Dish Network is making “very steady progress” on its 5G network buildout, and its commitment to open radio access network (O-RAN) “architecture” (see 2002190048) is “the most important thing” about the deployment, said Chairman Charlie Ergen on a Q2 call Friday: “We’re the only company in the United States that we know of that’s doing that from a clean sheet of paper.”
Live Nation’s “expectation” is live concerts won't "return at scale” before next summer, “with ticket sales ramping up in the quarters leading up to these shows,” said CEO Michael Rapino on a call Wednesday. “We remain confident that fans will return to live events when it is safe.” Through Q2, 86% of concert fans held on to tickets for rescheduled shows and shunned refunds, “demonstrating their continued desire to attend concerts in the future despite the current uncertainty,” he said. Virtual concerts are in “huge demand, so the company established a “live from home platform," he said. He estimates 67 million fans globally viewed more than 18,000 virtual concerts and festivals in the quarter: “We are seeing the potential for livestreaming to become an additional long-term component of our concert business.”
Stymied by closures that delayed the theatrical debut of Mulan, Disney will fast-track the feature film on Disney+ as a “premier access” stream at $29.99 in most markets beginning Sept. 4, said CEO Bob Chapek on a quarterly call Tuesday. “We see this as an opportunity to bring this incredible film to a broad audience currently unable to go to movie theaters.” Instead of “simply rolling it” into a free offering, “we thought we would give it a try to establish” a new premier access window to “recapture some of that investment,” he said. “We're going to have a chance to learn from this and to see whether that makes sense.” It’s “more important than ever” for Disney to fortify its “direct relationship” with consumers, so it’s launching a “general entertainment” streaming service globally under the Star brand in 2021, said Chapek. Disney’s “full portfolio” of direct-to-consumer services now exceeds 100 million paid subs, said Chapek. As the company battled theater closures and production shutdowns, plus the absence of live sports on ESPN, Q3 earnings per share were 8 cents compared with $1.34 in the year-earlier quarter, said Chapek. “We estimate the adverse impact of COVID-19-related disruption on our third-quarter segment operating income was approximately $3 billion net of cost mitigations,” said Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy. The stock closed up 8.8% Wednesday at $127.61.
The International Trade Commission voted Tuesday to open a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Nokia allegations that Lenovo laptops, tablets, desktop PCs and components infringe four of its patents on H.264 video compression and a fifth on user interfaces (see 2007180001), said a notice (login required) posted Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1208. Nokia’s July 2 complaint seeks limited exclusion and cease-and-desist orders against the allegedly infringing devices and parts. Lenovo and its defenders argued in the runup to the investigation that an import ban would undermine the public interest because demand for laptops and other connectivity tools is spiking under work-from-home and remote-learning mandates. Nokia countered that Lenovo overstated its market importance and that other vendors easily could replace Lenovo’s excluded supply. Lenovo has 20 days to respond. It doesn't comment "on ongoing legal matters," emailed a spokesperson Wednesday.
COVID-19's cancellation of CES 2021 as a physical show (see 2007280034) typifies the shaky Q1 outlook for Las Vegas conventions, said Wynn Resorts President Marilyn Spiegel on a Q2 call Tuesday. Other trade shows are “going to be falling out” in Q1, “but we see that by about April, there's some firmness,” she said. NAB Show 2021 is scheduled for April 10-14 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. There’s “not much left on the books” for recouping convention business in 2020, said Spiegel. “And in 2021, the first quarter is a question mark.” Others say similar (see 2008040062). Without its customary “convention base,” the Strip has become “super-regional,” said Wynn CEO Matt Maddox. Customers from “drive-in markets” are dominating the traffic, and two-thirds of them are “nongamers,” he said.
COVID-19 had a much bigger impact on Coherent’s bookings than on revenue in fiscal Q3 ended July 4, said CEO Andy Mattes on a Tuesday investor call. It supplies lasers for microelectronics and flat-panel display production and for materials processing. Revenue grew 1.8% sequentially but declined 12.1% from the 2019 quarter. Its Q3 “proposal activity level” was more than 10% lower than Q2, said Mattes. April was the “low point,” with activity 40% below the Q3 average, he said. Coherent is “encouraged” that July proposals, defined as requests for quotes and “similar activity,” rebounded to levels “north of the Q2 average,” he said. Barring more lockdowns “in the months to come, this should be an early sign of recovery that could manifest itself in our Q1 booking” for the period ending early January, he said. “With consumer spending and habits worldwide being impacted by COVID, we would expect to see a somewhat quicker recovery” for smartphones than for “big-ticket items” like cars, he said. “We therefore expect a faster recovery across microelectronics than we would for materials processing.” The stock plunged 10.6% Wednesday, closing at $129.18.
AMC Networks estimates about 80% of its subscription VOD subscribers also buy at least one other “general entertainment” SVOD service, said CEO Josh Sapan on a Q2 call Tuesday. “This underscores that we are not competitive with the large services, we are compatible.” AMC thinks a higher return will come from investments in content that will “reposition our company for a more streaming-focused landscape,” said Chief Financial Officer Sean Sullivan. Its “targeted” SVOD services have been “performing quite well,” he said. “We're looking to lean into this area of our business.” It’s “early days” of the programmer's involvement with ad-supported VOD services on Pluto and Sling, said Sullivan. “We are very much viewing that as an opportunity to monetize our rich library.” AMC doesn’t feel the need to own its own platform, he said. “We have a strategic advantage to have our strong content on growing platforms throughout the industry, and we're in meaningful talks with everyone that you would anticipate.”
The Trump administration, without evidence, “stretched the concept of national security and abused its state power to bring down certain non-U.S. enterprises,” said a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Tuesday. It was in reaction to President Donald Trump’s threats Monday to put TikTok out of business in the U.S. if it’s not sold to an American company by Sept. 15. The threats are “a blatant act of bullying,” which China “firmly opposes,” said the spokesperson. If Trump follows through, “then any country can take similar measures against any U.S. company on the grounds of national security,” he said: “The U.S. must not open Pandora's box, or it will suffer the consequences.” Trump told reporters Tuesday he had a “great conversation” with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (see 2008030027), in which he told Nadella that China can’t control such a large company for “security reasons.” He suggested Microsoft buy the entire company, not just 30%, because the brand is “hot.” U.S. Treasury deserves a “substantial" cut of the money exchanged in any deal because the federal government is allowing the negotiations to continue, said Trump. Banning TikTok would be unfair to users, the Open Markets Institute said in a statement Tuesday, but it supports the sale to a U.S.-owned company.
Sony's core Electronics Products & Solutions (EP&S) consumer tech sector “was impacted by the spread of COVID-19 earlier and more significantly than any other segment," said Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki Tuesday. It swung to a 9.1 billion yen ($85.8 million) operating loss in Q1 ended June 30 from a year-earlier profit. EP&S sales declined 31% to 331.8 billion yen. It’s forecasting a 6% fiscal year sales decline. The EP&S supply chain “has almost fully recovered” from disruptions after widespread instability through late June (see 2006290041), said Totoki. Though “progress varies” by product category and region, customer demand “is beginning to recover as well,” he said. EP&S is bracing “for potential second and third waves of COVID-19,” he said. It’s “transforming the structure of this business into a more resilient” organization, he said: It plans an “overhaul” of operations and “enhancement” of e-commerce distribution channels.
The coronavirus pandemic is both helping and hindering Cirrus Logic. Sales increased 2% in fiscal Q1 ended June 27, mainly from “higher content and volumes” in tablets, “as people worldwide continue to work from home due to COVID-19,” said a shareholder letter Monday. “Large chunks of the Android space have suffered the turbulence in the COVID-19 environment,” said President John Forsyth on a Monday investor call. “That's a reflection of just the kind of progressive lockdown around different markets.” Some Android vendors rely heavily on “distribution channels that they don't control,” making them a "bit more susceptible” to downturns during the crisis, he said. Android companies have taken “a fair amount of buffeting” during the pandemic, said Forsyth. Cirrus hopes much of that “stuff” will be “behind us as we go into the next few quarters,” he said. The company is emphasizing tablets and laptops more than historically, but the strategy predates the novel coronavirus and the “transition of large parts of humanity to working from home,” said Forsyth: “There's certainly renewed interest in those segments.” Google, maker of the Android operating system, didn't comment Tuesday. The company's stock closed down 8.1% at $68.43 Tuesday.