Rebecca Day

Sports-centric virtual MVPD fuboTV reported 43,000 sequential net subscriber additions in Q1 to 590,430 vs. a loss of 28,000 in largely pre-COVID-19 pandemic Q1 2020, said the company shareholder letter Tuesday. Revenue rose 135% year on year to $119.7 million in the quarter ended March 31. Advertising revenue jumped 206% year on year to $12.6 million; monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) grew 28% to $69.09. Net loss narrowed to $40.7 million from $66.6 million in the year-ago quarter, it said.

The Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA) will add two top-10 TV brands to its lineup this quarter, after adding Hisense and more LG TVs and a projector in Q1, said Summit Technologies CEO Brett Moyer on a Q1 call Wednesday. Summit reported Q1 revenue of $1.2 million, up 181% from Q1 2020. Q2 guidance is for 250% year-on-year growth up from $348,000 in Q2 2020. Shares closed 31% higher Wednesday at $3.38.

The nearly 20-year-old Zigbee Alliance rebranded as the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) and renamed Project Connected Home over IP as Matter, it said Tuesday. A new Matter mark will serve as a “seal of approval” to ensure that any device built on the standard is “reliable by nature, secure by design and compatible at scale,” said the organization. CSA will continue to develop Zigbee technology and retain the Zigbee brand, it said.

Cree Lighting is selling its Connected Max smart home LED bulbs at Lowe’s, said the company Tuesday, including new full-spectrum tunable-white smart bulbs ($12.99) in A19, ST19 candelabra and globe designs, and a 75-watt equivalent 6-inch downlight, which also has color-changing capability ($19.99). The company’s Connected Max app was updated to add SmartThings compatibility and routines such as “dusk to dawn,” which automates lights to turn on at night and off during the day, and "vacation mode," which turns lights on and off in a random pattern to make the home appear occupied. Cree Lighting retained much of its lighting-related IP after Cree Inc. sold off the lighting division to Ideal in May 2019, a spokesperson told us. A company goal is to deliver easy-to-use products, which spurred development of bulbs controllable via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi without the need for a hub, she said. Cree’s “follow the sun” feature has guided setup for consumers who want the color temperature of their lights to gradually shift over the course of a day to mimic natural sunlight, she said.

After launching a Cabling and Infrastructure Technician (CIT) certification in January as a starting level for accreditation, CEDIA is developing a next-level certification, Integrated Systems Technician (IST), as part of the CEDIA certification program restructuring, said a May update.

The “unfortunate Covid situation was anything but” for connected TV and Roku, Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak wrote investors Friday after the company’s Thursday Q1 earnings report showing a 79% hike in revenue year on year to $574.2 million and 32% average revenue per user growth to $32.14. The stock closed 11.6% higher Friday at $317.

Universal Electronics, Inc. readjusted Q2 guidance to reflect a $5 million impact on sales due to chip supply shortages, said Chief Financial Officer Bryan Hackworth on the company’s Q1 earnings call Thursday. “Our products are usually companion products in a total solution,” said Hackworth. Customers alerted the company that supply constraints involving other vendors "affected their ability to implement their total solution,” hampering their ability to ship orders to UEI. He was unable to quantify the impact.

Xperi’s Q1 revenue of $221.6 million, in line with expectations, included $98 million in IP revenue with 30% from media IP, said CEO Jon Kirchner on a Wednesday earnings call. But overall IP revenue dropped 28% due to a $60 million decline in semiconductor IP, a segment Xperi is working to “reposition for future growth,” said Kirchner. The company reaffirmed its fiscal 2021 revenue outlook of $860 million-$900 million.

FuboTV is “well-positioned” in the cord-cutter era with its “lead with sports” strategy, Wedbush's Michael Pachter wrote investors Thursday. “We expect cord-cutting and cord-shaving to continue for the foreseeable future, and think that a sizeable portion of the population will grow up as ‘cordnevers,’ preferring customizable bundles of content to pre-determined MVPD programming,” said the analyst, pegging the addressable market at about 30 million, growing at 3 million per year over the next 10. Pachter cited as positives for fuboTV its revenue guidance for 60% growth, “robust” average revenue per user advertising growth during fiscal 2020 and its advances in the sports betting market. The streaming service will launch a free-to-play wagering app in Q3, with a sportsbook to follow in Q4, Pachter noted. It plans to launch a free interactive predictive game initially to subscribers and later to all consumers in Q3 to learn from customer behavior and then tailor a sports wagering product to be offered through its sportsbook in Q4, he said. The sportsbook will likely generate only minimal revenue at launch, but “the creation of a free-to-play product rolled out to all consumers has the potential to drive word of mouth about fuboTV,” which could drive new subscriptions, he said: “We are optimistic that the sports book can drive material revenues and profitability in the next several years.” Wedbush forecasts fuboTV Q1 revenue of $103 million vs. company guidance of $100 million-$103 million when the company reports earnings Tuesday.

A Dual-Cell ULED TV and 8K Roku TV highlighted Hisense’s 2021 TV launch Wednesday. The flagship U9DG, which uses quantum dot technology, is the first Dual-Cell TV in the U.S., giving 40 times the contrast of a conventional LED TV, said a spokesperson. The design layers a luminance control panel behind a 4K panel to manage grayscale and color more precisely, said the company.