Rebecca Day

Quibi didn't comment Monday on a Sunday report that it's in talks to sell its catalog to Roku. The short-form video service shut down in October after six months (see report in this publication, Oct. 23). Roku has been pushing into content with its ad-supported Roku Channel that offers movies and TV shows from others. A deal with Quibi would give Roku exclusive programming. A spokesperson emailed that Roku doesn’t comment on market speculation.

5G smartphones, “the most accelerated mobile technology generation ever launched,” could reach sub-$200 price points in 2021, leading to challenges for the industry, said ABI Research analyst David McQueen in a 2021 trend forecast Tuesday. 5G’s fast adoption brings a “raft of technical challenges” that may lead to substantial changes in mobile device design, McQueen said. Availability of 5G smartphone models will become more diverse, “brought to market quickly at a wide variety of price points, democratizing the 5G experience,” said the analyst.

Aggregation, security and voice control are key areas in the surging pay-TV streaming video market as consumers continue their exodus from traditional pay TV, panelists told Parks Associates’ recent Future of Video virtual conference.

A layer of graphene could make next-generation lithium-ion batteries safer to use, last longer and operate in a wider temperature range, says Nanotech Energy, one of several companies working on graphene batteries as a safer alternative to current lithium-ion power cells. Los Angeles-based Nanotech is targeting its graphene batteries to a swath of devices, from wearables to electric vehicles, CEO Jack Kavanaugh told us Wednesday. Battery safety has been a top issue for portable device makers since Samsung’s high-profile debacle with lithium-ion batteries in the doomed Galaxy Note 7 (see 1701230048), which Samsung recalled twice and finally discontinued due to overheating and fire risk. With standard lithium-ion batteries, pressure from parts can cause damage to the wires around the batteries, leading to short-circuiting. When lithium-ion batteries get shorted, the energy from the battery gets released suddenly, causing the temperature to rise hundreds of degrees within milliseconds -- resulting in the battery catching fire, says the Nanotech website. The FAA classifies lithium-ion batteries as “dangerous goods” and requires battery chargers and power banks to be transported in carry-on luggage vs. aircraft cargo holds to reduce risk of fire. Kavanaugh said graphene can withstand the volume changes of battery electrodes during charge and discharge, reducing the chances of an internal short circuit. He described a “nail test,” where testers hammer a nail into a conventional car battery causing it to short, explode and catch fire. “With ours, neither happens,” he said. “Graphene is one of the strongest known materials, is completely flexible, and an excellent conductor of electricity -- thus preventing the battery from overheating,” said Nanotech co-founder Richard Kaner, a UCLA professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering. Nanotech’s first product was a super capacitor using graphene, which morphed into “super batteries,” a “much bigger market,” Kavanaugh said. He wouldn’t disclose potential customers or use cases for its first batteries, which could reach the market by 2022. The company is planning for a factory dedicated to battery and electrode production. Its first battery, in prototype, could be made into “any shape, either cylindrical or flat,” he said, and is being tested for automotive, utilities, CE devices and consumer products, including lawnmowers and electric bikes.

Some 70% of consumers’ spending for video goes to pay-TV, said a December Futuresource report, giving the 2020 global subscription VOD spend as $55 billion. Pay-TV subscription revenue accounted for $172 billion in consumer spending this year, said analyst Tristan Veale, with the remainder divided among subscription- and transactional VOD, electronic sell-through, DVD and Blu-ray. Netflix captured almost half of all global value, he said.

Ad-supported VOD services are playing a pivotal role in delivering a relaxed, “tension-free” viewing experience during the pandemic's “troubling times,” Parks Associates analyst Steve Nason told his company's Future of Video virtual conference Wednesday. Acquisitions in the AVOD space by prominent media companies included Pluto TV by ViacomCBS in 2019 (see 1903040002), Xumo by Comcast in February (see 2002250059) and Tubi by Fox in April (see 2004200070). The transactions all raised the overall profile of the AVOD category, said Nason.

More than 150 million U.S. consumers plan to shop online or in stores on the last Saturday before Christmas, up from 147.8 million last year, said the National Retail Federation Thursday. Of those, 42% plan to shop online only, said a survey of 8,092 consumers fielded by Prosper Insights Nov. 25-Dec. 4.

Walmart is breaking new ground with plans to hold a “livestream shopping experience” Friday on video-sharing social networking site TikTok. During a Walmart livestream, beginning at 8 p.m. EST, TikTok users can shop for Walmart fashion items featured in content from popular TikTok creators “without ever having to leave the platform,” blogged William White, Walmart U.S. chief marketing officer, Thursday.

In the mix-and-match world outside of pay TV, consumers have become self-aggregators, mostly “unwillingly,” said Parks Associates analyst Steve Nason Tuesday during Parks’ virtual Future of Video conference.

Higher gross margin in Costco’s fiscal Q1, ended Nov. 22, was attributable partly to demand for consumer products, which have encountered less promotional discount activity in the pandemic than is normal for a holiday selling season, said Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti on a Thursday earnings call.