WWE has been at the forefront of the media industry’s attempts to establish a business providing programming straight to viewers, without an intermediary like cable or satellite networks, while still maintaining lucrative TV deals. The company made all its content, including live events, available on the internet to paid subscribers in February 2014. Last year, WWE Network was the fifth-largest streaming service by subscriber volume, beating even HBO Now, according to Parks Associates.
Only Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Major League Baseball’s MLB.TV ranked higher.
“WWE was making a long-term bet that they could grow subscribership online and revenues online better than they were doing with pay TV,” said Brett Sappington, senior director of research overseeing entertainment services at Parks Associates, who spoke before the earnings were released. “It was a big risk, a big bet. It looks like it’s paying off.”
From the article "WWE Gets Streaming Boost As Wrestling Fans Subscribe" by Brooke Fox.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s Fire TV stick, which competes with Apple TV and Roku as one of the top connected TV devices, also continues to gain market share, which has likely helped drive more people to watch...
Netflix is also preparing to crackdown on illegal account sharing via new artificial intelligence software, which will be able to analyze which users are logged in and then flag shared accounts. Th...
Netflix is by far the biggest online streaming video service. Last week, researcher Parks Associates estimated that about half of all U.S. households with a broadband Internet connection subscribed to...
In a second-quarter 2016 survey of on-line households, research company Parks Associates found that 50 percent of smart-doorbell owners use the devices to see who's at the door when they're not home,...
