• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, January 8, 2014

More and more consumers are viewing video via over-the-top services, according to just-released research from Parks Associates. About 50% of U.S. broadband homes use subscription or transactional over-the-top video, the research firm said when it released its newest data at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Parks also learned that those over-the-top homes spend more on video in general than other homes – about $67 per month on video, versus $40 on average for all U.S broadband homes. (That figure does not include pay-TV services, though most over-the-top users have pay-TV service).

Services that integrate both transactional and subscription over-the-top video are tapping into this consumer mindset, Parks added. Amazon Prime, for instance, offers a subscription service as well as videos for purchase. About two-thirds of Amazon Prime Instant Video subscribers also use Amazon transactional service, and the amount they spend on rented and purchased videos is rising, Parks said.

Many homes are watching such over-the-top services not only on TVs, but also on mobile devices. The Diffusion Group found that among adult broadband consumers, 15% of tablet users and 14% of smartphone users will occasionally connect their mobile devices to their TV to watch video on the big screen. This is still an early adopter behavior, but it could become an “early mainstream behavior” in the next few years, TDG said. This type of convergence makes sense. Mobile and tablet videos now account for more than 10% of all online video plays, Ooayala has said.