PayPal believes the “shift” in consumer behavior to e-commerce will stay “essentially unchanged in a post-COVID world,” said CEO Dan Schulman on a Q1 call Wednesday. “Consumers have expanded their digital lives into a seamless online and off-line experience.” Shaping a future “where everyone can participate fully in this new digital paradigm has never been more important,” he said. PayPal transactions in the quarter reached about 4.4 billion, growing 34% year over year, said Schulman. It added 14.5 million net new active accounts, ending the quarter with 392 million, up 21% from Q1 2020, he said. It expects to exceed 400 million active accounts by the end of Q2, he said.
FuboTV is “well-positioned” in the cord-cutter era with its “lead with sports” strategy, Wedbush's Michael Pachter wrote investors Thursday. “We expect cord-cutting and cord-shaving to continue for the foreseeable future, and think that a sizeable portion of the population will grow up as ‘cordnevers,’ preferring customizable bundles of content to pre-determined MVPD programming,” said the analyst, pegging the addressable market at about 30 million, growing at 3 million per year over the next 10. Pachter cited as positives for fuboTV its revenue guidance for 60% growth, “robust” average revenue per user advertising growth during fiscal 2020 and its advances in the sports betting market. The streaming service will launch a free-to-play wagering app in Q3, with a sportsbook to follow in Q4, Pachter noted. It plans to launch a free interactive predictive game initially to subscribers and later to all consumers in Q3 to learn from customer behavior and then tailor a sports wagering product to be offered through its sportsbook in Q4, he said. The sportsbook will likely generate only minimal revenue at launch, but “the creation of a free-to-play product rolled out to all consumers has the potential to drive word of mouth about fuboTV,” which could drive new subscriptions, he said: “We are optimistic that the sports book can drive material revenues and profitability in the next several years.” Wedbush forecasts fuboTV Q1 revenue of $103 million vs. company guidance of $100 million-$103 million when the company reports earnings Tuesday.
Wi-Fi mesh systems and fixed wireless access services are “the key technologies to bring better broadband to all,” reported ABI Research Wednesday. As demand for broadband connectivity increases, “many mature markets have reached close to 100% household penetration, resulting in higher competition among broadband operators,” it said. “Deployment of solutions and services which support better broadband user experience is becoming critical for broadband operators to achieve business success.” Wi-Fi mesh systems are gaining popularity for complete home Wi-Fi coverage and to support network management tools such as parental control, device-level traffic manipulation and troubleshooting technical issues, said ABI.
Devices such as set-top boxes and gateways deployed globally using RDK open-source software tops 80 million, up from 60 million a year ago, RDK Management, the consortium that manages the software, said Wednesday. It said adopters include Comcast, Cox, Shaw, Rogers and Vodafone. It said more than 500 tech manufacturers are affiliated with RDK, up from 430 a year ago.
Semiconductor supply constraints prevented Pixelworks in Q1 from “meeting 100% of our demand across all our product lines,” said CEO Todd DeBonis on a Tuesday call. The supplier of video processing chips to smartphone OEMs “made significant progress with the help of our supply chain partners in closing those gaps to meet approximately 90% of our Q2 demand,” he said. “Similar to other semiconductor companies, we expect these constraints to remain a headwind throughout 2021.” The company’s 91% mobile revenue sequential increase was its third straight quarter of 50%-plus sequential growth in the smartphone sector, said DeBonis. “The mobile market is primed for growth in 2021 as the industry and end market demand recovers.” Global 5G adoption “will continue to be an important trend this year, as it enables the efficient delivery of higher quality video and gaming content to mobile devices,” he said. Analysts predict 5G-enabled devices will comprise at least a third of total smartphone unit shipments in 2021, he said. The stock closed 10.6% higher Wednesday at $3.24.
The pandemic “permanently elevated consumer prioritization of convenience and flexibility” in healthcare, reported Kyruus Tuesday. The medical industry data management services provider hired Wakefield Research to canvass 1,000 U.S. adults in March, finding more than half “delayed some sort of care” during the pandemic and most “will seek a hybrid of virtual and in-person options” when they resume medical visits. Of those who deferred care, 48% say they did so because they didn’t feel safe visiting a doctor’s office. “Hybrid care delivery is here to stay,” it said, citing the 60% who say telehealth visits “will play a role in where they opt to get care in the future.” Sustained interest in virtual care is highest among patients with “routine and mental health needs,” it said.
Forty-one percent of consumers are comfortable going back to movie theaters, including 50% of 18-34-year-olds, said a Tuesday Parks Associates survey of U.S. broadband households. Theaters returned to being the top preference for watching new films, Parks reported, saying most consumers are “neutral or unlikely to subscribe" to an additional over-the-top video service "just to watch a new release.” The pandemic "roiled traditional content windowing" and some consumers are ready to return to theaters, but “the studios will have to continue to experiment with hybrid release strategies,” said analyst Steve Nason. Parks holds a virtual Future of Video conference Wednesday.
Students increasingly participate in online learning outside their home, with 92% relying on Wi-Fi to do so, the Consortium for School Networking reported Tuesday. Students often use multiple devices simultaneously for online learning. With more than 85% of network traffic among the 13 highlighted school districts used for video, per-student bandwidth requirements should "be multiplied by the number of students in the household and adjusted for other household members and factors impacting internet usage," CoSN recommended.
FuboTV launched a branded content studio for advertisers at Interactive Advertising Bureau NewFronts Monday, along with a partnership with LiveRamp to boost its addressable ad capabilities and shows from Terrell Owens, Matthew Hatchette and Gilbert Arenas on Fubo Sports Network. Advertisers can work with fuboTV’s creative team on custom-branded content to air on Fubo Sports Network, it said.
Verizon is exiting the media business, selling most of Yahoo, AOL and its other media assets to funds managed by Apollo for $5 billion, the telco said Monday. Verizon will retain 10% of the company, which will be known as Yahoo at close and continue to be led by its CEO (see personals section, this issue). Verizon bought AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion, Yahoo in 2017 for $4.5 billion. “Verizon Media has done an incredible job turning the business around over the past two and a half years and the growth potential is enormous,” but “the next iteration requires full investment and the right resources,” said Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg. The companies hope the deal will close in late 2021. “Strategically this is the right thing for Verizon to do,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors. “The Media business has no material value to its other businesses,” he said: “It allows Verizon mgmt. to focus attention and resources on Wireless. The transaction also creates a strong strategic contrast with AT&T, who is doubling down on investments in its media properties and walking off the field in wireless.”