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

Alexa and other smart speakers may endanger privacy rights

According to a May report from the consultancy Parks Associates, 27 percent of U.S. homes with a broadband internet connection owned at least one smart speaker, yet about 45 percent of their owners “s...

The threat of the ‘DIY smart home’

In order to ensure interoperability with products from other manufacturers, more and more companies are beginning to turn to open standards such as ULE. Panasonic, Orange, Deutsche Telkom and Gigaset...

Where Do Niche Streamers Fit in a Sea of Services?

To help spur early growth, niche services are using the targeting capabilities of tech giants like Amazon, Roku and Apple to drive new subscriptions (in exchange for a cut of revenue). AMC Networks is...

Streaming Services Reckon With Password-Sharing "Havoc"

Password sharing has serious economic consequences. In 2019, companies lost about $9.1 billion to password piracy and sharing, and that will rise to $12.5 billion in 2024, according to data released b...