Nearly 20 percent of streaming video subscribers are paying for three or more services -- up 4 percentage points over 2015, said a 451 Research report Monday with findings from a December survey of 1,270 North American respondents. Of respondents who pay for a streaming video service, 79 percent subscribe to Netflix and 53 percent are Amazon Video subscribers, with Amazon Video subscriptions growing by 5 points last year vs. 2015, it said. A third of respondents chose the services for their original content, up 8 percentage points over 2015, with 36 percent of Amazon and Netflix subscribers saying original content was key to their decision to subscribe. Thirty-one percent of Amazon Video subscribers said original content is their most-watched type of video, up from 7 percent in 2015, compared with 32 percent of Netflix users, up from 20 percent in 2015, it said. Streaming enthusiasts are creating their own bundles of video services, starting with Netflix (95 percent) and Amazon Video (82 percent) then choosing from subscription and a la carte platforms including Hulu, HBO Now and iTunes, said the report. Half of subscribers said access to movies was their top motivator for subscribing to a video service, followed by 45 percent who wanted to access complete seasons of TV shows, it said. Roku leads the streaming media device market with 31 percent of respondents saying they own a Roku player, and 10 percent owning a Roku Streaming Stick. Thirty-five percent owned an Apple TV, and 26 percent were Google Chromecast users, it said. Amazon devices had a smaller market share than other streaming devices at 13 percent for the Fire TV Stick and 10 percent for Fire TV player, but ownership was up 2 percent for the Stick and 1 percent for the player vs. the previous year, it said.

U.S. broadband homes that don’t subscribe to a legacy pay-TV service jumped to 22 percent last year, from 18 percent in 2015 and 9 percent in 2011, said a TDG Research report Wednesday. The number of “cord nils” broadband households reporting zero use of TV services from cable, satellite or telco-TV providers has grown from just under 8 million in 2011 to 22 million by year-end 2016, said the report. Director-Research Michael Greeson observed the correlation of legacy pay-TV subscriptions declining as broadband video expands and said the extent of the disruption “has been largely overlooked.” Most multichannel video programming distributors are being forced to rely on skinny TV services to save their dual-service relationships, Greeson said. Comcast is an exception, having invested early in IP-enabled set-top boxes and features, he said. “Unfortunately for other US MVPDs, the stickiness of the Internet/TV bundle appears to be in decline, even before Broadband Pay-TV services gain serious footing."

Iris recognition is expected to be a $4.1 billion global market by 2025, up from $676.6 million last year, said a Friday Tractica report. The technology was “hamstrung” by a conceptual patent in force until 2005 but in the years since, more than 10 “well-qualified” iris recognition hardware manufacturers, plus various software providers, have launched, with infrared cameras and light sources in smartphones and tablets creating new use cases in consumer applications, said Tractica. During the period reviewed, iris recognition device shipments are forecast to grow from 10.7 million units to 61.6 million units annually, it said. “Iris recognition is now gaining traction as a secure and consumer-friendly biometric modality, thanks to growing competition and innovation as well as successful pilot projects around the world,” said analyst Keith Kirkpatrick.

The global market for smart augmented reality glasses is projected to grow from 150,000 unit shipments in 2016 to 22.8 million units annually by 2022, said a Tractica report Friday. Revenue is forecast to grow from $138.6 million in 2016 to $19.7 billion by 2022. The market for the smart assisted-reality segment of the AR glasses category is in transition as assisted-reality headsets such as Google Glass remain niche products limited mostly to enterprise and industrial markets, said Tractica. A “more compelling” headset technology to assisted reality, which overlays digital information on users’ vision, is mixed reality (MR), which uses positional tracking and depth sensors, enabling interactions with holographic objects to provide a more immersive experience, said Tractica. “The market for smart glasses will have different entry points with devices like [Microsoft’s] HoloLens and Magic Leap at the top, modular devices like ODG’s R9 and Occipital Bridge in the middle, and assisted-reality glasses at the lower end,” said analyst Aditya Kaul. High- and medium-range smart AR glasses will likely be deployed in enterprise and consumer settings, while lower end assisted reality glasses with “glanceable” interfaces are best suited to industrial usage, said Kaul.

Consumer intentions to buy TV sets increased in February compared with January, according to preliminary data in the Conference Board’s monthly survey. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 consumers for the board through Feb. 16. The company found 12.6 percent said they plan to buy a TV set in the next six months, up from 12 percent in January, but down from 13.6 percent in December and 13.6 percent in February 2016, the board reported Tuesday. Its Consumer Confidence Index increased in February and remains at a 15-year high, it said: “Consumers rated current business and labor market conditions more favorably this month than in January. Expectations improved regarding the short-term outlook for business, and to a lesser degree jobs and income prospects. Overall, consumers expect the economy to continue expanding in the months ahead.”

Tablets’ share of mobile traffic fell in every country last year, said a Monday report from Adobe Digital Insights. In the U.S., tablets generated 8 percent of total web traffic, down from 10 percent in 2014, it said. Discounted tablets over the holidays were some of the hottest selling products of the season, but sales haven’t translated to traffic, said analyst Becky Tasker. Overall U.S. website traffic has remained flat for the past three years, said ADI, with smartphone device usage growing at the expense of other devices. Smartphone visits to the web grew 69 percent since 2014, as desktop and tablet visits declined by 23 and 14 percent, said the research firm. Though the mobile segment is a “battleground” for companies, “the app boom is over,” with installations down 38 percent in the past two years and launches down 28 percent, said Tasker. ADI said consumers in developing countries are bypassing PCs and going straight to smartphones to access the internet. Brazil and Argentina are rising fastest in share of smartphone traffic, said Tasker.

Nine in 10 mobile device owners have at least one subscription to access coupons, promotions and special discounts, and they actively seek alerts to offers and sales, said a CTA study Thursday. “Every step of the consumer’s path to purchase has dramatically changed with the use of smartphones, from triggering interest in considering technology products to purchase and sometimes post purchase behavior that includes posting online reviews,” said Steve Koenig, senior director-market research. Innovations associated with smartphones continue to change the retail market, Koenig noted, citing location-based services and apps that are creating opportunities for brick-and-mortar and online retailers. Despite high ownership of mobile devices, 41 percent of consumers use a computer to assist in shopping, preferring websites to mobile apps due to accessibility and convenience, CTA said. Online and mobile research leading to a brick-and-mortar in-store purchase remains the primary path for consumer purchases, said CTA, with 61 percent of purchases made in-store and 29 percent of consumers looking for product information while shopping at a store. Smartphones offer quick access to information but using a phone in a store can be distracting, said the report. Most online purchases are made via online-only retailer websites (51 percent), such as Amazon or Newegg, rather than with online-only retailer apps (24 percent), said CTA. Some 76 percent of consumers use existing online accounts to make a purchase, with the remainder using guest checkout options or signing up for a new account, it said. The group estimated U.S. online consumer spending via mobile devices nearly doubled during the holiday season, climbing 45 percent to $20.1 billion. Smartphone unit sales are projected to rise 3 percent this year in the U.S. to 185 million, representing $55.6 billion in revenue.

Ten percent of U.S. broadband households are likely to cancel their fixed broadband service over the next 12 months, replacing it with their wireless or mobile data services, said a Parks Associates report Thursday. The findings signal more of the migration away from fixed-line phone services in favor of cellular, with 8 percent of U.S. broadband households planning to cancel fixed-line service over the same period, Parks said. Currently, 51 percent of U.S. broadband households have fixed-line phone service, it said. “The diminishing use of fixed-line voice services may foreshadow the decline of fixed-broadband Internet services as the mobile data capabilities of smartphones increase and mobile carriers in the U.S. re-introduce their unlimited data plans,” said analyst Harry Wang. Younger consumers are more likely to go “completely mobile” for their internet needs, said Wang, while 15 percent of household heads ages 25-34 said they’re likely to cancel fixed broadband service over the next 12 months.

Global Q4 audio sales surged 28 percent year over year to $10.2 billion, outpacing the broader CE sector, said a Futuresource report Wednesday. Home audio (33 percent) and headphones (24 percent) led sales increases over Q4 2015, said the research firm, citing smartphones and streaming music services as market drivers, fueled by Amazon Echo and Dot, the U.S. launch of Google Home and “widespread adoption of wireless headphones.” Echo and Dot sales accounted for roughly 30 percent of wireless speaker sales in the U.S. and 34 percent in the U.K., said analyst Zlata Jelisejeva. Despite strong overall category growth, many subcategories are beginning to “shrink or slow down rapidly," said Futuresource, putting some vendors in a “precarious position." Hi-fi systems, loudspeakers, separate components and soundbars were “among the losers” in 2016, said analyst Rasika D’Souza, with new technologies, software, content and fashion trends all contributing to disruption in the audio market. Apple’s redesign of the iPhone, eliminating the headphone jack, accelerated wireless headphone sales, with wireless representing 49 percent of Q4 U.S. headphone revenue, she said. In vendor share, Amazon moved up from fifth place -- the spot it held from Q1 to Q3 last year -- to the No. 2 brand in Q4, said Futuresource. In the “highly concentrated” wireless speaker space, a few audio brands account for nearly half of all unit sales, said D'Souza. Among brands, Bose, Apple’s Beats, Harman, Sonos and Sony are “jostling for position among the leading five spots,” said D’Souza.

Consumer intentions to buy TV sets declined sharply in January from December, according to preliminary data in the Conference Board’s monthly survey. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 consumers for the Conference Board through Jan. 19, and found 11.9 percent said they plan to buy a TV set in the next six months, down from 13.6 percent in December, 12.7 percent in November and 13.5 percent in January 2016, the board said Tuesday. Consumer confidence declined slightly in January after reaching a 15-year high in December, it said: “The decline in confidence was driven solely by a less optimistic outlook for business conditions, jobs, and especially consumers’ income prospects. Consumers’ assessment of current conditions, on the other hand, improved in January. Despite the retreat in confidence, consumers remain confident that the economy will continue to expand in the coming months.”