In The News

Parks Associates today said the amount of online video seen via a TV screen went up to 3 hours per week in the first quarter of this year, up from 2.3 hours in the same quarter in 2013. Matching up those quarters for PC viewing of videos, time spent fell from 8 hours in 2013 to 6.2 hours in the first quarter of 2014.

“In addition to smart TVs, Blu-ray players and game consoles, consumers are also buying streaming media players and devices such as Google's Chromecast,” stated ...read more

Bundled services are a major driver of smart-home technology adoption. More than 1.5 million homeowners nationwide control and manage their family's lighting, HVAC (heat, ventilation and air- conditioning), security, and manage intrusion and safety systems, by utilizing a LCD touch-screen display, the Internet, or smart phones. Applications include security, home management and control, energy management systems, and even health & wellness solutions, which are all delivered over ...read more

That jibes with recent research from Parks Associates which found that 64 percent of U.S. households with broadband have at least one consumer electronics device connected to the Internet--either a smart TV, a Blu-ray player, game console, set-top box, digital media receiver or Google's Chromecast. Of those households, 16 percent use a streaming media player like the Roku.

As indicated by the 5 percent of households using Chromecast in that study, Roku has plenty of competit ...read more

But supporters argue that a 4K television set, given its ability to improve current HD picture quality, among other reasons, is a better purchase even at today's prices than a large-screen HDTV, which threatens to lock viewers into an increasingly inferior standard for years to come.

It's better to wait, says Brett Sappington, director of research at Dallas-based Parks Associates. Jack Wetherill, senior market analyst at British-based Futuresource Consulting, says 4K is a go ...read more

I haven’t been to a Parks Associates Connections conference in way too many years – since “home gateways” were all the rage – and I can’t wait to attend this one, May 13-15 in San Francisco.

This year will be all about the Internet of Things (IoT), home automation, connected A/V, cloud-based platforms and other interesting things related to the smart home.

From the article, "Questions I’ll Ask 28 Companies at Parks’ Connections Conference (A-L)" by Julie Jacobson.

Parks Associates, a Dallas market-research firm, estimates about 1 in 10 U.S. homes with a broadband connection now has a smart thermostat.

“Six (million) to 8 million thermostats are sold annually, and in the future a larger and larger portion of those are going to be smart,” says Tom Kerber, director of energy research for Parks Associates. “Think about automatic door locks. They used to be only on Cadillacs. But it moved down to the lower-tier cars. And now you can’t buy ...read more