Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets declined slightly in April from March, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 homes for the board through April 12 and found 13.4 percent plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, down from 13.6 percent in March, but up from 12.9 percent in February and 11.9 percent in April 2017, said the board. Overall consumer confidence increased “moderately” in April, after a decline in March, it said: “Consumers’ assessment of current conditions improved somewhat, with consumers rating both business and labor market conditions quite favorably. Consumers’ short-term expectations also improved, with the percent of consumers expecting their incomes to decline over the coming months reaching its lowest level since December 2000.”

Mother’s Day consumer spending is expected to total a near-record $23.1 billion this year, including $2.1 billion on consumer electronics, said the National Retail Federation Tuesday. NRF estimates 86 percent of Americans will celebrate Mother’s Day in some form and spend an average of $180 a person doing so, it said. The expected spending would be second only to last year’s $23.6 billion, the highest in the 15-year history of the survey at an average $186 a person, it said. NRF canvassed 7,500 consumers earlier in April on their Mother’s Day plans and found 14 percent expect to buy consumer tech products as gifts, it said. Consumers aged 35-44 will be the biggest spenders overall this year at an average $224, while 18-24-year-old shoppers will most likely use smartphones to research their purchases and compare prices, it said.

Word of mouth and media “still rule” among U.S. consumers eager to learn about the latest tech products before they buy, a Matters Communications survey found. The company canvassed 1,000 consumers last month and found 71 percent learn about new tech products through friends and family. Among the available media channels that consumers prefer to use to find out about new tech products, TV is tops at 38 percent, followed by tech news sites like CNET (36 percent), social media (26 percent) and mainstream lifestyle magazines and sites like GQ and BuzzFeed (14 percent). Once consumers become aware of a product, “online reviews steer most purchasing decisions,” the survey found. Eighty-eight percent said product reviews are the most important factor in deciding to purchase, while 56 percent said they read reviews on their mobile devices while in-store to buy a product.

March sales at electronics and appliance stores were up 1.6 percent year-over-year and up 0.5 percent “seasonally adjusted” from February, said the National Retail Federation Monday. Overall March retail sales increased 0.3 percent seasonally adjusted over February and 5 percent year-over-year, excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants, said NRF. Online and other non-store sales were up 7.6 percent year-over-year overall and up 0.8 percent over February seasonally adjusted, it said. “Consumers continue to show resiliency in spending, and these numbers reflect how the economy is performing with a strong job market, gains in wages, improvements in confidence, rising home value and judicious use of credit,” said NRF. “The biggest risk to spending is in market fluctuations that could affect confidence, but we expect these basic improvements in economic fundamentals to continue."

Flat Q1 growth in global shipments of “traditional” PCs at 60.4 million units exceeded IDC’s forecast of a 1.5 percent decline and was the third straight quarter in which volume “has hovered around flat growth year on year,” said the research firm. “The data seems to indicate a continued build up in commercial renewal activity as the main driver for the stabilizing trend,” said IDC. “Business uptake” of Windows 10 systems appears to be contributing to the market stabilization, as is demand for premium notebooks in both the consumer and commercial segments, it said. “Continued focus on gaming systems has injected slight improvement in pockets of the consumer space” as well, said IDC. “Unlike the first quarter of 2017, an improved supply of key notebook components also loosened pressure on both supply and pricing, leading to some recovery of share for the smaller vendors.” The U.S. market had a “promising” Q1, “with almost all major vendors reporting increases in notebook sales,” said IDC.

MPAA estimates 263 million people in the U.S. and Canada went to see at least one movie in theaters last year, accounting for 76 percent of their population, it said in a report released Wednesday. Of those, 12 percent, or nearly 32 million, classify themselves as “frequent” moviegoers who went to the cinema at least once a month in 2017 and accounted for 49 percent of all tickets sold, said the report. MPAA canvassed nearly 8,100 U.S. adults in December and found 53 percent classified themselves as “occasional” moviegoers who saw a movie at the theater less than once a month in 2017, yet they also accounted for 49 percent of all tickets sold. Comparisons with 2016 were not “feasible” because 2017 was the first time MPAA did the survey exclusively online rather than by phone, it said. The 25-39 age group had the most (26 percent) frequent moviegoers last year. Frequent moviegoers “tend to own more key technology products” than the “general population of adults.” The association estimates 79 percent of frequent moviegoers own at least four different types of key technology products, compared with 61 percent of the adult population at large. It also estimates 93 percent of frequent moviegoers own a smartphone, compared with 89 percent of all moviegoers in general and 86 percent of the adult population at large. The survey also gauged ownership of computers, disc players, tablets, video streaming devices and videogame systems among frequent moviegoers, but not TVs. The report sources home entertainment content spending data from the Digital Entertainment Group (see 1801090032) and IHS Markit and was included to show that “people who love movies love them everywhere,” National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) President John Fithian told reporters on a Wednesday conference call. “As people are watching more and more movies and other entertainment content in the home, those same people who have the most number of technologies to watch movies in the home are also our most frequent moviegoer,” said Fithian. “So the growth of the market in the home is coupled with the growth in the market theatrically.” NATO also wants its “distribution and production partners to make more money in the home,” he said. “That means they’re then more capable of making more and bigger, better movies for us in theatrical with the profits that come from home entertainment.” Theatrical “remains the engine that drives the train for the content produced theatrically,” he said.

The ratio of pay-TV customers who also subscribe to an online video service grew to 21 percent in late 2017, from 10 percent the year before, said a Wednesday Parks Associates report. Parks cited the increasing number of partnerships between pay-TV and over-the-top providers, with operators such as Comcast adding support for Netflix on their set-top boxes. The number of cord-never households continues to increase “but those who have sampled pay TV are testing new alternatives," said analyst Brett Sappington. The percentage of viewers open to canceling pay TV or minimizing their monthly spend also is rising, leaving operators to reassess their technology and content investments and partnerships, he said. Parks scheduled a workshop on survival in the video world at the Pay TV Show in Denver May 14.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets jumped slightly in March from February, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 homes for the board through March 15 and found 13.1 percent plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, up from 12.9 percent in February, 12.2 percent in January and 13 percent in March 2017, it said. Overall consumer confidence declined “moderately” in March after reaching an 18-year high in February, it said: “Consumers’ short-term expectations also declined, including their outlook for the stock market, but overall expectations remain quite favorable. Despite the modest retreat in confidence, index levels remain historically high and suggest further strong growth in the months ahead.”

High prices and a lack of compelling use cases will limit sales of 5G phones in the first few years, Strategy Analytics reported. Such sales will begin in the U.S., China, Japan and South Korea in 2019, but volume will be in the millions “and only barely in the tens of millions in 2020,” said analyst Ville-Petteri Ukonaho. By 2021, when 5G networks will cover many urban centers in Asia and North America, consumers will have a reason to buy 5G smartphones, expected to be 5 percent of handsets sold that year, said analyst Ken Hyers Thursday. Older generation wireless will “continue to flourish,” said analyst David Kerr, saying 2G and 4G handsets will have long lifespans carrying into the next decade “even as 3G devices fade away.” SA forecasts 2G feature phones will be one in 10 handsets sold in 2023 as new-to-mobile customers in emerging markets, particularly Africa, buy their first mobile phones, while 4G LTE handsets’ sales volume will continue to grow through 2020 when they will be 80 percent of handsets sold.

U.S. broadband households using antennas reached 20 percent at the end of 2017, up from 16 percent in early 2015, Parks Associates reported. There's “steady decline” in pay-TV subscriptions and a rise of over-the-top video subscriptions, said Parks Thursday. “Digital antennas are experiencing a resurgence as consumers consider over-the-air TV and OTT video services as alternatives to pay-TV,” said analyst Brett Sappington. The portion of “never subscriber” households holds steady, while household cord-cutting grew between 2015 and 2017, presenting an opportunity for antennas as an affordable means to broadcasts, Sappington said. High cost and low price/value perception spurred service cancellation and bundle shaving, said the analyst, with more than half of households that have switched, shaved or cut the cord saying service is “not worth the cost,” he said. MVPDs should address the value perception and “re-establish their role as the consumers’ source for interesting content,” Sappington said. Forty-six percent of pay-TV subscribers are aware they can access VOD from their operator, including free programming, he said: “Many indicate that they want to purchase online video services through their pay-TV provider and to access the service through their channel guide.”