California’s proposed $5 million for school broadband devices should cover more than laptops and Wi-Fi hot spots, AT&T said in Monday comments at the California Public Utilities Commission in docket R.12-10-012. Include smartphones, tablets, air cards, mobile hot spots and other wireless devices, said the carrier, backing the CPUC’s draft resolution supporting use of the state's Advanced Services Fund adoption account funds in response to the coronavirus (see 2004200041). The department clarified its proposal. Commissioners plan to vote May 7.
The Americans for Free Trade coalition wants the Trump administration to defer due dates for all federal duties and import fees payable through June, it wrote the White House and members of Congress Tuesday. Doing so would “immediately free up billions of dollars of working capital for American companies,” it said. “This cash is even more important for companies that have had to close their doors because of stay-at-home orders, leaving them with little to no revenue to make ends meet. Companies facing urgent liquidity issues need their duty payments deferred in order to succeed when the economy reopens.” More than 470 companies signed the letter, including Audio Control, Fossil, GameStop, JL Audio, Jasco Products and Voxx. CTA was among seven tech groups also signing, including ACT|The App Association and CompTIA. The White House didn’t comment.
With New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) asking the Trump administration to keep the Javits Convention Center open as a 2,500-bed COVID-19 Army field hospital through the fall flu season (see 2004270032), NAB is “carefully monitoring this new development,” emailed spokesperson Dennis Wharton Monday. “Safety of our NAB community will always be our number one priority, but at this point, we are committed to NAB Show New York at the Javits Center and look forward to helping the industry get back to business in October.” The show is scheduled for Oct. 21-22.
Some 80% of U.S. consumers are watching more TV and online video since the start of COVID-19 social distancing, said a Comcast survey. Thirty-two percent watch “a couple hours more per week,” 22% one-two hours per day more, and a quarter are watching two hours-plus more daily. Among the most viewed are news (49%), comedies (48%) and dramas (41%). On types of advertisements they are open to seeing now, consumers said those from food and beverage (51%), financial (28%) and technology (24%) companies. More than half said brands should incorporate messaging on COVID-19 into their ads “if it is tasteful.” Also Tuesday, Parks Associates said that 6 million more U.S. broadband households subscribed to an over-the-top video service since Q1 2019. Three-quarters of households now subscribe. The most popular shows during the period were Netflix’s Ozark, Money Heist and Tiger King; Parasite was the most popular movie. Parks cited Reelgood data indicating a shift to comedies among its 4.8 million OTT users.
SiriusXM “migrated” 5,500 employees and contractors to work from home in “mere days” after the pandemic hit, but still experienced a “substantial disruption of our call center staffing,” said CEO Jim Meyer on a Q1 investor call Tuesday. Staffing fell 50% to 60%, “lengthening hold times, increasing abandoned rates and reducing our ability to handle customer needs and support our sales campaigns,” he said. “We have made significant improvement here, but I don't expect us to get back to our normal levels until stay-at-home orders are lifted.” With lockdown orders across most of the U.S., “we see an opportunity to get more Americans to stream SiriusXM, as well as a unique occasion to get our existing subscribers to stream more,” he said. A “close proxy” of the automotive shows sales down roughly 55% to 60%, said Chief Financial Officer David Frear. That’s “not quite as bad as we thought, and many states are now reevaluating whether auto dealer showrooms should remain closed,” he said. Lower auto sales today mean “fewer conversion opportunities three months from now,” when free trials expire, he said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) asked President Donald Trump Monday to keep the Javits Convention Center open as a 2,500-bed COVID-19 Army field hospital through the fall flu season, Cuomo told his daily coronavirus briefing. Javits was one of four temporary facilities the Army Corps of Engineers built at the height of the crisis in the New York City area to reduce the strain on hospitals. “We’re now talking about the possibility of a second wave of the COVID virus or COVID combining with the regular flu season in September, which could be problematic again for the hospital capacity,” said Cuomo. “So the facilities we built, I spoke to the president about leaving them in place until we get through the flu season." Javits “we have to think about,” acknowledged Cuomo. "You can’t reopen the convention center, obviously, with the hospital beds in it." Javits is scheduled to host NAB Show New York Oct. 21-22 and the Audio Engineering Society convention Oct. 21-24. Neither NAB nor AES commented Monday. NAB already lost this month's Las Vegas show to COVID-19 (see 2003110036). AES put out an appeal Friday for $500,000 in funding by June 1 to keep it afloat amid multiple cancellations of sponsored events on which it relies for financial support (see 2004230055).
The FCC shouldn't limit participation in its COVID-10 telehealth program based on a healthcare provider's size, location, or for-profit or not-for-profit status, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a filing posted Monday. It supported a similar request from American Hospital Association in docket 20-89.
ProSource added educational webinars on its website, holds daily virtual town hall meetings and is working with vendors to share strategies and programs to “help drive a recovery plan” for its members, said CEO Dave Workman Thursday. Since its Summit in Las Vegas, March 8-11, ProSource has contacted all vendor partners: Many of them “stepped up by extending terms, prioritizing inventory for the channel, suspending freight charges, and accelerating group program payouts to the members,” Workman said. “A little over a month ago, the world changed,” said the executive, saying ProSource is pulling together with dealers and vendor partners to “navigate these uncharted waters.” Webinars on timely topics will be available live and on-demand. The first, with One Firefly, is on deploying a success marketing campaign to expand business. ProSource district managers are holding daily virtual town hall meetings with six to eight members each to stay connected on a local level, said the buying group, with “hundreds” of members “sharing strategies and solutions” on the calls. To fill a gap between its canceled spring meeting, scheduled for May, and three summer education series events, ProSource moved up the launch of the ProSource University learning management system (see 2003090047) from early summer to May 4 and is offering free access for all ProSource members through Sept. 30, it said. The platform, with a library of customized training materials for business owners "to address the pain points of training and retaining a specialized workforce," is designed to help onboard new employees and train and educate new and current employees, said the group. ProSource University also offers exclusive access to CEDIA’s full catalog of education content. ProSource added four CI-level dealer members this month: AB Audio Video, Santa Monica, California; Cinetec, Palos Hills, Illinois; iWired, Scottsdale, Arizona; and KC Tech Systems, Kansas City, Missouri.
LG Display expects demand “volatility” to increase “down the road, as industry sectors are impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak,” said the panel maker Thursday. “The difficult situation will inevitably linger.” But it also expects higher demand for laptop and tablet display panels, “due to stay-at-home orders and consequent surge in online activities,” it said “We will do our best to continue to seize such business opportunities.” Q1 revenue was 4.7 trillion Korean won ($3.8 billion), down 26% sequentially from Q4 and 20% lower than in Q1 2019.