Rebecca Day

Warner Bros. Discovery is “positioned to win” as one of the “true content makers,” with its ability to produce and control intellectual property “vs. those that just write checks,” said CEO David Zaslav Tuesday on a Q1 earnings call, its first as a combined company after AT&T’s spinoff of WarnerMedia was finalized April 8.

Consumer hours spent streaming will continue to swell, but consumers' approach to subscription VOD services is becoming more “discriminating,” Parks Associates Research Director Paul Erickson told us Friday.

New ProSource President Jim Pearse feels like he’s “returning to his roots,” the 30-year consumer tech retail veteran told Consumer Electronics Daily Friday. Pearse, who most recently was president of Wireless Advocates and also had stints at Sears and Ultimate Electronics, is on a transition path to succeed CEO David Workman. Pearse declined to nail down a date when Workman, “a legend in the industry,” will hand over the reins, saying the two have been “good friends” for many years and are working closely together during the transition. In his first two months, Pearse has been getting up to speed on the custom side of the business to focus on “delivering value to vendors,” while Workman focuses on the larger dealers. The group’s overarching challenge is dealers’ persistent pain point -- finding, training and retaining skilled technicians, he said. "Finding people has always been a problem" for the industry, Pearse said. There's more emphasis on it now because of the growth of the custom electronics market: "You can't grow without people." ProSource is expanding ProSource University to provide hands-on training through three-day classes. “No question there’s demand for it,” Pearse said, and the group continues to add classes, he said. On whether his wireless industry experience will have an application at ProSource, Pearse said wireless is a different model based on heavy foot traffic but there could be partnerships in the future. He said the custom home automation business has moved more mainstream in the past 10 years with more affordable control systems from Control4 and Savant and more robust integration: “It’s not as intimidating and complicated.”

Crosley Radio announced Wednesday a Record Store Day promotion tied to nine local indie record stores in seven states and online. Consumers have a chance to win a Crosley C100BT turntable ($279) by visiting Zia Records, Phoenix; Newbury Comics, Boston; Vinyl Renaissance, Overland Park, Kansas; Rhino Records, Claremont, California; Monster Music, Charleston, South Carolina; Guestroom Records and Cardinal Record Co., Louisville; Cactus Music, Houston; and Josey Records Dallas. It's also giving away two C100BTs online. The online contest ends May 15. The vinyl industry had $1 billion in sales last year for the first time since 1986, said the Recording Industry Association of America. A preview of a MusicWatch study, due for release May 5, shows 18 million consumers 13 and older bought vinyl last year, up 27% from 2020, emailed the research firm Wednesday ahead of Record Store Day. Some 71% bought new records, 67% used; 95% expect to continue buying the format this year, it said, citing a March survey of over 1,400 consumers. About 38% of vinyl buyers have been building their collection for over 10 years and “value the authenticity and ‘warmth’ delivered by the medium," MusicWatch said. A third of turntable owners said they plan to upgrade their record player or other audio equipment next year. 60% of vinyl buyers are aware of Record Store Day and more than half of them plan to visit a physical shop or online site during that time, it said.

Anyone looking for 6 GHz Wi-Fi hardware this year should buy 6E because it’s “far better” than a standard dual-band 2.4- or 5-GHz device, said Charles Cheevers, CommScope chief accounting officer, on Parks Associates’ virtual Connection conference Thursday. Service providers that don’t have a design in place for a new gateway, extender or retail product should skip to Wi-Fi 7 for the next iteration, he said.

Education and service will play key roles for the smart home industry as it moves mainstream, said smart home industry members on a Parks Associates Connections webcast Thursday.

Supply chain disruption will likely speed the transition to new Wi-Fi technologies, panelists said on Parks Associates’ Thursday virtual Connections event. Legacy chips are based on older wafer technology that’s “impossible to use” during the current wafer crisis,” said Oz Yildirim, Airties general manager, so the transition to Wi-Fi 6, 6e and 7 “will just go faster.” At RF semiconductor company Qorvo, Wi-Fi 6 and 6e technology are well over 80% of shipments, said Marketing Director Tony Testa.

Netflix appears to be approaching a ceiling on U.S. and Canadian subscribers, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Thursday, and its withdrawal from Russia could affect subscriber growth this year by 5 million or more. Netflix is pulling new levers to lower subscriber churn, including additional content production fueled by price hikes in Western markets, he said. Subscriber growth will likely come from less developed regions at lower subscription prices, “with Western subscribers paying higher rates to fund new content,” Pachter said. Full-season content dumps “will likely keep churn high,” as price-conscious customers leave Netflix for a competing service after viewing content they want to see, he said. Profit growth should continue as long as the company can continue raising subscription prices, “but competition may limit future price increases,” he said. Netflix shares have dropped from a high of $691 in mid-November to Wedbush’s $342 price target in early March, where they have hovered since, he noted. Shares closed 2.7% lower Thursday at $341.13.

In his first shareholder letter since taking over the CEO role from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in July, Andy Jassy highlighted Thursday the company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruption, growth in Amazon Web Services (AWS), delivery time challenges, fulfillment center worker conditions and Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football deal with the NFL.

Daily average time spent with TV and digital video, including streaming, will drop next year to 333.6 minutes, about 10 minutes less a day than in 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a bump in viewing, said a Wednesday eMarketer report. But viewing trends continue to shift "irrevocably" toward digital, it said.