Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

How Many Consumers Actually Have VR Headsets?

Parks Associates released new consumer research this week showing that 2 percent of U.S. broadband households, or 2.3 million households, own a virtual reality headset. The survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households reportedly reveals that 5 percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a VR headset in 2016, an increase from only 1 percent who made a purchase the year prior.

“The big change in VR for 2016 has been the availability or pending availability of VR headsets from companies such as Facebook (Oculus Rift), Google (Google Cardboard) and HTC (Vive). Sony PlayStation VR is expected to be released in October. We expect gamers to be the initial market for VR,” Barbara Kraus, Parks Associates director of research, says. “VR is an immersive experience, and more is better for gamers – more immersion, better sound, better graphics, and more players. The mass market is more likely to adopt mobile VR, which will be less expensive and uses a tool – the smartphone – that the majority of U.S. consumers own.”

From the article "How Many Consumers Actually Have VR Headsets?" by Laura Hamilton.

Previously In The News

TV Everywhere Numbers Are Rising

All that promotion around catch-up services is seemingly paying off for service providers. Usage of TV Everywhere, or authenticated video viewing, reached 40 percent of U.S. pay TV consumers in 2015,...

AT&T To Add An Unlimited Data Option For Home Internet And Will Better Enforce Overages On Other Plans

“Managing consumer expectations is extremely important in a highly competitive marketplace,” Brett Sappington, director of research at Parks Associates says. “If consumers are caught by surprise with...

OTT Market Strong In U.S. And Growing In Europe

All data is from the recently released OTT Video Market Tracker from Parks Associates. “OTT is definitely gaining traction across Europe. We are seeing new OTT video services spring up but not as m...

OTT Churn: Netflix Has Lowest Rate in 2015

Churn isn’t just an issue for traditional pay TV providers. Over-the-top services suffer it as well, of course. Parks Associates revealed OTT data yesterday showing that at the end of 2015, approximat...