Rebecca Day

Silicon Labs reported strong Q2 revenue performance with supply still catching up to demand, but it’s seeing signs of “more volatility” in recent booking patterns, said Chief Financial Officer John Hollister on the company’s Wednesday Q2 earnings call.

Shopify “overshot our prediction” that the share of dollars going through e-commerce vs. physical retail “would permanently leap ahead” following COVID-19 pandemic trends, said President Harley Finkelstein on the company’s Q2 earnings call Wednesday.

Logitech slashed its FY 2023 outlook on “continued, and in some cases intensified, deterioration of economic conditions across the globe,” said Chief Financial Officer Nate Olmstead on the company’s Q1 Tuesday earnings call for the quarter ended June 30.

The NFL launched a subscription streaming service Monday geared largely to mobile devices. The $4.99 NFL+ service ($39 per year) includes access to live out-of-market preseason games, live local and prime-time regular season and postseason games (phone and tablet only), audio feeds for live local and national games, NFL Network shows on-demand and NFL Films archives.

Streaming services have opened the door to more engaging and immersive experiences, said Parks Associates contributing analyst Eric Sorensen on a Thursday webinar. He cited opportunities in sports wagering, interactive shopping, co-viewing, dynamic and personalized ads and direct-to-consumer (D2C) video services from influencers and creators to create a more immersive experience for their fans.

Vizio is still evaluating 8K TV and ATSC 3.0, focusing instead on improvements to 4K TV, said John Schindler, senior vice president-product management, on a recent webinar briefing that was embargoed until Tuesday. “There’s still a lot of innovation left in 4K,” he said.

Dolby could face headwinds from “tough comparisons” for PCs and TVs that a year ago were still benefiting from COVID-19 stay-at-home trends, Rosenblatt Securities analyst Steven Frankel wrote investors Sunday. He cited reports of Samsung halting purchases of LCD panels in early July (see 2207120002) and said the company now plans to procure 40 million flat panels this year, down from 50 million last year and a prior forecast of 44 million. Dolby's full-year forecast anticipated a decline in TV shipments, especially in North America and Europe, “so some of this decline may already be reflected in the company's guidance,” Frankel said. “Material increases” in average selling price from the addition of Atmos and Vision help offset weakness in unit shipments, he said. Among Dolby highlights in the quarter, which ends in July, were French TV service Canal+ broadcasting the UEFA championship game in 4K with Dolby Vision and Atmos; Amazon's Wondery launching multiple Atmos-enabled podcasts for premium subscribers and Xiaomi announcing the $399 12 Lite and $900 12S smartphones with Vision and Atmos. Frankel noted Sky will be the first broadcaster in Germany to offer sports in Atmos during the 2022-2023 Bundesliga game of the week. Tencent is the first music service in China to offer Atmos-enabled tracks, and Apple Music is kicking off a series of live artist performances in Atmos, he said. Dolby is to report fiscal Q3 results in early August; Frankel expects revenue to be in line with guidance of $285 million-$310 million.

Netflix’s choice of Microsoft as technology and sales partner for its ad-supported VOD subscription tier (see 2207130048) “will go a long way to steady the waters” for the upcoming offering “while helping Microsoft solidify its position as a major player in digital advertising,” blogged eMarketer analyst Daniel Konstantinovic Thursday.

The “swipe fees” banks charge merchants to process credit card transactions will contribute nearly $2.5 billion to the cost of back-to-school (BTS) items families shop for this season, said the Merchants Payments Coalition Friday, citing data from the National Retail Federation. That's $20 in fees for the average family, it said.

Amazon’s Prime Day, ended Wednesday, was “the biggest Prime Day event ever,” said Amazon Thursday, not disclosing receipts for the 48-hour event. Prime members in over 20 countries bought more than 300 million items, said Amazon. The first Prime Day, a 24-hour event, was in July 2015, when 34.4 million items were ordered in nine Prime-eligible countries, Amazon said.