DirecTV and Dish services lost more subscribers (478,000) in Q2 than in any previous quarter, and the top six cable companies lost about 276,000 video subscribers vs. a loss of about 190,000 subscribers in Q2 2017, Leichtman Research Group reported Monday. Top phone providers’ video subscriber deficit narrowed to about 45,000 vs. a loss of 270,000, for the fewest net losses for telcos since Q3 2015, said LRG. AT&T U-verse had its first net video additions, 23,000, since Q1 2015. Though the largest pay-TV providers in the U.S., with 95 percent of the market, lost about 415,000 net video subscribers in Q2, the number was “the fewest net losses in the traditionally weak second quarter since 2014,” said analyst Bruce Leichtman, comparing it to a pro forma loss of about 660,000 in Q2 2017. DirecTV and Sling TV added about 383,000 subscribers in Q2, up from 270,000 net adds in the prior-year quarter, for a total of 4.2 million subscribers, helping to offset overall pay-TV losses as consumers opt for less expensive services and providers change strategies. Of the top pay-TV providers’ 91.3 million subscribers, the top six cable companies have about 47.4 million, 30.6 million are satellite-TV customers, phone companies have 9.1 million and top internet-delivered pay-TV services have 4.2 million subscribers, said LRG.

The global smart headphone market will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 20.2 percent through 2025 to $21.8 billion, reported Allied Market Research Tuesday. It defines smart headphones as devices performing various functions in addition to listening to audio signals such as fitness and heart rate tracking, voice-based personal assistant use, contextual location-based suggestions, gesture and touch-based control, noise suppression and audio enhancement. Growth drivers include the penetration of infotainment devices, technological advancements and growing demand for mobility services, said the report. A market limiter -- the adverse effect of excessive headphone use on hearing -- will be offset by increasing need for convenience, said the researcher.

The cable industry could be facing an "explosive" drop in customers, given apparently huge pent-up demand for escaping the cable bundle, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Wednesday. He said the smaller percentage of new cable customers that new fiber networks are getting in recent years seems to point to those new customers using the opportunity to change providers as an opportunity to drop cable. He said 5G could be particularly attractive as a broadband offering if it offers good speeds and subscribers aren't forced by bundling to take cable TV.

Though most U.S. consumers continue to view video content in a “variety” of physical and digital formats, more use only subscription VOD services, said NPD Tuesday. It estimates 17 percent relied solely on SVOD services to view video content in the 12 months ending in March, up six points from 2017. Twenty-four percent rely only on “transactional methods,” renting and buying videos on physical discs or in digital formats, and 32 percent use a “combination of transactional and subscription video,” it said. Among SVOD consumers, 40 percent subscribe to one service, 37 percent to two, and 24 percent to three-plus.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets declined slightly in July from June, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 homes for the board through July 19 and found 11 percent plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, down from 11.2 percent in June, 12.5 percent in May, and 12.6 percent in July 2017, said the board. The overall consumer confidence index increased “marginally” in July after a “modest decline” in June, it said: “Consumers’ assessment of present-day conditions improved, suggesting that economic growth is still strong.” Though the recent numbers “continue to reflect optimism in the short-term economic outlook,” they also “suggest consumers do not foresee growth accelerating,” it said.

North American enterprises canvassed for an IHS Markit study expect nearly half their employees will use Wi-Fi exclusively to access company networks by 2020, said the research firm Wednesday. “Businesses are transforming their workplaces into environments that are flexible and enable employee mobility,” said IHS. “A key foundational element of these new workplaces is ubiquitous network connectivity.” Respondents ranked online security as their top worry “by a wide margin and the top reason to invest in new infrastructure,” said IHS. Other survey findings: (1) Tablets are the No. 1 type of device new to the network over the next year; (2) 77 percent of new access point deployments will be based on the new 802.11ax standard.

Global Q2 shipments of “traditional” PCs, including desktops, notebooks and workstations, totaled 62.3 million units for “solid” year-on-year growth of 2.7 percent, said IDC Thursday. The results exceeded IDC's forecast of 0.3 percent growth and is the strongest quarterly year-on-year growth rate since the 4.2 percent shipments increase in 2012's Q1, said IDC. “Business volume,” rather than consumer demand, appeared to be the key driver in Q2, with the top three companies -- HP, Lenovo and Dell -- “reaping benefits across both desktop and notebook” categories, it said. The market also continued to grow for premium and entry-level models, it said: “Chrome OS-based devices, premium notebooks, and gaming PCs all further fueled the mix in the wake of improved supply and prices of graphic cards.” The top five brands continued their leadership hold, and HP, Lenovo and Dell fortified their market-share standings from a year earlier, while Apple and Acer remained flat, said IDC. "Although traditional PCs may not be the default device for many usage scenarios, the market continues to show pockets of resiliency as PC usage experience evolves and improves," it said. "Even certain types of desktops are seeing growth amid this business-driven refresh cycle."

Total album sales, including vinyl, continued to slide in first half 2018, falling 17.6 percent to 68.8 million, Nielsen reported Monday. But, vinyl continued to counter trends, with sales growing 19.2 percent to 7.6 million, it said, now comprising over 18 percent of all physical album sales vs. 13 percent in the year-ago period. “Record Store Day,” growing to a weeklong event, brought in sales of 733,000 LPs April 20-26 through independent retailers, it said. Digital album sales plunged 21.7 percent while streaming music continued to advance for the Dec. 29-June 28 period. Album equivalent consumption (AEC) -- digital albums, track equivalent albums of 10 tracks to one album and streaming equivalent albums of 1,500 streams to one album -- soared 24.7 percent to 318.8 million units. On-demand audio and video streaming led the AEC segment, growing a combined 42 percent, but digital album sales fell 18 percent to 69 million units, and digital track sales tumbled 27 percent to 223 million units. Streaming behavior varies by day of the week with the biggest variation on weekends, said Nielsen. Fridays see the most weekly streams for on-demand and programmed audio, while Saturday leads all days for on-demand video song streaming. Sunday is the lightest day of the week for on-demand and programmed audio listening.

Apple Pay has 140 million mobile contactless users worldwide, Juniper Research reported. The number of mobile contactless users is projected to grow from 440 million this year to more than 760 million by 2020, and OEM pay services including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay will reach 450 million users by 2020. Those three will have 60 percent of mobile contactless users by 2023, up from 50 percent this year, with OEM pay players Huawei, Xiaomi, Fitbit and Garmin having more than 20 million users, it said. Contactless payments use rose rapidly, but that doesn’t mean higher growth for mobile contactless payments because contactless cards remain the most likely to have increased current and future usage by consumers, Juniper said. OEM pay options “may struggle to gain traction” among existing users in established markets, said the researcher. Contactless payment transactions done via all types of payment cards, mobile and wearable devices will reach $1 trillion this year, a year earlier than it had projected, it said.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets declined sharply in June from May, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 homes for the board through June 15 and found 11 percent plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, down from 12.5 percent in May, 13.1 percent in April and 14 percent in June 2017, said the board. Overall consumer confidence declined in June after increasing in May, though consumers’ “assessment of present-day conditions was relatively unchanged, suggesting that the level of economic growth remains strong,” it said. “While expectations remain high by historical standards, the modest curtailment in optimism suggests that consumers do not foresee the economy gaining much momentum in the months ahead.”