Eighty-seven percent of U.S. homes own a smartphone, second only to TVs among CE devices at 96 percent ownership, CTA reported Monday. The top tech categories are screen devices, with laptops third at 72 percent. Vice President-Research Steve Koenig predicted smartphone ownership could match TVs within five years. Smart speakers nearly tripled their ownership rate since last year to 22 percent of households, one of the fastest-adopted tech products since tablets. Smartwatches had a 6 percentage-point increase in ownership to 18 percent. Ownership rates of virtual reality headsets were 11 percent and drones 10 percent of households. The household ownership rate of 4K Ultra HD TVs rose 15 points to 31 percent, and 19 percent of households own a TV with a screen size of 60 inches or larger. Ownership of digital media streaming devices rose nine points to 45 percent.

Nearly half of all smartphone owners in U.S. broadband homes stream video on their devices, “creating more demand for high-speed mobile connections as the mobile service industry is preparing to shift to 5G network infrastructure,” said Parks Associates Thursday. Video streaming “is increasingly common among mobile consumers,” though social media access is still the most popular activity, with nearly 60 percent of smartphone owners using their devices for that purpose, said Parks. "The resurgence of unlimited data plans has been successful in getting consumers to upgrade." As the “race” to 5G intensifies, “network capabilities will also become increasingly important in the battle for consumers,” it said.

Homes with subscriptions to over-the-top video services will exceed 265 million globally by 2022, said Parks Associates Wednesday. Fifty-three percent of U.S. broadband homes own a smart TV, “and both smart TVs and streaming media players are continually improving the user experience to accommodate the shifting habits of consumers, including integration with voice-based digital assistant ecosystems,” said Parks. Consumers own an average of 8.6 connected CE products in their homes, up 87 percent since 2010, said Parks. More than 70 percent of U.S. broadband homes have an internet-connected entertainment device, it said: "With IoT expansion comes added expectations of interoperability. Consumers prioritize general device interoperability over staying within a specific brand ecosystem when considering a purchase.” Parks estimates three in every four consumers “find it important to consider any smart home product brand that will work with other products in their home,” and said 49 percent “find this very important.”

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. broadband homes now have at least two over-the-top video service subscriptions, said Parks Associates Monday. Consumers “have reached a new stage in connected entertainment where OTT is a standard source of video and viewers are more willing to experiment with multiple OTT services,” it said. Parks estimates half of U.S. broadband homes watch “long-form” online video content on an internet-connected TV, and 60 percent have one OTT subscription. Homes that subscribe to three or more internet video services are “one of the fastest growing segments in the U.S. OTT space,” increasing from 10 percent of broadband households in 2016 to 15 percent in 2017, it said. In the past 30 days, nearly half of U.S. broadband households accessed video content from a subscription OTT service, and 31 percent accessed free content, it said.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets declined in May from April, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 homes for the board through May 16 and found 12.2 percent plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, down from 13.1 percent in April and 13.6 percent in March, but up from 11.9 percent in May 2017, said the board. Overall consumer confidence increased in May after a “moderate” decline in April, “suggesting that the level of economic growth in Q2 is likely to have improved from Q1,” it said. “Overall, confidence levels remain at historically strong levels and should continue to support solid consumer spending in the near-term.”

The Supreme Court's overturning federal limits on some state gambling laws may help ISPs in the long run, assisted by the FCC's net neutrality rollback, said New Street Research analysts, referring to Monday's 6-3 decision in Murphy v. NCAA, No. 16-476. "The end game of all manner of gambling, particularly sports gambling, eventually opens the door for ISPs to enjoy some, if not a large portion, of the potential profits, without significant new costs," they wrote investors Tuesday, acknowledging further steps are needed and "potentially several years before those profits are realized." The analysts expect real-time online betting integrated with sports watching "will be a huge business," including "micro-betting" during a game that could require "high reliability, low latency, and huge backend computing power." ISP "leverage" to "offer services to platforms wishing to facilitate such gambling and to customers wishing to have the best performing platforms is greater than in the past due to the elimination of net neutrality protections," they wrote. "The ability of ISPs to monetize the gambling is even greater when the entities are vertically integrated ISPs and content distribution companies with sports programming." They said states must still pass new gambling laws and there must be underwriting of "the gambling risk of paying off more than the platform takes in," which will be a challenge in a real-time online setting.

The largest cable and phone providers, representing 95 percent of the market, added some 800,000 net broadband internet subscribers in Q1, Leichtman Research Group reported Friday. The top cable companies had 845,000, 84 percent, of subscriber additions, while the top phone companies lost about 45,000 subscribers, similar to the number of net losses in the year-ago quarter. Telcos have had combined net broadband losses for eight consecutive quarters, it said.

The top 95 percent of pay-TV providers lost roughly 305,000 net video subscribers in 1Q vs. a loss of about 515,000 subscribers in Q1 2017, said Leichtman Research Group Thursday. The top six cable companies lost about 285,000 video subscribers, widening from a loss of 115,000 subscribers; satellite TV service’s lost subscriptions widened to 375,000 from 340,000; but the top phone providers’ losses narrowed to 50,000 from 325,000 (the fewest since Q3 2015). Internet-delivered services including Sling TV and DirecTV Now added 405,000 subscribers, up from 265,000 net adds in the year-ago quarter. The top pay-TV providers now have about 91.9 million subscribers -- with the top six cable companies having 47.8 million video subscribers, satellite TV services 31.1 million subscribers, the top phone companies 9.2 million subscribers and the top Internet-delivered pay-TV services 3.8 million subscribers. Since the industry’s peak, traditional services have lost about 7.2 million subscribers, while the top publicly reporting internet-delivered services gained about 3.8 million customers, said LRG Principal Bruce Leichtman. The internet-delivered category doesn’t include PlayStation Vue, Hulu with Live TV or YouTube TV, which don't publicly report subscribers.

April retail sales, seasonally adjusted, increased 0.4 percent over March and 2.8 percent from April 2017 “as consumers continued to spend,” said the National Retail Federation Tuesday. “Retail sales growth remains solid and on track as households benefit from tax cuts even though they have faced unseasonable weather and bumpy financial markets,” said NRF. “The tax cuts and higher savings levels should help consumers afford the recent surge in gasoline prices. And a solid job market, recent wage gains and elevated confidence translate into ongoing spending support.” April sales at electronics and appliance stores were up 2.2 percent year-on-year but down 0.1 percent from March, seasonally adjusted, said NRF. Overall online and other non-store sales were up 12.2 percent from April 2017 and up 0.6 percent over March, it said.

At $88 billion, digital advertising spending in the U.S. overtook ad spending on cable and broadcast TV ($70.1 billion) last year for the first time, the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported Thursday, based on a PwC survey. Spending on digital channels grew 21 percent last year, with mobile, at $36.6 billion, generating 57 percent. Total media ad spending fell 3 percent. Digital video reached $11.9 billion, a 33 percent rise, and spending on social media advertising jumped 36 percent to $22.2 billion. Mobile video ad spend leaped 54 percent to $6.2 billion, the first time mobile video ad revenue passed desktop video, the group said. Search revenue reached $40.6 billion, up 18 percent, and mobile drove the 23 percent increase in banner ads to $27.5 billion. Digital audio ad spending grew 39 percent to $1.6 billion.