CTA President Gary Shapiro “will be pleased" to discuss, "sometime after CES," why the association's show policy didn’t require COVID-19 booster shots for the fully vaccinated, he emailed our affiliated Consumer Electronics Daily Tuesday. “Right now my focus is on CES 2022 where we have lots going on and over 2100 exhibitors.” Nearly 36% of the 188 million fully vaccinated U.S. adults have gotten boosters, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Protection Thursday. There has been no change in CTA policy since Aug. 17 when the association announced a full CES 2022 vaccine mandate (see 2108170038), saying no boosters would be required “at this time.”
Paul Gluckman
Paul Gluckman, Executive Senior Editor, is a 30-year Warren Communications News veteran having joined the company in May 1989 to launch its Audio Week publication. In his long career, Paul has chronicled the rise and fall of physical entertainment media like the CD, DVD and Blu-ray and the advent of ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology from its rudimentary standardization roots to its anticipated 2020 commercial launch.
Despite an exodus from the show of major exhibitors and media outlets, including keynoter and sponsor T-Mobile (see 2112220003), the in-person CES 2022 will “go forward” Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas because “important innovation for world health and safety, mobility and solving problems will be exhibited” there, said CTA Wednesday. “Thousands of smaller and medium sized companies rely on CES for their business,” it said. “We have increased our official count to over 2200 exhibitors.” The 42 exhibitor cancellations CTA recently got are “less than 7% of our exhibit floor,” and 60 new companies joined since Friday, it said. “Digital access” to CES 2022 is available “for people that don’t wish to, or can’t travel to Las Vegas,” said CTA. “Registrations for both our digital access and our Las Vegas event are continuing to show strong momentum, with thousands more registrations in the last few days.” CES 2022 will have “comprehensive health measures” in place, including mandated COVID-19 vaccines, a Las Vegas indoor-masking requirement and onsite COVID-19 testing, said CTA. But the show is not requiring booster shots, and adherence to the Abbott Labs BinaxNOW rapid antigen self-test kits it’s distributing free to all badge holders will rely on the individual honor system (see 2112170033). With the health and safety protocols in place, “coupled with lower attendance and social distancing measures, we are confident that attendees and exhibitors can have a socially distanced but worthwhile and productive event in Las Vegas, as well as a rewarding experience on our digital access,” said the association.
With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning Monday of the “potential for a rapid increase” in U.S. COVID-19 infections from the new omicron variant, CNET withdrew from CES 2022 as an in-person participant. A news bulletin is here. Rising volume of COVID-19 and omicron cases sparked CNET’s parent company, Red Ventures, to “pause travel for all U.S.-based employees through mid-January,” emailed a spokesperson. CNET “will now shift our CES focus to remote coverage,” said the spokesperson, continuing to report "from a remote setting.” CTA didn’t comment Tuesday. Red Ventures completed its $500 million CNET buy from ViacomCBS in October 2020 (see 2010300029).
CES 2022 encouraged attendees to get COVID-19 booster shots. Event organizer CTA “strongly encourages” all participants “to test for COVID-19 before they leave home and within 24 hours before entering a show venue,” it also said Friday. With 19 days before the Las Vegas show's opening, and COVID-19 cases spiking throughout the U.S., CTA elevated protocols to include distribution of a free Abbott Labs BinaxNow rapid antigen self-test kit to anyone who picks up a badge. Abbott CEO Robert Ford is to keynote Jan. 6 at 9 a.m. in the Venetian’s Palazzo Ballroom. CTA will pay the cost of an onsite polymerase chain reaction test for international visitors who need to show their airlines such proof.
CTA encourages CES 2022 attendees to download the COVID Trace contact-tracing app developed by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, said an association spokesperson. But the app remains obscure, and we couldn’t find mention of it anywhere on the CES 2022 website on Thursday. CTA is requiring CES 2022 participants be fully vaccinated but isn't mandating booster shots (see 2112140047).
A former Netflix tech executive was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison for doling out lucrative contracts to nine Netflix tech vendors in exchange for bribes and kickbacks, said DOJ. A San Jose jury convicted Michael Kail, 52, in April on 28 of 29 counts of mail fraud, money laundering and other charges in connection with a pay-for-play scheme he ran until his three years as Netflix vice president-internet technology operations ended in July 2014, it said. Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds said Kail used his “highly compensated Netflix position to siphon cash and valuable stock options from his tech vendors, the same vendors whose Netflix contracts he signed and whose technologies he pushed his teams to use.” Kail pocketed more than $500,000 in cash and stock options from the outside vendors, using his kickback payments to pay his personal expenses and to buy a home in Los Gatos, California, said DOJ. When personally questioned by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings about potential wrongdoing, Kail falsely denied he was receiving improper compensation from Netflix vendors, said Kail's April 2018 indictment. Hastings testified at Kali's trial as a prosecution witness. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman ordered Kail to surrender March 8 to begin serving his sentence. Neither Kail's lawyers nor Netflix responded Wednesday to requests for comment.
Sonos supports recommendations of Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock at the International Trade Commission to slap Google with a cease and desist order, preventing it from circumventing the judge’s recommended import ban on smart speakers and other devices that he found to infringe five Sonos multiroom audio patents, said Sonos in redacted Dec. 2 comments (login required) posted Monday in docket 337-TA-1191. Google responded (login required) that the ITC should reject Bullock’s call for “sweeping remedial orders” that would deprive U.S. consumers of its “cutting-edge and life-enhancing household products.” The ITC scheduled a final decision for Jan. 6. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative would have until early March to endorse or reject the ITC’s final determination, or take no action. The filings were the companies' last chance to state their case (see 2002060070).
With about three weeks before CES 2022 opens in Las Vegas, there’s no change in CTA's policy of not requiring a COVID-19 booster shot “at this time” to attend the show, emailed a spokesperson Tuesday. CTA considers participants fully vaccinated if they got their second dose of a multi-dose vaccine like the Pfizer or Moderna or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson at least 14 days beforehand. “We are actively tracking the emerging news and science around the new Omicron variant,” say CES 2022 health protocols. “While it is too early to determine the impact of this latest variant, we will continue to monitor and adjust our plans and health protocols as necessary.”
Four years after the FCC voted to authorize ATSC 3.0's voluntary deployment (see 1711160060), MPEG LA is about to launch a 3.0 patent pool license, emailed a spokesperson. “If things go as we now anticipate, we expect to begin offering the license in January.” MPEG LA originally planned to have the patent pool operational by early 2019 (see 1811270013). “Each pool has its own unique set of factors affecting time to market, and in some cases, reaching agreement among patent holders to offer a license of wide benefit to the market takes longer than others,” said the spokesperson now. “This license is timely in light of the expected ATSC 3.0 ramp-up.” The 3.0 pool doesn’t have “a final licensor count yet,” he said. ATSC 3.0 services are on the air in about three dozen U.S. cities, with 18 more slated to come online through the spring. CTA forecasts 4 million 3.0-compliant sets will be sold in 2022, climbing to 11 million in 2023 and 20 million in 2024. MPEG LA announced a call for 3.0-essential patents, the first step in the patent pool formation process, in August 2017 (see 1711010054). ATSC bylaws require that patent owners disclose they hold intellectual property relevant to 3.0 and that they commit to licensing their patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms (see 1711210004).
Beijing reacted with scorn to the Treasury Department’s designation Friday of 15 individuals and 10 entities for their alleged connections to human rights abuses in several countries. Treasury singled out Chinese tech firm SenseTime for developing facial recognition algorithms it said “can determine a target’s ethnicity, with a particular focus on identifying ethnic Uyghurs” in Xinjiang. Treasury’s action to block any business from being transacted with any of the named individuals or entities “seriously interferes in China’s internal affairs” and “gravely violates basic norms governing international relations,” said a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Monday.