U.S. importers sourced 9.07 million TVs from all countries in all screen sizes in the second quarter, 7.2% fewer sets than in Q1 and 16.2% fewer than in the 2021 quarter, according to Census data accessed through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool.

The FTC voted 3-2 Thursday to seek public comment on a potential privacy rulemaking to address “mass surveillance,” data breaches, deception and manipulation, as expected (see 2204180049).

Localities' lawsuits seeking franchise fees from streaming services have faced challenges in federal court, but experts said they expect the legal fight to increasingly focus on state courts. In a Texas court, Dallas, Houston and other cities sued Disney, Hulu and Netflix last week, claiming the streamers ignored their video service provider obligations to get their state certificates of franchise authority and pay required franchise fees. The streamers didn't comment Thursday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the FCC’s 2020 5.9 GHz order Friday, allocating 45 MHz of the band for Wi-Fi and 30 MHz for cellular vehicle-to-everything technology, in a win for the agency. As the court did in December on the 6 GHz order (see 2112280047), judges clarified in strong language that the FCC has significant discretion in spectrum decisions. ITS America and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials brought the case, which was argued in January (see 2201250066).

California legislators killed a social media bill that would have held platforms civilly liable for addicting children, after opposition from the web industry and free-speech advocates. But some other controversial internet bills made it through Friday’s cutoff for fiscal committee votes. Bills on broadband, free inmate calls and the 988 mental-health hotline also advanced to floor votes.

Other ad-supported VOD services “have already learned that building an ad sales engine isn’t easy,” said Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment CEO William Rouhana on a Q2 earnings call Thursday. Disney+ and Netflix “will learn that soon,” he said.

The Disney+ ad-supported VOD tier, branded Disney+ Basic, goes live Dec. 8 at $7.99 a month with a “thoughtful approach by launching with a lower ad load and frequency,” said CEO Bob Chapek on an earnings call Wednesday for fiscal Q3 ended July 2 . The ad-free tier, Disney+ Premium, will increase to $10.99 from $7.99 when Disney+ Basic debuts.

Vizio’s Q2 device revenue plunged 11% to $298.1 million, while ad revenue grew 71%, driving the Vizio's Platform+ business to $110.8 million, said the company's quarterly report Wednesday. Device gross profit plunged 88% to $4 million with a 1.3% gross margin, while Platform+ gross profit rose 47% to $69.9 million with 63% gross margin. The stock closed 18.1% higher Thursday at $12.33.

Increasing numbers of cable operators say they aren't seeing major residential broadband competition from fixed wireless access (FWA) providers. Some industry watchers are unconvinced.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's former director highlighted the benefits of moving into the private sector and discussed what his former agency can do better to attract industry collaboration. Speaking Wednesday at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, Chris Krebs said moving into private practice has been “lucrative.”