Video streaming service stacking is likely to continue near term, after accelerating during the shelter-at-home period for the coronavirus, said industry executives on a Parks Associates webinar. Five million more broadband households have an over-the-top video service now than in Q3, said Parks' Steve Nason. Broadband households with four or more OTT services is up 8 points since Q3 to 25%; customers were more likely during lockdown to look for the “optimal” combination of services to meet their needs, said the analyst Wednesday. Among developments enabling the OTT market to grow were MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, faster broadband speeds to the home and incremental improvements in Wi-Fi, said Bart Spriester, Comcast Technology Solutions general manager-content and streaming provider solutions. The streaming industry has “come a long, long way,” said Tom Griffiths, director-technology of U.K.-based ITV. Live content presents a “fundamental challenge” to OTT video “that will probably never be solved,” said Spriester. With traditional broadcast and streaming video converging more from providers, rights management can be challenging.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., pressed the FCC Friday for “additional transparency” in the $200 million COVID-19 telehealth program. The FCC said Wednesday it has approved $104.98 million (see 2006100046). “While the FCC has posted weekly updates of funding awards, we are troubled by the lack of transparency regarding the health care providers who have applied but have not yet received an award,” Pallone and Doyle wrote Chairman Ajit Pai. “We have heard reports that many health care providers are facing issues obtaining funds, particularly those serving tribal lands. Similarly, health care providers report they have been unable to receive funding for some important telehealth equipment.” Pallone and Doyle want by June 19 a weekly updated “docket that includes all the applications the Commission has received” plus which applications have been approved and when funding is disbursed. They seek “a summary of any uses or devices that were not approved.” The agency “has been administering this program in a transparent manner,” a spokesperson emailed. “We have been providing weekly announcements of all of the funding applications that have been approved along with the details of those approved telehealth projects provided by the applicants.” The FCC’s “website contains a list of all of the approved applications sorted by state,” the spokesperson said. “Our focus has been and must continue to be on processing all of the applications quickly and carefully, an effort that could be undercut if we turn our attention to creating a new system for posting pending applications.”

Adobe “successfully transitioned” last month’s canceled Adobe Summit in Las Vegas to an “exclusively digital event,” said CEO Shantanu Narayen on a fiscal Q2 call Thursday. Holding the summit virtually “enabled us to engage a far larger audience than an in-person event and set the bar for virtual events,” he said. The conference “engaged” more than a half-million visitors, he said. Though it was difficult pre-pandemic to imagine conducting business only virtually with chief marketing and information officers, “a side benefit of everyone working at home is that we are able to schedule and engage with far more customers across multiple continents,” he said. “In all these discussions with business leaders, it is clear that investments in digital and specifically customer experience are more important than ever.”

The ICANN69 annual general meeting, scheduled for Oct. 17-22, will be held virtually instead of in person in Hamburg, Germany, ICANN announced Thursday. ICANN67 and ICANN68 were also held virtually because of COVID-19.

With content production still in widespread global lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, “strategic” diagnostic testing for the coronavirus “is critical for a safe return to work” for cast and crew, said “guidelines” published Friday by four unions in the film and TV industry. Without testing, “cast and crew would be asked to work each day in an environment of unknown risk,” said the Directors Guild of America, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the Teamsters and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of TV and Radio Artists. They propose that productions set up a system of A, B and C protective “zones.” Zone A is a “bubble encasing closely vetted vulnerable people,” including performers and crew, with no social distancing or masks. Zone B “is everywhere the production has a footprint that is not Zone A,” they said. Zone C is “the outside world,” they said. “No one can be allowed access to Zone A or Zone B for the first time unless they have been tested and cleared within the last 24 hours.”

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, State E-rate Coordinators’ Alliance and Funds for Learning unveiled a Remote Learning During COVID-19 Act Thursday. The proposal mirrors SHLB’s April request for $5.25 billion in E-rate funding as part of COVID-19 legislation (see 2004280068). The House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HR-6800) includes $5 billion for E-rate (see 2005130059). More than 1,900 entities signed a Thursday letter to Capitol Hill leaders supporting including the Remote Learning During COVID-19 Act in future pandemic legislation, including New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. The legislation “reflects the new reality that the traditional classroom model has had to shift to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the entities said. They said the proposal would “strengthen” the Emergency Educational Connections Act. HR-6563/S-3690 allocates less for E-rate.

Two years to the day since FCC's Communications Act Title II rollback took effect, predictions of hugely anti-consumer results "have proven as false today as foolish back then," Chairman Ajit Pai said at a Federalist Society event Thursday. His address largely recapped steps the agency took to deal with the pandemic. He said such deregulatory steps as the net neutrality rollback resulted in big fiber infrastructure investments that made U.S. broadband networks able to handle increased traffic during the pandemic.

House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, Ore., and Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Wash., pressed Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Thursday about the company’s data privacy practices and potential coordination with the Chinese government. The company has drawn increasing government scrutiny amid increasing videoconferencing use during the pandemic (see 2005110041). The Republicans responded to reports that Zoom closed the account of a group of U.S.-based Chinese activists after they held an event commemorating the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. “Zoom’s recent actions and acquiescence to China raise serious concerns about your data practices, including how you protect information you collect on Americans and, importantly, who you grant access to such information,” Walden and McMorris Rodgers wrote. They want information on what “’local law’ you claim to have complied with to justify suppressing the free speech of U.S.-based Chinese activists and identify the date on which you reinstated the accounts of such activists.” The lawmakers also want the company to “explain how Zoom collects information on Americans and what specific categories of information is collected.” It didn’t immediately comment.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly is hopeful performance of telecom technology during the pandemic will hasten trends to allow more work from home, he told USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter Thursday. O'Rielly said he attended the USTelecom conference from his bedroom and addressed commissioners' meeting Tuesday from his children's nursery. O'Rielly said he's spending more traditional work hours on childcare, influencing his decision-making. He applauded industry for making U.S. broadband networks "the envy of the world." In the future, he said, punching a clock won't matter as much: "You'll work when you can fit it in." New technologies and devices will support the shift, he said. "I'm optimistic we're going to grow from this experience."

COVID-19 response technology must be “non-discriminatory, effective, voluntary, secure, accountable, and used exclusively for public health purposes,” more than 80 advocacy groups said Thursday. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and New America’s Open Technology Institute signed a set of principles to “guide employers, policymakers, businesses, and public health authorities” while reopening society. Decision-makers should “be mindful of the risks of overreach and unintended consequences, especially to marginalized communities already suffering disproportionately from the virus and economic hardships,” the groups wrote.