More rough second-quarter numbers for U.S. video service providers leads today's cable news roundup.

Continuing a trend among major U.S. video service providers, Dish Network LLC (Nasdaq: DISH) shed 135,000 subscribers in the second quarter, attributing the loss to a mix of competition and "higher levels of discounting." In response, Dish will freeze prices through January 2013. Earnings rose to US$335 million (75 cents per share), versus $257 million (57 cents per share) a year earlier, but missed analyst expectations of 79 cents per share.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) claims it's had to repair "at least" 12 cases of sabotage to communications facilities in the midst of a strike involving 45,000 wireline employees in the eastern U.S. Negotiations to end the strike are underway.

LG Electronics Inc. (London: LGLD; Korea: 6657.KS) 's IP-connected Smart TV platform could gain access to authenticated video-on-demand and other pay-TV services after notching a deal to support Clearleap 's Stream On Demand platform.

Cable engineers at the CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, Colo., picked Metaswitch Networks 's Thrutu in-call content sharing app for PCs, smartphones and tablets as the winner of the event's Innovation Showcase.

Dave Williams, most recently the SVP of wireless technology at Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and former CTO of Telefónica Europe plc (O2) , has joined Stoke Inc. as the mobile data infrastructure specialist's chief technology officer. (See Stoke Hints at IPO.)

Madison Communications, a rural service provider with cable systems in central Illinois, has completed its upgrade to Docsis 3.0 using Arris Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRS)'s flagship cable modem termination system (CMTS), the C4.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable