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

Tipping point: Video streamers are now in the majority as pay TV watching drops

Among those services, Netflix is the clear leader, with Amazon and Hulu next, according to a recent survey from Parks Associates. Deloitte found a concurrent "inflection point" for providers of tra...

Pay TV Providers Hanging On With Online Partnerships

New research from Parks Associates shows that 21 percent of U.S. pay TV subscribers subscribe to an online video service through their pay TV provider, up from 10 percent a year ago. The research f...

Buying a home? Sellers may use cameras, microphones to spy on house hunters

About 9.4 million U.S. homes, or 7.4% of the total, are equipped with Wi-Fi enabled cameras and mics, says Brad Russell, research director for Parks Associates, a consumer technology research firm. As...

Sensory Powers New Voice-Enabled Farberware Microwaves

“Smart appliance adoption is growing among US broadband households. Thirteen percent of US broadband households now own a smart appliance and smart microwaves are a leading category. Voice control is...