Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

DirecTV is making an Android-powered streaming box. What gives?

“If (AT&T) had a box that came in at $35 or under, consumers would be interested,” Brett Sappington told me. He’s the senior director of research at Parks Associates, which pays extremely close attention to the over-the-top (OTT) — meaning Internet-based TV — space. “They’d buy it just to see if it worked.”

Sappington reasons that a new streaming box isn’t dead on arrival, so long as it has a stellar user interface, is feature-rich, is open to all TV app developers and is relatively cheap. An existing DirecTV Now customer, for instance, may be compelled to test out the company’s box if it promises better streaming performance — say, no buffering during any live streams — and comes with some sort of service-plus-box deal.

From the article "DirecTV is making an Android-powered streaming box. What gives?" by Jennifer Van Grove.

Previously In The News

App for COVID-19 contact tracing faces hurdles, generational divide over privacy concerns

A survey of 5,000 adults by Parks Associates indicates roughly half, 52 percent, are willing to share tracking data in an app while 28 percent are unwilling. Twenty percent are willing but only with p...

Entertainment Giants Reevaluate Their Smaller Streaming Services

“They’re all analyzing and asking, ‘Is it best for us to throw everything into one service, like an HBO Max, or have a main anchor service like a Paramount+, but also have the existence of other servi...

HBO Max Finally Comes To Amazon Fire Devices; No Deal Yet For Roku (But There's A Workaround)

WarnerMedia has yet to clinch a deal to get the service on Roku, the other dominant streaming device — although Roku users now have a workaround for that (more on that below). Together, Amazon and Rok...

How the Pandemic Shaped the CES Agenda This Year

While connected home gadgets have always figured heavily into CES’ agendas in recent years, this year marked a shift in the specific kinds of smart devices people want, according to Jennifer Kent, VP...