For ATSC 3.0 to become a commercial success, broadcasters “have to promote the heck out of it,” CTA CEO Gary Shapiro told the NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday in Detroit. Shapiro spoke in person on a panel with NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt, who participated via Zoom because, he said, his wife tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday. Shapiro said he tested positive a few weeks ago.
For centuries, it has been a “fundamental right of owning something that it is yours -- it belongs to you, and you control what happens to it,” emailed George Slover, Center for Democracy & Technology senior counsel-competition policy, in praise of New York’s passage of the nation’s first electronics right-of-repair legislation (see 2206030034). If a product breaks, “you can get it fixed where you want, or fix it yourself if you can,” said Slover, former Consumer Reports senior policy counsel. “Consumers should not lose this right just because the product now comes with electronics inside it,” he said. The New York legislation “restores that fundamental right of choice to consumers, giving them greater ability to get their electronics-enabled products fixed more conveniently and more affordably,” said Slover. “By opening up the repair aftermarket to competition, it gives independent technicians the opportunity to offer this service to consumers -- just like cobblers and blacksmiths and seamstresses have been able to do."
Though right-to-repair advocates expect the tech lobby “will continue to fight” freedom of repair legislation in the states, “we don’t see a legal challenge” to New York’s Digital Fair Repair Act as “viable,” emailed Elizabeth Chamberlain, iFixit director-sustainability. The New York Assembly, on a 145-1 vote, sent the legislation to the desk of Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) Friday (see 2206030034). New York senators approved the legislation 59-4 earlier in the week. “The Digital Fair Repair Act passed with a veto-proof majority in both houses,” said Chamberlain Monday. “It’s overwhelmingly favored by the electorate,” she said. A recent Consumer Reports poll found 84% of Americans “support legislation exactly like this,” she said. “We expect many more states to follow New York and a legal challenge in all these places would be futile. We welcome productive dialogue with manufacturers to inform future regulations.”
At least one prominent right-to-repair advocate thinks it’s a virtual certainty that tech companies will sue to block the Digital Fair Repair Act that cleared the New York Assembly Friday by a 145-1 vote (see 2206030034). The bill, which would take effect a year after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signs it into law, requires OEMs to provide parts, tools and repair documentation to consumers and independent repair shops.
Competition “makes everybody better,” and it's “good for the consumer,” American Express CEO Steve Squeri told a Bernstein investor conference Thursday. “Look at how we're competing now in the premium space,” he said. “I think Chase Sapphire did so much good for the premium space.” Squeri shared with then-NAB President Gordon Smith that when Chase Sapphire “put so much time, money, effort and spotlight" on the premium space, "that it made it attractive to a lot of other constituencies that we probably wouldn't have gone after,” he said. “Since Chase Sapphire launched, our Platinum Card base has doubled.”
GameStop set out 12 months ago to “transform a decaying brick-and-mortar retailer into a technology-led organization that meets customers' needs through stores, through e-commerce properties and through emerging digital marketplaces and online communities,” said CEO Matt Furlong on an earnings call Wednesday for its fiscal Q1 ended April 30. Furlong joined GameStop as CEO last June after a nine-year career at Amazon, following a string of interim CEOs after Paul Raines left for medical reasons in November 2017 (see 2203180017).
Disclosures in an April 19 earnings report that Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in Q1, sending the stock plunging more than 35% in a single day, sparked at least the second federal securities fraud complaint against the streaming company seeking class-action status (see 2205040004). The Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, a Netflix shareholder, “suffered damages as a result of the federal securities law violations and false and misleading statements and material omissions” made by co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann and Chief Product Officer Greg Peters, alleged the complaint in U.S. District Court in San Jose that was filed Tuesday and transferred to Oakland Thursday after U.S. District Judge James Donato recused himself. In at least five quarterly earnings calls before April 19, the Netflix executives failed to disclose to investors that subscriber account-sharing and increased competition from other streaming services “were becoming significant headwinds” and that the company was “experiencing difficulties retaining customers,” the complaint said. Netflix didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. and Taiwan launched a bilateral “initiative” on 21st century trade that’s intended “to develop concrete ways to deepen” their economic and trade relationship and advance their “mutual trade priorities based on shared values,” said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Wednesday. The U.S. and Taiwan “are market-oriented economies and understand the harm that can be caused by trade partners that deploy non-market policies and practices,” said USTR in a veiled reference to China. “Both sides believe in building consumer trust in the digital economy, promoting access to information, facilitating use of digital technologies, promoting resilient and secure digital infrastructure, and addressing discriminatory and trade-distortive practices in the digital economy.” News of the collaboration likely won’t sit well with Beijing, which warned the U.S. Tuesday to “immediately stop official exchanges with Taiwan in any form.” The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry didn’t comment about Wednesday’s U.S.-Taiwan announcement.
Nokia’s Beacon 2 Wi-Fi 6 router infringes a June 2017 patent (9,686,655) on grouping multiple user data and transmitting the grouped data in a multiple antenna system, alleged patent owner Vector Licensing in a complaint Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Nokia describes the Beacon 2 as capable of creating “a seamless Wi-Fi 6 network throughout the home,” using an “intelligent channel selection” for seeking the best signals and “avoiding any Wi-Fi glitches.” Vector is “entitled to recover damages adequate to compensate” for Nokia’s direct infringement, said the complaint. Nokia didn’t omment.
HP, like most PC vendors, expects it will continue to have strong commercial PC demand for the rest of calendar 2022, with “some softening of the consumer businesses,” said CEO Enrique Lores on an earnings call Tuesday for fiscal Q2 ended April 30. Revenue in HP’s Personal Systems segment grew 9% to $11.5 billion -- “our highest Q2 revenue ever, reflecting the durability of PC demand,” he said.