Parks Associates (News - Alert), a research firm, released a new report on Tuesday detailing smart TV owners. The study reveals that 26 percent of U.S. broadband households own a smart TV, while 46 percent own at least one set-top box. The study also found that 63 percent of smart TV owners connect the set to the Internet, while 79 percent of smart TV owners use the TV to watch premium online video every month.

The research was conducted ahead of the 17^th annual “CONNECTIONS: The Premier Connected Home Conference”, which will take place May 20 through May 23 with CTIA (News - Alert) 2013 in Las Vegas. The event will be in the Murano Rooms on the third floor of the Venetian Hotel, directly above the CTIA 2013 sessions.

The incentive of the conference is to shed light on the impact of mobility on consumer expectations and the connected home industries.

Stuart Sikes the president of Parks Associates, says that mobility is “a key part of the connected home, with the average broadband user watching 1.6 hours of video on a mobile phone each week.”

Sikes went on to detail that the firm's research “shows consumers are watching the same kinds of movies and TV programs on mobile phones and tablets as they are on computers and TV sets, shifting competition from subscriptions to content and multiscreen offerings.”

Starz, Samsung, and AT&T (News - Alert) are credited by Sikes as bringing “significant expertise in the role of content and mobility in building strong consumer services.”

Insights from these companies will be available at the CONNECTIONS conference. Representatives from Starz, Samsung (News - Alert), AT&T and Parks Associates will be keynote speakers. All in all, there will be more than 100 speakers at the event.

CONNECTIONS sponsors include Cisco, Sprint, Allegro, Lowe's, Qualcomm, Sutherland Global Services, UpdateLogic, Amdocs, Arrayent, Asurion (News - Alert), MphasiS, Net2TV, Qresolve, Sigma Designs, Support.com, AlertMe, Linear, and HomePlug Alliance.