Rebecca Day

Cowen downgraded its forecast on Netflix Q1 net subscriber additions due to the impact of the war in Ukraine. It now expects global paid net additions of 1.45 million subscribers for the quarter, compared with pre-war guidance of 2.55 million, amid the suspension of about a million Russian subscription accounts, wrote analyst John Blackledge in a Tuesday note to investors. “Netflix still holds a wide lead in living room TV, even as TikTok gains mobile video viewing share,” said the analyst. Netflix shares are down 31% since its Q4 earnings report on Jan. 20 reflecting “pressure on shares of companies that fared well during the pandemic,” Blackledge said. Original content volume picked up last year and should drive higher engagement and potentially reduce churn, he said. Cowen’s monthly survey of 2,500 U.S. consumers showed Netflix still holds a “wide lead” in living room TV viewing, while holding “relatively steady” in mobile. On which apps or websites respondents used most often to watch video content on their smartphone, 34% ticked YouTube, down from 42% in Q1 2021, he said. Facebook slipped 5 points to 17%, followed by Netflix with 12%, TikTok at 9% and Instagram 6%. Europe, the Middle East and Africa was the largest contributor to Netflix paid net adds in Q4, said the company Jan. 20. Netflix reports Q1 earnings April 19.

Consumer tech will feel the brunt of “the weakening stay-at-home economy, the pandemic in China, international tensions, and rising inflation” in first-half 2022, blogged TrendForce Tuesday. In the category’s traditional off-season period, demand for PCs, laptops, TVs and smartphones has “cooled significantly," leading downstream customers to lower shipment targets for the year, it said. Demand for automotive, IoTs, communications and servers remains “good."

Sonos acquired Netherlands-based transducer maker Mayht Holding for about $100 million in cash, it said Monday. Mayht’s approach to engineering smaller and lighter form factors “without compromising on quality,” will allow Sonos to broaden its product portfolio, said CEO Patrick Spence. The company will release more details on its fiscal Q2 earnings call in May, it said.

Walmart upped the pay for truck drivers amid a severe driver shortage and tight labor market, it announced last week. Walmart Private Fleet drivers can make up to $110,000 in their first year with the company, Fernando Cortes, senior vice president-transportation, blogged Thursday, saying that’s “just a start”: Drivers who have been with Walmart longer can earn “even more,” based on tenure and location. The company launched a 12-week Walmart Private Fleet Development Program for supply chain workers in the Dallas and Dover, Delaware, areas who could earn their commercial driver’s license and become Private Fleet drivers. Walmart tapped its 12,000-driver fleet for certified driver trainers, who taught written material and oversaw driving with “months” of real-world experience, Cortes said. Walmart’s investments in pay and training “build on multiple recent driver bonuses and improved schedules that enable drivers to spend more time at home,” he said. A February New York Times article said the U.S. last year had a deficit of 80,000 truck drivers and trucking fleets are offering $10,000 cash bonuses to “court new hires.” The American Trucking Associations took exception to a March guest essay in The New York Times giving a 91% turnover rate in 2019 -- citing wages as the top factor -- saying the essay suggested truckers were leaving the industry. The trade group affirmed the rate in a blog post but said it “captures churn within the industry -- not attrition from the industry.” It claimed demand and opportunity are leading drivers to move among carriers with “unprecedented pay increases” across the industry. COVID-19 exacerbated an “extremely tight labor market,” ATA said, and now weekly driver earnings are at five times their historical average.

Nice/Nortek Control is consolidating speaker brands as part of the integration of the two companies after Nice’s purchase of Nortek in the fall (see 21100500666), Regional Sales Manager Peter Arnold told Consumer Electronics Daily at the Home Technology Specialists of America conference in Fort Lauderdale last week. Nortek’s five speaker brands -- Elan, SpeakerCraft, Sunfire, Proficient and Niles -- created confusion for dealers, Arnold said, so the company took the brand count down to three. It rolled Sunfire technology into the Speakercraft line, renaming it Powered by Sunfire, and “retagged” Niles outdoor speakers as SpeakerCraft, he said. The Niles line is now “just bits and bolts,” Arnold said of the support role Niles volume controls and amplifiers play in multiroom audio systems. The move "was tough” for longtime Niles dealers loyal to the speaker brand, Arnold said: “We’re trying to come up with products within the SpeakerCraft brand that will make them happy." The company is also addressing redundancies in the Gefen and Xantech lines, “but we’re still figuring out how that’s going to go,” he said. Nice/Nortek plans to launch new products at CEDIA Expo in September, “but that hinges on the supply chain,” he said. Some new products are in development, but “we don’t know if we can get extra working models in that time frame." Arnold called 2022 a "transition year," combining a European company with an American company with associated “growing pains.” The first part of the transition is structural, getting the different divisions working together on the same platform, he said. Italy-based Nice has a shade business in Europe that’s “successful to a point,” said Arnold, saying he's looking forward to selling products designed for the European market in the U.S. “The potential is kind of limitless outside of COVID,” he said. The two markets are different because Europe has a lot of stone and brick buildings where installers can’t hide wires in walls. Since the electronics are visible in a European installation, “you have to have product that looks good,” he said: “It’s like comparing an F-150 to a Ferrari.”

The metaverse, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), livestreaming and the labor shortage led topics at last week’s Shoptalk 2022 retail conference in Las Vegas, said Cowen analysts on a Tuesday webcast summarizing the event.

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Supply chain disruptions kept integrators and vendors juggling to meet commitments throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, several told us at the Home Technology Specialists of America conference last week. Recent factory and port shutdowns in China exacerbated an already strained situation, forcing dealers to scramble to find gear to finish projects.

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Presentations at last week’s Home Technology Specialists of America conference included an upbeat view of the luxury goods market through 2022 -- but a more measured view of the overall consumer market -- plus a peek into the future of home tech through the eyes of a 13-year-old boy-genius.

FORT LAUDERDALE -- The supply chain for the custom integrator channel is struggling with a barrage of setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and several natural disasters, said Keith James, Crestron director-strategic supply chain and manufacturing operations, at the Home Technology Specialists Association spring conference last week. James said “some relief” is likely in 2023.

Three years after Amazon’s effort to build a second headquarters in New York were quashed, partly over unionization concerns, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), founded in Staten Island, New York, became Amazon’s first union Friday in a 2,654-2,131 vote.