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.
Comcast’s xFi internet service had a 57% daily usage rise since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said Thursday. XFi had a 27% uptick in parental control activation, and a 43% bump in parents activating filters for web content during browsing and searching on devices. The ISP had a 213% spike in Wi-Fi “pause” during the 11 a.m.-2 p.m. lunchtime window. More families staying home during the day has shifted rules “typically applied to dinnertime to lunchtime,” said the company, referencing Xfinity’s pause Wi-Fi feature that had an overall 75% usage hike. The median active time alert set on weekdays for kids rose an hour to four hours a day.
As the global pandemic hit, Snapchat added 11 million “daily active users” in Q1 for a total of 229 million, up 5% sequentially and 20% increase from Q1 2019, said Snap CEO Evan Spiegel on a Tuesday investor call. "We experienced high revenue growth rates in the first two months of the quarter, which offset our lower growth in March." It’s difficult to predict the “near-term impact of this unprecedented complex and global pandemic on our business,” said Spiegel. “Long-term indicators” are positive, he said: Financial recovery “may be very fast for some businesses and much slower for others.” The stock soared 36.7% higher Wednesday, closing at $17.01.
Video piracy is growing during the pandemic and could continue to rise, especially because video demand is high and new content lacking, blogged Irdeto Vice President-Cybersecurity Services Peter Cossack Tuesday.
The FCC should join attorneys general from 27 states and territories urging the telecom industry to make further commitments to protect consumers during the public health crisis, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said Wednesday. Add another 90 days to the 60-day Keep Americans Connected pledge, said California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin and other AGs of both parties in a letter to Chairman Ajit Pai. Telecom companies should give customers fair payment plans for bills accumulated during the emergency, reconnect disconnected customers for at least 90 days with no fees, expand data caps and waive wireless overage charges for at least 90 days, and educate customers about COVID-19 services and scams, the AGs said. The FCC didn’t comment.
Facing what the New York Attorney General's Office told us is an inquiry into Charter Communications' labor practices and management of employees during the pandemic, the company emailed us Wednesday that it has been "dramatically" reducing the number of workers going into the field or office "while maintaining the efficacy of our business operations." It said most office and call center workers are remote, it announced a permanent $1.50 an hour pay increase to field operations and customer service employees retroactive to their annual increase in February, and committed to a $20 hourly minimum wage in 2022. It said it has given every worker an additional 15 days of COVID-19-related flex time and promised no furloughs or layoffs for at least 60 days. The cable operator said it instructed employees to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for quarantining if sick, with full pay and benefits. The company said many workers at its corporate campuses are on a rotating schedule to allow for minimal interaction and social distancing, and it escalated routine cleanings in line with CDC guidelines. Other cablers and other ISPs are taking similar moves, we have found (see 2004100038).
Anker Innovations said Wednesday it supplied a million FDA-certified masks to COVID-19 healthcare workers in Washington state and 400,000 to local healthcare providers in California, New Jersey and New York. It coordinated the donations with local governors, mayors and first responders, it said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) outlined an effort to close the digital divide (see 2004160058) in response to COVID-19. The California Public Utilities Commission will make $25 million from the California Teleconnect Fund available for schools for hot spots and internet service for student households and a previously announced $5 million from the California Advanced Services Fund for devices (see 2004200041), Newsom announced Monday. Amazon, Apple, Verizon, T-Mobile and others committed to provide broadband service and devices for students, he said.
Traditional video ratings are “solid (for now),” Cowen analysts wrote investors Tuesday, but unit losses could have “further downside” from a COVID-19 recession. Though linear TV ratings are “up meaningfully” during the crisis, Cowen expects “heightened cord-cutting pressure due to a COVID-19 driven recession” as linear TV’s price-value becomes top of mind for subscribers vs. over-the-top video, said analyst Greg Williams. In this macro environment, traditional video is a “2-sided coin”: Live local news is leading higher ratings for traditional TV, though sports cancellations and delays could affect the value of traditional video, noted Williams and colleague Colby Synesael: Cord-cutting trends should continue, as hourly employees look for ways to shed personal expenses, and streaming services provide cheaper video options. Cutting the cord involves sacrifice, but the wide selection of options in this OTT era makes that decision “more tolerable in a recession,” said the analysts, forecasting a 4% drop in cable subscriptions this year. OTT and pay-TV services are riding the wave of sheltering at home: Since the week of March 14, the Starz app has had a 44% bump in average viewership and a 142% increase in new customers, and Disney reported April 8 it had passed 50 million paid subscribers globally, noted analyst Doug Creutz. The coronavirus outbreak has driven a “significant linear ratings tailwind” for most cable network groups “other than Disney," he said, whose ESPN network was slammed by the shutdown of live sports.
The FCC waived excluding entities delinquent in FCC debt from participation in the COVID-19 telehealth fund "to facilitate prompt review and processing of the maximum number of applications," said a public notice Tuesday. The agency announced $3.71 million in funding for five hospitals and other healthcare providers, in California, Florida, Michigan, New York and Ohio.