North Carolina will take applications through Oct. 14 for $32 million in emergency broadband grants under the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology program, the Department of Information Technology said Monday. The special supplementary funding round comes amid the pandemic.

E-commerce reached a “tipping point" during the pandemic, based on “fundamental shifts in consumer behavior,” PayPal Chief Financial Officer John Rainey told a virtual Deutsche Bank conference Monday. “In areas where some of the shelter-in-place or social distancing measures have been relaxed, we're still seeing much more elevated levels of e-commerce activity.” The single largest demographic of new PayPal users is “silver tech,” people older than 50 coming to e-commerce for the first time, he said. “When people are lacking mobility and the ability to go purchase something in a physical setting, we're going to see heightened levels of e-commerce trends,” said Rainey. “What follows is new customers.”

Labor Day weekend e-commerce sales were below forecast, “even for a world without COVID-19 and lockdowns,” blogged Adobe Monday. E-commerce spending was $2.6 billion, up 12% year on year; prior-week sales grew 33%, said Adobe. Online shopping activity declined in August as more physical stores reopened. Online sales rose 42% in August year on year to $63 billion but lower than July’s 55% bump. Use of buy online, pick up in store fulfillment jumped 59% in August and 259% year on year; 30% of online customers prefer using BOPIS or curbside pickup over home delivery. The pandemic drove an extra $107 billion in online spending through August, said Adobe, with the first eight months of 2020 generating $497 billion. Smartphone sales were 40%; mobile shopping will surpass 50% of e-commerce volume by next September, the researcher forecast. A third of consumers said their online packages arrived later than expected. “There may never be another holiday season quite like holiday 2020,” said John Copeland, vice president-marketing and customer insights:​ “Both in-store and online experiences will be different than in years past, as stores become more contactless to abide by social distancing rules and digital channels work harder to convert shoppers into buyers. ... If you felt like the holidays came early last year, they will likely get here even earlier this year around," Copeland said.

IFA 2021 opens Sept. 3 for five days, not the six days of previous years, based on deliberations “well before COVID-19,” emailed spokesperson Nicole von der Ropp Friday. “We are always in discussions with our industry partners and exhibitors to fine-tune and adjust the concept for IFA Berlin,” she said. “Discussions on whether to shorten IFA by one day started a year ago.” Organizers plan to keep the on-demand content from the virtual IFA 2020 “active” until next year’s show, said von der Ropp. The virtual show’s server didn’t crash Sept. 4 (see 2009070002), day two, she said. “There were two brief interruptions while updates were being performed. As far as we know, the interruption only lasted a few minutes.”

U.S. technology sector credit “held up to the COVID-19 pandemic” in Q2 “better than expected because shutdowns disproportionately hurt small and midsize businesses and local firms,” reported S&P Global Ratings Thursday. The transition to 5G will be a driver into late 2020, it said. IPhone revenue "was stronger than expected, up 2% year over year," but non-Apple mobile spending was "weak,” S&P said: “We think Apple did relatively well because it is exposed to the higher end of the consumer market, which was less affected by job losses in the quarter. It also debuted the second generation of its more affordable SE model.”

ATSC 3.0 rollout is “going OK, despite the fact that we can’t have shows" in person, ATSC President Madeleine Noland told us Thursday. “In this little period of time, I think it’s slowing down the deployment because we can’t get bodies in stations. At the same time, broadcasters and TV manufacturers are taking advantage of this” standard. “People can access all this information on demand" from virtual events, she noted. Stations are “taking this opportunity to get on the air” with 3.0 and “get the basic TV signal up there,” Noland said. Though brick-and-mortar retail curtailments are impeding the industry’s ability to demonstrate compatible sets for consumers at the point of sale, “the most important time frame for that kind of activity is going to be when there are more services on the air in more markets,” said Noland. It gives broadcasters time to hone their unified messaging, she said. “There’s an opportunity here to really, really get this right, so that when we are back at retail, we’ve got a great story to tell." She said NAB postponing next year's annual show six months to October 2021 (see 2009090049) was the right move. “The chance that it could have been an excellent show in April, at least by my research and evidence, appeared to be on the low side. Who knows what the future may bring, but I don’t think they could have picked a better date if they want to hold a show in 2021, as they obviously do. We all do.” NAB didn't confer with Noland, but she's sure the association consulted with ATSC members. Canceling the April 2020 show a month out involved “so much fluidity and nobody really knew what was going to happen,” she said. That spotlighted “the level of planning that has to happen in advance,” she said.

The U.S. response to COVID-19 validates the FCC got things right when it overturned the 2015 net neutrality rules three years ago, blogged American Enterprise Institute's Matt Au and Bret Swanson Thursday. “The pandemic has validated the historical US approach to broadband that values private investment over government regulation,” they said: “Facing unprecedented increases in demand of 20 to 40 percent during COVID-19 quarantines, American networks and network operators responded admirably, while European regulators had to ask Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon to reduce the quality of their video streams to ease demand on networks.”

The House Commerce Committee advanced tech bills Wednesday on voice votes -- the Combating Pandemic Scams Act (HR-6435), AI for Consumer Product Safety Act (HR-8128) and American Competitiveness of a More Productive Emerging Tech Economy Act (HR-8132). The committee earlier cleared (see 2009090068) three communications measures. HR-6435 would compel the FTC to inform the public about mail, telemarketing and internet scams involving COVID-19. HR-8128 would direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to start a pilot using artificial intelligence. HR-8132 would require the FTC and Commerce Department report on the impact of AI and other emerging technologies on U.S. businesses doing interstate commerce. Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., hoped the chamber votes on the measures “soon.” Ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., and other GOP leaders said they're "disappointed that legislation on autonomous vehicles and data protection were noticeably missing” from the markup.

With no “on/off switch” for fully resuming film production, “it's a gradual ramp” up, Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy told a Citi virtual conference. COVID-19 is “a very unpredictable virus,” she said. That’s the “new reality” until there’s a vaccine that’s “widely available,” she said. The emphasis will be on “opening where we can,” she said. Shooting began three months ago in New Zealand on Avatar 2, “the first movie to get back up and running,” said McCarthy. “We'll continue to ramp up other productions. It's going to depend on where they are, how big the cast is, what the guilds and the unions will want to allow. I believe outside shooting is going to be easier to deal with than when you're inside a soundstage.” Fast-tracking the Sept. 4 release of Mulan on Disney+ (see 2009040049) was “not an easy decision” -- “because there were so many factors,” the CFO said Wednesday. "It would have been released were it not for theaters being closed.”

CTA shifted the all-digital CES 2021 to Jan. 11-14, five days later than its original Jan. 6-9 run as a physical show. The change reformats the event to be Monday-Thursday instead of Wednesday-Saturday. Only media will get access the first day, with conference programming the last three days and an “exhibitor showcase” featured on the middle two. "Many will be returning to their offices for the first time in January" since the pandemic began, emailed spokesperson Caroline Finnell. "The shift gives exhibitors and attendees more cushion time between the holidays and show times."