NAB will not "move forward" with the April 18-22 NAB Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center "in the interest of addressing the health and safety concerns of our stakeholders," said CEO Gordon Smith Wednesday afternoon. The decision to cancel came (see 2003110042) after the NAB executive committee voted unanimously by phone earlier Wednesday to scrub the event.
Edge Networks wants to leverage ATSC 3.0 to deploy a wireless nationwide subscription-based video service, CEO Todd Achilles told us Tuesday. It sees competitive openings in “underserved” secondary and tertiary video markets, plus larger populations with poor or overpriced broadband, and markets with a monopolistic MVPD. Edge is on-air with 3.0 on low-power stations in Boise it’s leasing from Cocola Broadcasting, KBSE-LD Channel 33 and KCBB-LB Channel 34, said Achilles. Those will be the keystone of a hybrid over-the-air/IP 3.0 commercial service launch this summer to homes in the Boise designated market area, accessible through a set-top box Edge is developing, he said. The set-top will have built-in internet connectivity, two dual OTA ATSC 1.0/3.0 tuners, plus onboard storage, said Achilles. Edge wants to price its service offering at about half that of the $109 average monthly U.S. cable bill. With executive stints with HTC and T-Mobile, “I’ve been through a bunch of these transitions in the mobile space,” said Achilles. He regards 3.0 as “the most efficient wireless protocol,” he said. “What we’ve done is basically built a pay-TV model around a foundation of 3.0,” and is aiming its focus on second- and third-tier markets around the U.S. “that are just chronically underserved by the legacy providers,” he said. The startup doesn’t “aspire to do a 200-channel bundle” but rather an offering of 80-100 channels that’s somewhat “curated for what works” in individual markets, said Achilles. That’s “one of the things that differentiates us in our approach” compared with “the big national virtual MVPDs,” said Achilles. Hulu Live and YouTube TV offer “this overarching national bundle that applies to all markets,” he said. The wireless veteran doesn’t think there’s “a good market opportunity” in the U.S. for 3.0 reception in smartphones, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will steer clear of making “pronouncements broadly” about whether shows and conferences should be canceled or postponed during the COVID-19 outbreak, said Nancy Messonnier, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases director. CDC is recommending “consideration of what’s going on in the locale where the event is being held, and also where people are coming from and what the event is and how big it is,” Messonnier told journalists Monday.
COVID-19 caused CTA to cancel a raft of events through June, while moving another to a “virtual format,” said the association Wednesday.
Amazon removed more than 530,000 “offers” from its online store for “coronavirus-based price gouging,” Vice President-Public Policy Brian Huseman wrote Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. It also “suspended” more than 2,500 third-party “seller accounts” in the U.S. “for violating our price gouging policies,” said Huseman Friday. “We have issued proactive reminders of our fair pricing policy to all of our selling partners. We are actively working with state attorneys general to prosecute bad actors.” Amazon won’t “tolerate attempts by bad actors to artificially raise prices on basic need products during a global health crisis,” said Huseman. “It is unconscionable.” Markey wrote Amazon Wednesday insisting that it thwart third-party price gouging on hand sanitizer and facial masks during the coronavirus crisis (see 2003040053).
"As of now," NAB Show organizers "are moving forward" with the April 18-22 event at the Las Vegas Convention Center, "while continuing to evaluate the national and international situation carefully," they said late Monday. It was somewhat less aggressive than the messaging they used for days, that the event was "“proceeding as planned."
A dozen models in four series spanning sizes 65-85 inches make up Samsung’s QLED 8K TV line for 2020, announced the vendor. All the 8K models will have ATSC 3.0 functionality "ready out of the box," emailed a spokesperson Friday. Samsung said at CES it will offer 3.0 across its 2020 8K QLED lineup but wasn't specific on the number of models or the screen sizes. Pricing wasn't available for most of the 2020 models, including for three sets in the flagship Q950T 8K series. Samsung is pricing one 65-inch 8K model at $3,499 for April 10 availability. It’s one of three models in the Q800T series at the bottom tier of the 2020 8K offerings.
Confirmation of Nevada’s first positive case of COVID-19 Thursday in Clark County (see 2003050069) and a second confirmation Friday in the Reno area didn’t deter major Las Vegas trade show organizers, including NAB, from insisting their events would go on as planned. PBS went a different route, announcing the cancellation of its TechCon summit at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas that would have immediately preceded the NAB Show.
Marvell Technology entered its fiscal 2021 in early February “trying to assess the near-term impact from the coronavirus,” said CEO Matthew Murphy on a Q4 call Wednesday. Before the outbreak gained intensity in January, “our bookings and backlog were getting stronger,” he said. But as the spread broadened, “we started to see supply chain-related impacts to our business,” he said. It’s impossible to “fully quantify” what drag COVID-19 will have because the situation “remains fluid,” he said. “However, our revenue guidance for the first quarter includes a 5% reduction based on what we know so far.” Marvell’s fiscal Q1 ends in early May. The “ultimate impact” of the coronavirus “is still unknown, and assessing the full magnitude at this point is not feasible,” said Chief Financial Officer Jean Hu. Two types of supply-chain “disruptions” are at play, said Murphy. Marvell’s suppliers are having trouble sourcing components from heavily impacted regions inside China, plus its customers’ factories are not at “full capacity,” he said. “We have really no way to know” if COVID-19 will cause any long-term “demand destruction,” he said. Murphy reads the same reports as everyone else that “factories are gradually coming back online,” and people in China “are actually going back to work,” he said. “But we don't really know what the ripple effect is to the global economy, candidly, from this disruption.” Shares closed 10.4% higher Thursday at $24.93.
The coronavirus outbreak's “too many unknowns” prevent Hewlett Packard Enterprise from publishing financial guidance for its fiscal Q2 ending April 30, said CEO Antonio Neri on a Q1 call Tuesday. “Macro uncertainty,” including from coronavirus-induced components shortages, sent revenue down 7% in Q1 ended Jan. 31, he said. The virus “is causing disruption to both supply and demand,” said Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati. “While we cannot quantify the real impact at this time, we're monitoring the situation closely and are working with our suppliers to minimize potential impacts.” HP Enterprise decided to cancel or postpone most of its sales conferences and other “sponsored events” through April “out of abundance of caution” for employees, customers and partners, said Robbiati. “This is also causing supply and demand disruptions and affecting our revenue profile.” Shares closed 2.6% lower Wednesday at $12.26.