Parks Associates: 24% of US Broadband Households With Fixed Broadband Service Likely to Upgrade in the Next Six Months

• New research addresses continuing impact of COVID-19 on broadband usage, CE product adoption, OTT service stacking, and churn rates  

Parks Associates released a new Quantified Consumer study, COVID-19: Impact on Communications and Entertainment, which reveals that in 3Q 2020, more than 50% of US broadband households reported that their broadband usage has increased since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. While consumers report broadband performance is keeping pace with the increased demand, in Q3 2020, 24% of fixed broadband households reported plans to upgrade their speed in the next six months, compared to 18% in 2Q 2020.

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“Broadband upgrade plans indicate many households see some COVID-19-related changes as permanent,” said Steve Nason, Research Director, Parks Associates. “For video services, OTT service stacking has been particularly pronounced, with 45% of US broadband households subscribing to three or more OTT services. Many consumers are planning to add new services such as Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Peacock as a permanent part of their OTT service portfolio, beyond the traditional Big 3: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu.”

COVID-19: Impact on Communications and Entertainment examines the impact of COVID-19 on service providers and consumer adoption and satisfaction throughout the communications, consumer technology, and entertainment and home services sectors. The research reports COVID-19 continues to widen the OTT/pay-TV gap. As many across the US remain homebound, households are continually relying on video content to fill their time outside of work and school. Within video services, COVID-19 has accelerated the trend of video viewers accessing OTT offerings at much higher rates than a pay-TV service via a traditional or online provider.

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“Many traditional pay-TV subscribers are migrating to online pay-TV offerings or standalone OTT services,” Nason said. “Traditional providers, who still comprise the majority of the pay-TV market, have to continually seek ways to integrate online video services into their offerings either through homegrown solutions or external partnerships.”

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