SpaceX's Starlink broadband service tops geostationary operators HughesNet and Viasat, though all three satellite operators fall short of the median download speeds for fixed broadband providers, Ookla's Speedtest said Wednesday. It said its Q2 data, based on millions of Speedtest user tests, showed Starlink had "fixed-broadband-like latency figures and median download speeds fast enough to handle most of the needs of modern life," with 97.23 Mbps download, compared with HughesNet's 19.73 Mbps and Viasat's 18.13 Mbps. It said Q2 U.S. media download speed for all fixed providers was 115.22 Mbps. It said only Starlink had median latency "anywhere near" fixed broadband in Q2, at 45 milliseconds vs. fixed broadband's 14 milliseconds.
Amazon was the only tech-related merchant to make the National Retail Federation’s “Hot 25 Retailers List” for biggest U.S. sales growth in 2020 from 2019. All retail companies with domestic sales exceeding $300 million were eligible. Amazon placed seventh with 33.7% growth. Target was the only general-merchandise big-box retailer to qualify at No. 20 with 19.8% growth. For some retailers, “2020 was a decidedly good year,” said NRF Wednesday. Topping the list of Hot 25 was Wine.com, with 99.4% growth.
Discovery+ has “strong traction,” with 130% year-over-year revenue growth and 17 million paid direct-to-consumer subscribers globally at the end of Q2, said Discovery CEO David Zaslav on an earnings call Tuesday. “We are really pleased with the cadence and monetization” of discovery+, “notwithstanding the seasonally slower summer period, only exacerbated by the post-COVID reopening,” he said. The company had 13 million discovery+ subscribers in Q1.
Fiscal Q2 revenue in Harmonic’s video segment was up 34% year over year, including 68% growth in streaming software-as-a-service revenue, said CEO Patrick Harshman on a quarterly call Monday. The quarter ended July 2. The scaling of “existing customer usage,” plus new customers, drove the streaming revenue growth, he said. “The streaming market continues to grow,” and “streaming brand awareness” keeps improving, said Harshman. “We're pleased to see continued resurgence in broadband project activity worldwide.” Revenue growth “reflected overall broadcast market resilience and happened with nearly no 5G bandwidth reclamation contribution, as Q2 was between 5G-driven projects," he said. The stock soared 23% Tuesday, closing at $10.63.
SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband service has 1,740 satellites in orbit, about 90,000 users in 12 countries and more than 500,000 deposits or orders globally, company representatives told FCC International Bureau staffers, per a filing Monday. It said its planned 29,988 second-generation satellites (see 2005270010) would have faster speeds and lower latency, serve more customers and have more backhaul capacity. It said the second-generation satellites would have at most a 3.43-year orbital decay time.
Discovery+ subscription streaming will be coming to Vizio SmartCast smart TV viewers by September, said the TV vendor Tuesday. Vizio also said it's bringing the BET+ streaming app to SmartCast TVs beginning Wednesday. Users can access the streaming service for a free, seven-day trial before buying a premium, commercial-free subscription for $9.99 monthly.
Fandango said it’s combining its Vudu and FandangoNow streaming services into a newly updated Vudu-branded offering that will replace FandangoNow as the official movie and TV store on Roku. The new Vudu service will offer more than 200,000 new release and catalog movies and TV shows to rent or buy, it said Tuesday. It claims the largest collection of 4K titles with no subscription required.
MVPDs pushing consumers toward apps rather than set-top boxes could help Universal Electronics Inc. as it shifts from remote controls to chips and embedded software, Colliers' Steven Frankel wrote investors Monday. UEI has been “battling headwinds from the [COVID-19] pandemic, a mix shift from finished remotes to higher margin software/chips and the de-emphasis of some lower margin products,” said the analyst. UEI reports Q2 Thursday.
Q2 was a “transition period” for Amazon customers home less amid fewer COVID-19 restrictions, Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky told investors (See Q2 materials here.). Prime members continued to spend more at Amazon, but their “spend moderated” vs. the peak of the pandemic, he said. Since May, Amazon’s year-on-year growth rate, excluding Prime Day, slowed to the mid-teens, from 35%-40% at the height of the pandemic, Olsavsky said: The Q3 guidance of 10%-16% “reflects an expected continuation of this trend.” The e-commerce company’s sales were “softer than expected” at $113 billion, Cowen analyst John Blackledge wrote investors Friday. “Higher consumer mobility” affected e-commerce demand, he said. New CEO Andy Jassy wasn't on Thursday's call. Nor was founder Jeff Bezos, who stepped down as CEO July 5 and became executive chairman. It's Bezos' regular practice to skip quarterly calls. Amazon shares closed down 7.6% to $3,327.59 on Friday.
COVID-19 restrictions “started to relax” in Q2 across PayPal’s core markets, “and we saw the beginning of a return to normalcy in consumer behavior,” said Chief Financial Officer John Rainey on a quarterly call Wednesday. “Consumers are spending again in verticals that had been severely affected and have become more comfortable shopping in person and dining out.” Merchants in the PayPal ecosystem “are repositioning for the post-pandemic world,” said Rainey. “Relative to our expectations, which were for reopening spend to closely track vaccination rates, we've seen travel and events volumes return more rapidly.” Even in markets that have reopened fully for in-person shopping, “elevated e-commerce spending above pre-pandemic levels is ongoing and indicative of permanent shifts in consumer behavior,” he said. “We continue to see the categories that benefited from quarantine measures and shelter in place activities last year maintain higher levels of e-commerce volumes in comparison to pre-COVID levels.”