Paul Gluckman

The semiconductor industry typically goes through “cycles” of supply and demand imbalance, “but this one is different,” Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su told a J.P. Morgan virtual conference Monday. “The difference is you see every segment of the market having high demand.” Demand is “very, very high, and higher perhaps than any of us might have expected when we started the year,” she said. “The supply chain has actually been very, very focused on adding more capability. We saw sort of the beginnings of this late last year. We’ve been working very, very closely with our supply chain partners to continue to ramp up supply, adding additional capacity, doing all kinds of productivity improvements.” Su expects more capacity will come online “as we go through the next couple of quarters,” she said. “This will continue to be a key area of focus for the entire supply chain.” Amid the industry’s realization that demand is exceeding supply, “we have done a good job at prioritizing” existing capacity, said Su, “ensuring that we are giving our customers what they need to advance their product lines.” AMD deliberately is leaving some segments of the PC business “underserviced,” especially the “lower end of the PC market,” she said. “We have prioritized some of the higher-end commercial SKUs and gaming SKUs and those kinds of things.” With inventories so “very lean” throughout the semiconductor supply chain, no one is “ordering stuff to put it on the shelves,” but immediately dispatching product that “end customers want,” she said. Supply chain cooperation “is really unprecedented,” said Su.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser's (D) May 17 order lifting COVID-19 capacity restrictions on large business gatherings by June 11 made ATSC President Madeleine Noland “definitely more optimistic” her group's annual NextGen Broadcast Conference can be in-person Aug. 25-26 at the Reagan Building, Noland told us Monday. ATSC plans a hybrid event, she said. Noland characterizes her outlook as “cautiously optimistic,” saying, “Look at the IFA conference being canceled. I realize that’s another part of the world, but still.” Opening of registrations for NAB Show 2021 (see 2105190028) was “another positive sign,” she said. Some ATSC members see “the light at the end of the tunnel” for COVID-19, while others are “pretty worried” and some “are kind of halfway in between,” said Noland, saying she's in the last category.

With ransomware attacks like Colonial Pipeline “in the spotlight recently,” Palo Alto Networks data shows the average ransom paid in 2020 tripled from 2019, “and in 2021 it's more than doubled again,” said CEO Nikesh Arora on a Thursday call for fiscal Q3 ended April 30. Organized groups with “near-nation state discipline” are perpetrating “coordinated attacks,” he said. Healthcare corporations are a common target, as are government entities and “shared infrastructure,” he said. Especially vulnerable are organizations that “run their operations on technology that is decades old, sometimes predating the internet,” said Arora. “They continually bolt on new technologies to automate facilities, and make them compatible with the modern internet, but those platforms are inherently insecure.” Cyber defenses are fragmented, “making it very challenging to block sophisticated attacks,” and extending the time “to discovery and repair,” he said: “More and more businesses and consumers are coming online without a baseline of productive protection.” Q3 revenue of $1.07 billion grew 24% year over year, ahead of guidance for 21% to 22% growth. Its fiscal Q4 outlook is for revenue to grow 22% to 23% again. The stock closed 5.8% higher Friday at $362.45.

Cisco’s revenue jumped 7% in fiscal Q3 ended May 1 on strong “broad-based demand” across the board in “hybrid work, digital transformation, cloud and continued strong uptake of our subscription-based offerings,” said CEO Chuck Robbins on a Wednesday call. Cisco had “early momentum in the ramping of key technology cycles” including for 5G, he said. Cisco added more than 400 new features and devices to its Webex portfolio in the past six months, said Robbins. Cisco is “extending the Webex suite of devices, including digital signage, touchless calls, room capacity alerts and environmental sensors to help enable a safe return to the office.” Chip supply chain constraints will "be with us through" calendar 2021, he said. The supply chain team entered the middle of the quarter “concerned about what they could see for the next two months” into the shortages, he said. The team since is “getting better visibility,” he said.

The Sept. 3-7 IFA 2021 was canceled due to the pandemic, even as industry-watchers see light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. Also Wednesday, NAB coincidentally opened registration for the in-person Oct 9-13 NAB Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. CTA declined comment on IFA 2021's cancellation, but has said it’s committed to returning CES 2022 to the LVCC in early January. “New global health uncertainties” forced IFA 2021's cancellation, said organizers Messe Berlin and gfu. IFA 2020 was one of the few world events to welcome show attendees to a physical exhibition hall, albeit in downsized numbers, while the show’s content was streamed.

Samsung Display sees a future in connectivity devices based on foldable, rollable, slidable and stretchable displays, said CEO Choi Joo-sun in a prerecorded keynote streamed Tuesday during the virtual Display Week 2021. “Many people have been looking forward to the mobility revolution,” dominated by blurrier lines of product-category demarcation, he said. This requires new materials and backplanes, said Choi. In larger screens, “minimizing dead space is key,” he said. He unveiled demonstration samples including a three-way-foldable display that “can be either a smartphone or tablet,” he said. He showed a large-screen tablet that unfolds to become a widescreen portable desktop monitor. Samsung Display is developing “under-panel camera” technology, said Choi. It’s for high-quality front-facing cameras that won’t interfere with a “wide and clear front screen,” he said. “It is by no means an easy technology.”

Vizio didn’t take itself public for customary reasons of raising money, but to get the “story” out about plans to “get to the next level” in streaming, Chief Financial Officer Adam Townsend told a Needham virtual conference Monday. There's “a nice balance sheet, ample cash, no debt, cash-flow-positive,” he said. It spent the past several years “really investing in a software platform to bring a proprietary operating system to the market” to exploit “the future of consumer video consumption,” he said of SmartCast OS. The streaming opportunity is “getting well defined, and really, really large,” he said. Vizio is “now at scale” with 13.5 million monthly active SmartCast users, he said. “We’re really expanding the offering to consumers in total.” Vizio will add “a lot more” content later this year, he said: “Some pretty big household brand names are coming to the platform pretty soon.”

The first Disney+ subscriber miss since the streaming service’s November 2019 U.S. launch stirred some concern. Disney+ ended fiscal Q2 April 3 with 103.6 million paid subscribers, increasing nearly 9 million sequentially and shy of consensus estimates of 109 million. Disney added the paid subs “at a faster pace in the last month of the second quarter” than in the first two, said Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy on a Thursday call. There were “no major market launches” in Q2, she said. And price hikes were the first “since we launched,” said CEO Bob Chapek. “We're extremely pleased with how the market reacted,” he said. “We've not observed any significantly higher churn.” Of sub “drivers,” the “content slate” will be key, he said. “We're spending a lot of money across our variety of franchises.” Disney is sticking with the Premier Access strategy it used for the Disney+ release of Mulan and Raya and the Last Dragon as a $29.99 option, even as theaters reopen, said Chapek. The studio will “try to release things” theatrically and “reprime the pump” for movie audiences, but for consumers who are “a little leery still about going into a packed theater,” Premier Access gives them the option to watch feature films “in the safety and convenience of their home,” he said. Disney+ “should have benefited" from launching the first two TV shows from the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise and the Premier Access release of Raya, said Cowen Friday.

Vizio Q1 revenue increased 52% year on year to $505.7 million. Q1 had $453.5 million from device sales (up 47%) and $52.2 million (up 120%) from Platform+, the segment incorporating SmartCast advertising monetization and Inscape automatic content recognition. Vizio shipped 1.5 million smart TVs, up 28% . SmartCast active accounts increased 57% to 13.4 million. Vizio viewing hours gained 42% to 6.95 billion. Profit declined 64% to $3.3 million. “We are very pleased with the results we generated in our first quarter as a public company,” said Chief Financial Officer Adam Townsend. “We continue to benefit from the rapid adoption of streaming and our expanding presence" in ads. Time spent on linear TV declined to 34% from 41%, “highlighting the continued consumer shift toward streaming,” the CFO said. The stock fell 6.6% to $25.60 at 5:48 p.m. EDT.

There’s “strong pent-up consumer demand” to return to movie theaters and “the unique social experience,” said National CineMedia CEO Tom Lesinski on a Q1 call Monday. “Some recent disappointing day-and-date streaming results have many content producers now considering the reestablishment of a new kind of exclusive theatrical window to help launch their films.” The “significant cabin fever” building for more than a year through COVID-19 stay-at-home mandates “will drive consumers back to the theaters,” said ex-Warner Home Entertainment executive Lesinski. “This will once again allow movie studios and even some of the new streaming companies to rely on theaters to launch their films and other content.” Recent studio announcements “reflect a recommitment to new types of theatrical windows for future films,” he said. “Film release delays caused by the epidemic created an unbelievable lineup of big movies from now to 2023.” NCM expects revenue from its in-theater ad platform will begin to “meaningfully increase” in June, since movie attendance won’t “begin to pick up until Memorial Day weekend,” said Chief Financial Officer Ted Watson. “Monthly revenue will still be below 2019 pre-pandemic levels until Q4.”