT video subscription, but account sharing is a lingering challenge. According to a 3Q 2014 survey of U.S. broadband households, 8% are using a subscription OTT video account held by someone outside of their home, and 6% are exclusively using shared accounts to access subscription OTT video content. This finding equates to 11% of all households that are relying...

In a recent article for The Guardian , HBO revealed the scheduled launch of HBO Now, its online streaming-only OTT service, will be April 2015. Apple TV is also reportedly set to be one of the new streaming service's first partners. HBO first announced its plans to launch a streaming-only OTT service in October 2014, sparking intense discussion and analysis throughout the digital media market. Shortly after, Parks Associates research showed that 17% of U.S. broadband...

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...

So, Amazon is getting into the movie business . Here are three questions that I am hearing from folks in the industry about Amazon's announcement. Why is this announcement a big deal? Compared to many other players entering the original content space, Amazon is unique. Netflix , HBO , Hulu , and CBS all have (at least) one thing in common – their primary business is to provide interesting video content to consumers. In contrast, Amazon is a retail / CE maker...