14% of US broadband households plan to buy a streaming media player by mid-2016

Good news for the Apple TV: new data from Parks Associates finds that 14 percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a streaming media player by midyear 2016 and that, as of the third quarter of 2015, 31 percent of U.S. broadband households currently own a streaming media player, up from 27 percent at the beginning of the year.

“Streaming media players will be a popular gift this holiday season, especially with more competitive pricing in the market and the expansion of new OTT services,” says Barbara Kraus, director of Research, Parks Associates. “With the popularity of the category, it has now divided into two tiers – basic and premium models. Consumers who want basic content streaming will gravitate to streaming media sticks such as the Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV due to their lower costs, which also make them good gift options. Cube-shaped players, like the Roku 4, NVIDIA SHIELD, and the latest generation of the Apple TV, are premium players, with more features, such as 4K streaming and more

Previous research from Parks Associates shows that two-thirds of U.S. broadband households connect at least one device to the Internet. Among these households, a Microsoft Xbox is the most commonly used CE device for streaming at more than 14 percent, followed closely by the Sony PlayStation at just less than 14 percent. Roku is third at 10 percent, surpassing brands such as the Nintendo Wii, Samsung, and Google in consumer usage when accessing online video content.