U.S. pay-TV providers covering about 95 percent of the market lost 1.5 million video subscribers last year, compared with a 760,000 pro forma loss the year before, Leichtman Research Group said Monday. LRG said the top six cable companies lost roughly 660,000 video subs in 2017 vs. 275,000. It said direct broadcast satellite lost about 1.55 million subscribers vs. 40,000. Telco losses slowed to 885,000 from 1.359 million. Most of those telco losses both years were from AT&T's U-verse, Leichtman said. LRG said sub losses from traditional services were about 3.1 million; those were offset somewhat by gains from internet-delivered services.

Global home video entertainment revenue from sales of online content, physical media and advertising reached $70.2 billion in 2017, up 72 percent from 2013, Strategy Analytics reported Tuesday. SA forecasts global revenue will increase 52 percent in the next four years, reaching $106.5 billion in 2021. Online revenue, including consumer spending and advertising, was 84 percent of the total video market in 2017, compared with 52 percent in 2013; the U.S., at 47 percent, had the largest share of global online video revenue in 2017, followed by China (10 percent) and Japan (6 percent); and physical DVDs and Blu-rays generated 16 percent of global revenue in 2017, down from 76 percent in 2010. In online video home entertainment, “Netflix and Amazon are the headline acts but many other streaming video services around the world are also gaining traction as the video market continues to expand,” said the researcher

More Americans than ever plan to hold on to their tax refunds this year rather than spend the money, said the National Retail Federation in a Wednesday report. NRF canvassed 7,700 taxpayers in early February and found that about 65 percent are expecting tax refunds this year, it said. Of those, 49 percent said they plan to put their refunds into savings, the highest level in the 12 years NRF has been conducting the survey, it said. Another 35 percent said they'll use their refunds to pay down debt, and only 22 percent will spend the money on everyday expenses, it said. Of those who said they plan to splurge, 12 percent will use the money for a vacation, 10 percent for dining out, 9 percent for home improvements and 8 percent for “major purchases,” including a new TV set, it said.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets increased sharply in February from January, said preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 homes through Feb. 15 and found 13.5 percent plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, up from 12.2 percent in January, down from 13.9 percent in December, and up from 12.4 percent in February 2016, said the board. Overall consumer confidence increased in February to its highest level since November 2000, it said: “Despite the recent stock market volatility, consumers expressed greater optimism about short-term prospects for business and labor market conditions, as well as their financial prospects. Overall, consumers remain quite confident that the economy will continue expanding at a strong pace in the months ahead.”

Consumer satisfaction in smartphone purchases is highest among customers who accessed an online sales channel via a smartphone, said a Thursday J.D. Power report. In-store customer service is still important for explaining data usage and demonstrating device operations, said the report, but “speed and consistency of the experience delivered via mobile is clearly resonating with mobile customers.” Overall satisfaction among customers buying a wireless device via smartphone is 857 points, on a 1,000-point scale, vs. an 823 score among those shopping via computer or tablet, 842 who bought a smartphone in store and 836 who bought one with a telephone, it said. The wireless market is evolving into a “self-contained ecosystem in which all aspects of the ownership experience, from buying the device to engaging with customer support, is done entirely on a mobile device,” said analyst Peter Cunningham. Optimization for the smaller smartphone screen has led to higher purchase efficiency, with customers buying a new smartphone spending an average 10.6 minutes on the transaction using their existing smartphone, said the study, vs. an average 13.7 minutes for tablet or computer shoppers. Customers buying via smartphone also provide higher ratings for website attributes, such as ease of navigation, website appearance and ease of ordering, it said. Among providers, T-Mobile ranks highest in overall satisfaction among wireless full-service carriers with an 855 score, said J.D. Power, compared with 839 for AT&T, 833 for Verizon and 819 for Sprint. The report was based on studies fielded July-December of 13,344 customers who made a sales transaction with their current carrier within the previous three months.

Though “meaningful” artificial intelligence deployments are just beginning, nearly half the chief information officers surveyed by Gartner “have developed plans to do so,” the researcher reported Tuesday. "Despite huge levels of interest in AI technologies, current implementations remain at quite low levels," said Gartner. "However, there is potential for strong growth as CIOs begin piloting AI programs through a combination of buy, build and outsource efforts." Early adopters “are facing many obstacles to the progress of AI in their organizations,” said the report. It cautioned CIOs against falling into the “trap” of seeking hard financial gains through AI deployments. "In general, it’s best to start AI projects with a small scope and aim for 'soft' outcomes, such as process improvements, customer satisfaction or financial benchmarking," said the report: “Expect AI projects to produce, at best, lessons that will help with subsequent, larger experiments, pilots and implementations. In some organizations, a financial target will be a requirement to start the project.”

Global notebook PC shipments were 164.7 million units, a 2.1 percent bump in 2017, beating projections of 0.7 percent, reported TrendForce Monday. HP led the market, with a shipment record of 40 million units, a 10.5 percent jump from 2016, for 24.3 percent share. Lenovo shipments dropped 4.9 percent after a slow first half, said the market researcher, slipping to 20.2 percent share. Chromebook shipments and government contract bids in North America boosted Dell’s 2017 shipments 0.5 percent, giving it 15.2 percent share. The updated MacBook Pro drove an 18 percent rise in Apple shipments, giving the company 9.6 percent share. Asus, continuing a strategy to scale back on low-profit PCs, had its share shrink to 9.5 percent from 10.3 percent in 2016.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets declined sharply in January from December, said preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 homes through Jan. 18 and found 12 percent plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, down from 13.9 percent in December, 12.6 percent in November and unchanged from 12 percent in January 2016. Overall consumer confidence increased in January after a December decline, it said: “Expectations improved, though consumers were somewhat ambivalent about their income prospects over the coming months, perhaps the result of some uncertainty regarding the impact of the tax plan.”

Comcast's declining 2017 pay-TV results show a top-notch user interface, like Xfinity, isn't sufficient to overcome the high cost of cable, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Thursday. He said the results show consumers increasingly are putting incremental entertainment spending toward subscription VOD instead of cable, and that consumers value the cable bundle far less than programmers do. The cable operator didn't comment Friday. The company ended 2017 with 21.3 million residential video customers, down 185,000 year over year (see 1801240037).

Fourteen percent of U.S. mobile subscribers reported switching cellular providers as the most recent change to their mobile service plan, Parks Associates blogged, despite efforts by the top four providers to lure new subscribers. Some 39 percent made a plan change in the past 12 months, typically to upgrade a service plan or phone, it said Monday. A third of mobile customers haven’t made any changes to their mobile services in more than two years, as unlimited data offerings are “no longer effective levers” to draw customers from competitors, said analyst Kristen Hanich. "The challenge now is to find ways to increase ARPU [annual revenue per user] without negatively impacting customer satisfaction.” With few exceptions, the top spenders give their mobile carriers a low net provider score that’s some 10 points lower on average than the lowest spenders, she said, leaving carriers to search for “new ways to upsell without alienating their subscriber base." For example, AT&T exempted DirecTV from mobile data caps, “so its subscribers get video benefits with their mobile services," Hanich said. In response, T-Mobile and Verizon are moving to introduce their own over-the-top TV services this year, she said.