A record level of cord cutting hit U.S. MVPDs in Q1, with net losses widening to nearly 1.2 million from 682,000 in the year-ago quarter, BTIG's Richard Greenfield wrote investors. Subscriber trends are slowing for vMVPDs, too, as net additions shrank to 174,000 vs. 933,000. Total subscriptions of companies tracked, representing more than 90 percent of the industry, were down nearly 2 percent year over year, said the analyst, and they should begin to negatively affect broadcast and cable network programmer retransmission/affiliate revenue in Q2. “The collapse in multichannel video subscribers that we are now witnessing is caused by the unwillingness of Disney and other legacy media companies to allow distributors to create the channel packages that their consumers actually want,” said Greenfield, citing Disney’s channel bundle, now with FX and Nat Geo, which costs distributors some $17-$18 per month “with no flexibility.” Legacy media’s “forced bundling tactics continue to put business models and profits ahead of the consumer,” which is “always a long-term losing proposition.” Greenfield Friday cited irony in recent quotes from media executives on cord-cutting trends, including Disney CEO Robert Iger saying last month: “I don’t think the consumer really wants to buy 150-200 channels of programming, for a fairly significant price when they’re not interested in many of those channels.” Comcast CEO Steve Burke said vMVPD gains, which “pretty much offset the loss on the traditional MVPD side,” are “over” and that vMVPDs are raising prices, pulling back and redirecting -- a reflection of “slowing” growth.

Global semiconductor sales in Q1 were $96.8 billion, a 15.5 percent sequential decline and 13 percent reduction from Q1 2018, said the Semiconductor Industry Association Monday. Global sales for March were $32.3 billion, down 1.8 percent from February and 13 percent from March 2018. Declines were “consistent with the cyclical trend the global market has experienced recently,” it said.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets fell sharply in April from March, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes through April 18 and found 11.3 percent plan to buy a new TV set in the next six months, down from 13.7 percent in March, 12.4 percent in February and 13.1 percent in April last year, said the board. Consumer confidence improved in April after declining in March, it said: “Consumers expect the economy to continue growing at a solid pace into the summer months. These strong confidence levels should continue to support consumer spending in the near-term.”

Businesses worldwide will spend nearly $1.2 trillion this year on “digital transformation” as they seek a competitive edge, said IDC Tuesday. “Discrete manufacturing” ($221.6 billion) and “process manufacturing” ($124.5 billion) are the two industrial sectors expected to invest the most in digital transformation. Each will pursue “a different mix of strategic priorities, from omni-channel commerce for the retail industry to digital supply chain optimization” for the logistics industry, it said. It estimates hardware and services investments will be more than 75 percent of 2019 digital transformation spending.

Apple had 36 percent, Samsung 34 percent of U.S. smartphone activations in March, while Motorola (with 10 percent) stole share from LG (11 percent), Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reported. Smartphone brand share is more variable than mobile operating system share, noted CIRP's Mike Levin: Samsung has typically had the highest share, from 30-39 percent depending on product launch calendars from March 2015-March 2019, he said, while Apple share varied from 29 percent-40 percent. “The most notable trend has Motorola taking share from LG and threatening to take over third place in the smartphone market,” said the analyst.

Global shipments of “traditional” PCs, including desktops, notebooks and workstations, declined 3 percent in Q1 to 58.5 million units, reported IDC Wednesday. That performance was “above expectations,” it said. The shortage of Intel processors remained a market headwind, but most regions exceeded forecasts, it said. Stronger than expected desktop shipments further boosted volume, it said. "Desktop PCs were surprisingly resilient as the commercial segment helped drive a refresh during the quarter," said IDC. "The U.S. market saw year-over-year volumes decline in notebooks as consumer demand softened during the quarter, offsetting the modest gains we saw in desktops." Of the top U.S. PC vendors, only Lenovo had notebook growth from the year-ago quarter, it said.

Electronics and appliance stores lost 1,300 retail jobs in March from February, reported the National Retail Federation Friday, citing Labor Department data. Retail industry employment in March was down by 11,700 jobs from February, said NRF. The U.S. had a monthly gain of 196,000 jobs overall, “good news after the seesaw employment growth in the past few months,” it said. NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said: “Retail jobs reflect the pulse of the economy, and as the economy picks up retail hiring is likely to do the same.”

Dish Network ranked highest in telecom in-home service technician satisfaction with a score of 889, followed by Charter Communications' Spectrum (867) and AT&T/DirecTV (865), J.D. Power reported Tuesday. The industry average is 859, with scores based on quality and timeliness of completed work; a technician’s knowledge, courtesy and professionalism; and appointment scheduling. Overall satisfaction was lower among customers whose technician arrived early or late (750 on a 1,000-point scale) vs. on time (874). Customers who received a notification were much more likely to say their technician arrived on time than those who didn't get one (92 percent vs. 73 percent), and overall satisfaction bumped 86 points when customers were contacted on the day of the appointment before technician arrival. Though the most common means of scheduling service was via phone, satisfaction was lowest there and highest via website or mobile app. Five percent of customers received notifications via mobile app, 11 percent by email and 86 percent by phone. Overall satisfaction with a service experience grew 74 points when the provider contacted the customer after the visit to make sure everything was running smoothly; it rose 90 points when a technician offered to schedule a follow-up visit to fix any outstanding issues. Comcast/Xfinity' score was 855, Verizon 849, Cox 842, CenturyLink 833 and Frontier Communications 808. The most effective brands communicate in advance with customers across multiple communications platforms, said Ian Greenblatt, managing director, J.D. Power. Top support companies make it “easy to request service, accurately project the technician arrival time and follow up to address outstanding issues.” The study, fielded in December-January, yielded 4,391 responses.

February sales at electronics and appliance stores were down 3.8 percent year over year and 1.3 percent sequentially from January, said the National Retail Federation Monday. Overall retail sales increased 2.7 percent from February 2018, but fell 0.7 percent from January, said NRF. Wintry weather across much of the U.S., plus the “aftereffects of the erratic stock market” and government shutdown were to blame for the “weaker-than-expected” February results compared with January, it said. “Slower tax refunds this year also likely played a role.” NRF still expects retail sales to “pick up” this year,” with job and wage growth “driving increased consumer spending,” it said. “The consumer will continue to provide direction and strength to the U.S. economy in the months ahead." Despite a decline in the March consumer confidence index after an increase in February, “consumers remain confident that the economy will continue expanding in the near term,” reported the Conference Board last week. “However, the overall trend in confidence has been softening since last summer, pointing to a moderation in economic growth.” Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets increased in March from February, it said. Of the 5,000 U.S. homes Nielsen canvassed through March 14, 13.4 percent plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, it said. That's up from 12.4 percent in February and 12.8 percent in January, but down from 13.6 percent in March 2018, it said.

NPD expects low single-digit percentage sales growth for U.S. consumer technology sales through 2021. Dollar sales growth is projected to slip to 2 percent this year, to a total $94 billion, vs. 3 percent growth from 2017 to 2018, it said. Wireless headphones and smart home devices will lead growth categories, adding $3 billion vs. 2018, the researcher forecast Tuesday. Wireless headphones are forecast to grow 52 percent in dollars this year, and smart entry products -- keyless entry and smart doorbells -- are expected to generate 55 percent growth. Core CE categories including PCs and TVs will continue to be the largest percentage of sales, said analyst Stephen Baker. TVs, PCs and related accessories will add $4.2 billion revenue in 2021 over 2018, led by larger screen and higher resolution TVs, gaming notebooks, and desktops and accessories, Baker said. Forty percent of consumers buying a replacement TV in the past two years were looking for a larger screen, he said, and the trend will continue: 75-inch and larger 4K TVs will have the largest revenue growth among screen sizes with sales topping $4 billion by 2021, said NPD.