According to the research, the first half of 2020 has also held those gains, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and economic uncertainty, indicating a widening consumer base for monitoring services and related smart home devices.

“As more aspects of daily life get connected, professional monitoring services will see new opportunities emerge beyond security to deliver a variety of new benefits to today’s connected consumers,” said Brad Russell, Research Director, Connected Home, Parks Associates. “As adoption of smart products such as lights, locks, detectors, and thermostats increases, they will create more use cases for monitoring services. For example, 57% percent of consumers planning to purchase a smart smoke detector in the next year would pay $10 per month for a monitoring service for critical events such as fire and smoke and carbon monoxide detection. The safety, security, and peace-of-mind benefits that come with these services are powerful drivers among US households.”

“Professional monitoring has existed for decades, and we believe it is here to stay,” said Spencer Moore, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Rapid Response Monitoring. “It’s already in more places than you probably realize, and it continues to grow. As technology companies we need to accept this reality to be successful in the future.”

The whitepaper highlights the concerns companies and consumers have—beyond the protection of their assets—that can benefit from professional monitoring services, including energy consumption, risks from flood and fire, health of aging relatives, and safety of package deliveries.

The emergence of connected health products and monitoring services also gives a new opportunity to serve consumers at home. Security providers can diversify their customer base by providing security-related packages with connected health and independent living solutions designed for protecting loved ones.

“Among the 7% of US broadband households that report using personal safety or panic button technology, their top five main service features include professional monitoring,” Russell said. “The integration of connected health solutions with monitoring services creates an opportunity for a source of recurring revenue.”