Consumers want Internet-connected services that will take care of everyday, repetitive tasks for them and anticipate their needs with timely reminders and encouragement. They'd also like to have options to choose among in terms of service providers -- and if they get user-friendly technology that delivers on what's promised, then those companies can expect to get return business.

Those were among the lessons shared by CTAM from a new study of "connected consumers" done with the research firm Magid. The research involved focus groups of "Internet of things" early adopters and people who were interested in acquiring smart-home products. CTAM plans to release the study to members of the marketing association soon, after discussing it at a meeting in New York on Tuesday of the cable and telecommunications marketing association's Advanced Video and Insights + Analytics councils.

CTAM CEO Vicki Lins said the research pointed to opportunities for cable companies and programmers, even though the brands that consumers in the study expected to rely on for connected tech solutions were Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. Consumers said they want a range of choices, and if cable companies can serve their consumers well and continue introducing voice-enabled search and other time-saving innovations on top of reliable broadband, then cable can win its share of their business, she said.

In August, Magid worked with more than 100 men and women on the study. They were a mix of pay-TV customers, cord cutters and cord nevers and were in 15 focus groups in three cities (Austin, Texas; San Francisco, Calif., and Alexandria, Va.). 

Early adopters were "forgiving and demanding," CTAM and Magid said, and Internet-of-Things prospects were "excited, yet hesitant." 

Google's combining of calendar and map apps to send a reminder that it's time to head out to the next destination is the kind of application consumers are looking for. "As consumers become accustomed to everything being one click or voice command away, they grow frustrated by routine tasks that could be solved more intelligently," Jill Rosengard Hill, executive VP at Magid, said in a release about the study. This leads consumers to believe that the more technology delivers in one part of their life, the more it should simplify the other parts of their life."

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There's a lot of interest in technology that can help with caring for the elderly and physically challenged with a mix of monitoring, on-demand interaction and coaching, the study found.

Consumers aspire to have devices, platforms and brands that work together and that "get to know me" -- and they want worry-free, ubiquitous connectivity.

Based on the research, CTAM and Magid expect password sharing and tapping into unauthorized content to continue, and it's up to the affected industries to figure out how to provide simple, easy and reasonably-priced access to minimize that behavior. CTAM and Magid also published an infographic to illustrate the study results.

This article was updated to reflect in the headline that the story is based on a study, not a survey.

The big four broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in that order -- remain the TV brands that consumers in an annual survey identify as the top "must keep" programmers, Solutions Research Group said.

In the eighth annual such survey, ESPN and Discovery follow in the fifth and sixth position, while HBO has moved up to No. 7, its best showing since the survey began (and one place higher than last year). History, PBS and AMC (which moved up seven spots from 2014) complete the top 10. TNT dropped out of the top 10 this year, slipping to 13 (see chart below).

Other highlights from the online survey of 1,400 U.S. consumers, conducted in April:

ABC, Fox and CBS are the top three brands for the 18-34 age demographic: ABC Family and AMC were new to the top 10 for this age group.

ESPN remains the top cable network among men ages 18-49, followed by HBO and Discovery.

ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and Discovery, in that order, remain the top five brands among women ages 25-54 stay, the same as last year. HGTV and ABC Family made the top 10 in this demo for the first time in the survey; History and Lifetime, which had fallen out of the top 10, made a comeback this year.

ABC and CBS were the top brands among African-Americans. Gains among this group were made by Discovery, PBS, CW, AMC, Comedy Central, Showtime and CNN versus last year.

ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and HBO were the top five brands among Hispanic Americans, followed by ESPN, PBS, Univision, ABC Family and AMC.

ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC, HBO and ESPN ranked as the top five brands among households earning $100,000 and up, followed by PBS, CNN, ABC Family and History.

For the first time in 2015, the survey asked consumers what they would do if their TV service provider stopped carrying their must-keep favorites: 84% said they would take some kind of action. It broke own to: 22% would switch providers, 11% would sign an online petition, 8% would complain on social media, 3% would complain to the Federal Communications Commission and 40% would complain to their TV providers, the survey firm said.

The top 10 channels in terms of fan loyalty as indicated by proportion who would drop their TV subscription in the event of non-carriage were: Telemundo, Univision, NBC Sports Network, Fox News Channel, Bravo, History, ESPN, AMC, ESPN2 and FOX Sports 1.

Survey boilerplate: "Must Keep TV" tracking is an independent syndicated brand tracking survey conducted by Solutions Research Group among a representative sample of American consumers, SRG said. The survey has been done every year since 2007, with questions fielded and presented in the same manner each year. The 2015 research is based on online interviews with 1,400 American consumers ages 12 and up conducted in April 2015. SRG said the sample captures and represents all major population segments. Respondents are shown a list of 74 leading network or cable brands and are asked to identify which ones would be on their "must keep TV" list if they had to choose a limited number. Sample design is balanced by geography, gender and ethnicity, including African- American and English-speaking Hispanics according to known universe parameters.