DALLAS—Fifty-five percent of U.S. broadband homes now own a smart TV, driving the television to become the default platform to watch streaming content, according to a new white paper from Parks Associates.
The paper, “OTT Streaming Trends to Watch in 2022,” lays out insights into the market, anticipated trends and market shifts this year based on the findings of the firm’s entertainment research team.
(Parks is also hosting “Video Services: Bundles, Data and Measuring Success,” a virtual session as part of its fifth annual “Future of Video: OTT, Pay TV and Digital Media.)
"Rapid changes in the market over the past two years, combined with continually shifting customer preferences, have forced service and device suppliers to adjust and adapt on an almost daily basis," said Eric Sorensen, senior contributing analyst at Parks Associates.
"The standard in service now is to deliver desirable content so that consumers can view it when, where and how they want it. Service providers, both conventional and online, will have to continue to adjust as consumer demands continue to evolve."
In 2022, smart TVs should cement their position as the default connected streaming platform, the firm said.
Consumers are increasingly interested in having all their entertainment available on a single device, and as smart TVs have become more affordable and offer improved user interfaces (UIs), they become an attractive integrated option for viewing all content, according to Parks Associates.
Churn will also become more commonplace and accepted as part of doing business this year, it said.
"We also expect the traditional business models for movie windowing releases to erode more in 2022," Sorensen said. "The box office will regain some of its strength, as 'experience' releases like sci-fi and action-adventure will continue to draw people to the theater, but for many films, movie studios generally benefit from bypassing exclusivity and releasing through multiple channels, including theaters and direct-to-consumer. In 2022, we will see more of this hybrid windowing strategy and experimentation."
More information about the white paper is available on the research firm’s website.
