Small ISPs are between a rock and a hard place on offering cable TV because it's unlikely to generate a net operating margin, but many subscribers still want traditional cable service and will gravitate to ISPs that can bundle it with broadband, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Wednesday. Finances are different for big ISPs that are able to get programming more cheaply, meaning they have wider operating margins so each cable customer adds to the bottom line, he said.

Importer Qtop USA recalled LED work light replacement bulbs, which can overheat due to an electrical malfunction and pose a fire hazard, said the Consumer Product Safety Commission Tuesday. Qtop received five incidents of smoking and fire from the LED bulbs; no injuries or property damage were reported. Consumers should stop using the recalled bulbs, discard them and contact Qtop for instructions on receiving a full refund, it said. The recall affects 5,600 units with model numbers WL100 and WL 300R and date codes 1902/0518 sold at Econ O Line Products and Orgill Dealer Market trade shows from October 2017-July 2018 for about $20.

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, expects Facebook to testify July 16 about its Project Libra cryptocurrency plans (see 1906180063). The committee announced the hearing for 10 a.m. in 538 Dirksen without listing witnesses. “We expect them to come before the committee,” Brown told us. “The public should know what they’re going to do before they move ahead with this, for sure.” The company didn’t comment. Brown expects the company to argue Project Libra will fill the needs of customers who can’t operate within the traditional banking system. “I think people around here are not particularly trusting of Facebook to look out for them. They’re going to look out for themselves -- no surprise there.” The committee needs “to review it very carefully,” Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said, calling the concept “very intriguing.” It’s important to evaluate whether the appropriate regulatory authorities are in place to ensure proper oversight, Crapo told us. American Enterprise Institute Visiting Fellow Jim Harper noted Libra will be a separate entity from the company, and transaction data won’t be available to advertising systems: “Whatever results from stirring the currency and payments pot is likely to be better than what we have now. We might just end up with a secure, privacy-protective internet of money.” The House Financial Services Committee is also seeking a hearing with Facebook on Libra. Brown said the project raises privacy and data security concerns. The Banking Committee hearing will also focus on data privacy. It's time to get moving on privacy legislation to avoid a patchwork of state laws like in California, Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday. “My hope would be that we would be able to mark something up before the August break.” It’s unclear if the Senate Commerce Committee privacy group is nearing a draft proposal, he said. It’s going to take a willingness and acceptance of not “getting everything you want,” he added. “Unfortunately, there are some Democrats who are fine with the California law going into effect, and that isn’t going to be helpful obviously if we’re trying to push this through and have a sense of urgency about it.”

Health concerns about the FCC-proposed update of rules for over-the-air reception devices, with an eye on 5G, were raised by Marshall Goldberg, a physician in Washington state. Local and state interests also raised concerns (see 1906050014). “This rule change would allow millimeter wave pulsed transmitting devices to be installed on private homes for the purpose of broadcasting signals out into local neighborhoods,” Goldberg filed, posted Monday in docket 19-36: “Adding such a clause to the 1996 Telecommunications Act is a threat to human health.” The Citizen League Encouraging Awareness of Radiation raised similar health concerns last week, as did others.

Display Supply Chain Consultants recently signed a contract to advise Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) as his administration renegotiates the state's deal with Foxconn to build a Gen 6 LCD fab in Mount Pleasant, near Racine (see 1904190038), President Bob O’Brien told us Tuesday at the 8K Display Summit. Foxconn’s original contract with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. called for the state to pay the company up to $3 billion in prorated cash subsidies if it built a Gen 10.5 fab and hired 13,000 employees. After Foxconn downsized the project to Gen 6, it approached the Evers administration about renegotiating the deal, because “with the existing contract, Foxconn might not get any subsidies,” said O'Brien. “The number of jobs is going to be a lot lower than 13,000.” DSCC will advise the governor on trends in the display industry, not on recommended terms in the renegotiated contract, he said. “The governor’s office and most American people don’t have flat-panel display expertise. We’ll be helping them to understand what is characteristic in the flat-panel display industry.” To O'Brien's understanding, DSCC's contract will involve reviewing documents germane to the Foxconn project but no face-to-face contact with Foxconn officials, he said. Representatives of the governor’s office didn’t comment Wednesday. O'Brien visited Mount Pleasant last weekend and found "a tremendous amount of activity going on" at the site, he said. "It's all infrastructure. I was there at 7:30 on a Saturday morning and they had trucks moving dirt."

CEDIA named finalists for its 2019 Home Technology Professional Awards competition. The awards recognize the best projects members completed during the past year judged on craftsmanship, style and creativity, it said Monday. U.S. finalists are Atlanta Audio & Automation, Atlanta; Audio Images, Tustin, California; Beyond Hi-Fi, Bellevue, Washington; Cantara, Costa Mesa, California; Elevated Integration, Armonk, New York; Pacific Audio & Communications, Kihei, Hawaii; Service Tech, Cedar Park, Texas; SmartTouch USA, Columbia, Maryland; Sounds Good, Waltham, Massachusetts; and Premier Group, Carmel, Indiana. Winners will be announced at the CEDIA Awards Celebration & Leadership Conference, July 24-25 in Chicago.

Local government and real estate groups said the FCC should rethink an NPRM on updating a rule for over-the-air reception devices with an eye toward spurring 5G deployment. Commissioners approved the OTARD NPRM 5-0 in April (see 1904150035) and comments were due Monday in docket 19-71. The Wireless ISP Association hopes for quick action, President Claude Aiken told us Tuesday. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, major cities Los Angeles, Boston and Dallas, and other local governments jointly questioned the need for a rule change. “The Commission has always predicated its prior expansion of the OTARD Rule on a review of the marketplace to identify a market need to justify such expansion," they said: It's "extremely disappointing that the current NPRM deviates from its predecessors in failing to examine the marketplace and inquire as to the need for Commission action.” Other local representatives said similar. The proposed rules would provide “a broad grant of rights to communications providers,” said the National Association of Realtors, National Real Estate Investors Association, Real Estate Roundtable and related groups. It would “inadvertently increase the risks and costs to owners of leased property,” they added. Update rules as 5G is deployed nationwide, CTIA said. “Hundreds of thousands of new antennas must be installed.” Starry supports action on the rules. “Fixed wireless can provide a last mile broadband connection at much lower cost than comparable wireline networks, and with significantly less disruption to the cities, towns, and communities in which they are deployed,” Starry said. “The Commission appropriately seeks to modernize its OTARD rule so that the zoning laws and homeowners’ association restrictions can no longer prohibit hub and relay antennas at residences,” WISPA said. “This action would be consistent with the intent of the OTARD rule, which was designed to ensure that consumers have access to a broad range of video programming services, and to foster competition among providers.”

Value Electronics will hold its 15th annual TV Shootout Evaluation June 12 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. during CE Week at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York, it said Tuesday. Flagships LG’s OLED65C9PUA, Samsung’s QN65Q90R LCD/LED, Sony's XBR-65A9G OLED and the Sony XBR-65Z9F LCD/LED will be tested, evaluated and compared to determine the 2019 “King of TV," said Value Electronics President Robert Zohn.

Shares of Google and Facebook closed down Monday after DOJ and the FTC are reportedly considering heightened antitrust scrutiny. Facebook lost 7.5 percent to $164.15; Google 6.1 percent to $1,036.23. The agencies assigned antitrust jurisdiction over the companies, signaling potential increased scrutiny, The Washington Post reported. The FTC reportedly will do oversight of Amazon, while Google will come under DOJ scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal reported DOJ is preparing an investigation of Google, and the FTC will examine Facebook impacts on digital competition. Reuters reported DOJ has jurisdiction over Apple. The companies and agencies didn’t comment.

The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) is promoting a single set of common, ubiquitous protocols for interoperability over IP in the pro AV industry that’s based on the SMPTE ST 2110 standards suite for video, audio and data transport, it said Friday. The pro AV industry is facing issues the broadcast industry confronted three years ago in transitioning to IP infrastructures and the decision whether to adopt proprietary technologies and closed systems or to unite behind an open standards approach, said David Chiappini, AIMS Pro AV working group chair. An IP technology infrastructure based on open standards “provides the industry with the maximum agility and flexibility to adjust business models, capitalize on new revenue opportunities, and add new capabilities and services without having to constantly rebuild workflows,” Chiappini said.