IFA 2021 opens Sept. 3 for five days, not the six days of previous years, based on deliberations “well before COVID-19,” emailed spokesperson Nicole von der Ropp Friday. “We are always in discussions with our industry partners and exhibitors to fine-tune and adjust the concept for IFA Berlin,” she said. “Discussions on whether to shorten IFA by one day started a year ago.” Organizers plan to keep the on-demand content from the virtual IFA 2020 “active” until next year’s show, said von der Ropp. The virtual show’s server didn’t crash Sept. 4 (see 2009070002), day two, she said. “There were two brief interruptions while updates were being performed. As far as we know, the interruption only lasted a few minutes.”
With no “on/off switch” for fully resuming film production, “it's a gradual ramp” up, Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy told a Citi virtual conference. COVID-19 is “a very unpredictable virus,” she said. That’s the “new reality” until there’s a vaccine that’s “widely available,” she said. The emphasis will be on “opening where we can,” she said. Shooting began three months ago in New Zealand on Avatar 2, “the first movie to get back up and running,” said McCarthy. “We'll continue to ramp up other productions. It's going to depend on where they are, how big the cast is, what the guilds and the unions will want to allow. I believe outside shooting is going to be easier to deal with than when you're inside a soundstage.” Fast-tracking the Sept. 4 release of Mulan on Disney+ (see 2009040049) was “not an easy decision” -- “because there were so many factors,” the CFO said Wednesday. "It would have been released were it not for theaters being closed.”
ATSC 3.0 rollout is “going OK, despite the fact that we can’t have shows" in person, ATSC President Madeleine Noland told us Thursday. “In this little period of time, I think it’s slowing down the deployment because we can’t get bodies in stations. At the same time, broadcasters and TV manufacturers are taking advantage of this” standard. “People can access all this information on demand" from virtual events, she noted. Stations are “taking this opportunity to get on the air” with 3.0 and “get the basic TV signal up there,” Noland said. Though brick-and-mortar retail curtailments are impeding the industry’s ability to demonstrate compatible sets for consumers at the point of sale, “the most important time frame for that kind of activity is going to be when there are more services on the air in more markets,” said Noland. It gives broadcasters time to hone their unified messaging, she said. “There’s an opportunity here to really, really get this right, so that when we are back at retail, we’ve got a great story to tell." She said NAB postponing next year's annual show six months to October 2021 (see 2009090049) was the right move. “The chance that it could have been an excellent show in April, at least by my research and evidence, appeared to be on the low side. Who knows what the future may bring, but I don’t think they could have picked a better date if they want to hold a show in 2021, as they obviously do. We all do.” NAB didn't confer with Noland, but she's sure the association consulted with ATSC members. Canceling the April 2020 show a month out involved “so much fluidity and nobody really knew what was going to happen,” she said. That spotlighted “the level of planning that has to happen in advance,” she said.
Netflix wants until Oct. 19 to respond to allegations it’s running streaming services through the public right of way in Maple Heights, Ohio, without paying quarterly 5% fees, as state law requires (see 2008220001), said an unopposed motion (in Pacer) Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Co-defendant Hulu didn’t comment. The Aug. 21 complaint seeks class-action status on behalf of Ohio municipalities.
Work-from-home helped spark Slack new paid customer additions at a “faster rate” in June and July than in April and May, said CEO Stewart Butterfield on a quarterly call Tuesday. “That trend continued in August, even after the typical vacation-related slowdown for the month, indicating that paid customer additions are potentially finding a new baseline rate.” The quarter ended July 31. Slack experienced “some macro-related headwinds in the installed base," Butterfield said. Since it prices the service on a “per-seat basis,” when customers downsize, freeze hiring or hire more slowly, “net dollar retention is negatively impacted,” he said. Due to the “substantial number of smaller customers on monthly plans, it shows up much more quickly than it would for others in our industry,” he said. The stock closed 13.9% lower Wednesday at $25.24. There’s more “budget scrutiny” during COVID-19, “especially for new categories with longer adoption curves,” like videoconferencing, said Butterfield. Chief information officers “have a lot on their plates right now,” he said. The COVID-19 pandemic is having “positive and negative effects on our business,” he said. “The positive changes will have greater impact and will persist as part of this permanent structural shift in the way we work.” And “negative effects will dissipate as we emerge from the pandemic,” he said. Chief Financial Officer Allen Shim said less than 20% of its business is from industries “most directly impacted" and “while these represent a minority of our business, these higher-risk industries grew significantly slower in the first half versus non-impacted industries.”
Evidence suggesting it will be “well into next year” before COVID-19 comes “under control” forced NAB to postpone its 2021 Las Vegas show from April to Oct. 9-13, said CEO Gordon Smith Wednesday (see 2009090046). There’s widespread “reluctance” about participating in large events in 2020's first half, he said. “We also have our own concerns around being able to deliver the type of event in April that will not only drive results, but one that can be produced safely for all involved and without significant limitations on the experience.” NAB will find a new date for the October 2021 NAB Show New York. It already decided to collocate the Radio Show with the Las Vegas show next year. The postponement came weeks after Las Vegas resort executives began playing down expectations about a return to normal convention business before next summer. COVID-19's cancellation of the physical CES 2021 in early January (see 2007280034) typified the shaky outlook for Las Vegas conventions next year, said Wynn Las Vegas President Marilyn Spiegel last month (see 2008050028). NAB’s action set a new bar for moving or scrapping large public gatherings with ample notice and lead time. CTA canceled CES 2021 on July 28 with five months and nine days to spare, while NAB’s postponement Wednesday was seven months and two days before the show was to open.
Though Epic Games depicts itself as “a modern corporate Robin Hood,” eager to steal from the rich and give to the poor, it’s really a “multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store,” alleged an Apple countersuit (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oakland. After Epic installed an in-app direct-payment system for its Fortnite franchise to break up Apple’s alleged App Store monopolies, Apple retaliated by threatening to cut off Epic’s access to game developer tools, said Epic’s Aug. 13 complaint (see 2008130048). U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted Epic a temporary restraining order Aug. 24 blocking Apple from making good on the threat (see 2008250004). Now Apple wants Epic's direct-payment system taken down. Epic installed it “in the dark hours of the night” Aug. 13 in an “underhanded scheme to breach its agreements and free ride on Apple’s investments” in the App Store, said Apple’s Tuesday countersuit. “Epic’s flagrant disregard for its contractual commitments and other misconduct has caused significant harm to Apple,” it said. “Epic has reaped millions of dollars in in-app purchases through its unauthorized external purchase mechanism,” diverting to itself commissions Apple was entitled to earn under its license agreement, it said. Apple wants the court to declare Epic in breach of contract and seeks a permanent injunction barring the game developer from using its proprietary direct-payment system in the App Store. Epic didn’t comment.
IFA 2020's top point man declared the hybrid physical/virtual tech trade show under his watch a "huge success," conceding at a closing news conference Saturday that “compared to any other year, the numbers were small.” IFA 2021 will return Sept. 3-7 as a physical show at “full scale,” complemented with a repeat of this year’s virtual component, said Executive Director Jens Heithecker from Berlin. Visitors at IFA 2020 numbered “in the hundreds” at any single time, not the usual thousands, said Heithecker. “We kept the numbers down, well below the limits set by public health authorities” (see 2004220038). IFA representatives didn’t respond to questions Tuesday about the rationale for making IFA 2021 five days. Heithecker was “pleased to see our health and safety concept in action,” he said. Germany “successfully contained the virus, but we must not be complacent,” he said. “The pandemic knows no borders.” IFA 2020 “sent an important signal to the world that tech is back,” he said. Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center ranks Germany 20th in cases, 18th in deaths. About 6,100 people visited during the three-day event “in real life,” said Heithecker. The virtual component had more than 260,000 “online views,” he said. We found the show's virtual offering easy to navigate, and the audio and video quality was good throughout. One glitch was the apparent server crash Friday afternoon EDT that prevented us from accessing on-demand content. Organizers didn’t comment on the problem.
COVID-19 forced the postponement of the NAB Show in Las Vegas to Oct. 9-13, 2021, from April 11-14, said NAB President-CEO Gordon Smith Wednesday. NAB has “witnessed growing concern and uncertainty over what the next six months will bring; enough that there appears to be a good deal of reluctance around participating in large events in the first half of next year.” Evidence suggests it will be “well into next year” before COVID-19 “could be under control in the U.S.,” he said.
Sonos seeks an International Trade Commission “summary determination” it has satisfied the Tariff Act Section 337 import requirement on 19 models of Google devices that allegedly infringe five Sonos multiroom audio patents. “None of the underlying facts at issue are disputed,” said Sonos’ Aug. 27 motion (login required), posted Thursday in docket 337-TA-1191. Google “expressly stipulated” that it imported into the U.S. at least one unit of each allegedly infringing device, said Sonos. Google submitted copies of Customs and Border Protection Form 7501 “corresponding to at least one" import of each device since January 2019, it said. Granting the motion “will dramatically simplify the issues for trial, reducing the burden and costs of litigation on the private parties,” plus the ITC and its staff, said Sonos. The ITC opened its investigation Feb. 6 (see 2002060070). Sonos seeks an import ban on the allegedly infringing Google products.