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

Netflix Is Winning Streaming’s Own ‘Squid Game’

Netflix has been criticized for not having enough enduring franchises like Marvel and Star Wars. Having those would certainly aid its efforts to expand into merchandise licensing, which is one of Walt...

Parks Associates reveals the Top 10 OTT subscription services

Disney+ has moved into the top three of OTT services, according to new research from Parks Associates. “While the Disney+ content portfolio may have allowed it to leapfrog stablemate Hulu in 2021 r...

US pay-TV to decline by 27% in 10 years

Parks Associates says its forecast will represent the lowest penetration in a decade, representing a 27% fall. “There has been substantial innovation over the years, but streaming’s debut changed t...

Roku Drops Support for ‘Classic’ Streaming Boxes

When Roku launched its first product in May 2008, it was the first device able to stream Netflix to TVs. The company has since added more than 2,000 channels available through its platform, but older...