Industry and regulators should collect more data on broadband network quality and affordability to help address digital redlining, said speakers on a Public Knowledge webinar Thursday. Inequitable broadband deployment and infrastructure in impoverished neighborhoods contribute to the digital divide, said Daiquiri Ryan, National Hispanic Media Coalition strategic legal adviser. She said "lots of vulnerable communities are still reliant on older copper lines," which often aren't well maintained. Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council CEO Maurita Coley said better research and data are needed so policymakers can surgically target broadband where the need is greatest. "There's no federal money for digital inclusion efforts," said Angela Siefer, National Digital Inclusion Alliance executive director. She said big cities like Chicago have been able to secure funding from donors, "but what about smaller communities?" Lukas Pietrzak, Next Century Cities policy associate, said some cities with already degraded networks have had as much as 40% of broadband traffic fall below stated performance standards during the pandemic, citing New Orleans.

After delays caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and “demand volatility,” LG Display announced Wednesday the start of mass production at its Gen 8.5 OLED panel fab in Guangzhou, China. LG has been sending 900 “core engineers” by chartered flights to Guangzhou since March, it said. Plant capacity is 60,000 sheets per month, supplementing the company’s 70,000-sheet capacity at its OLED panel plant in Paju, South Korea. LGD Q2 revenue increased 12% from Q1 on spiking laptop, tablet and desktop monitor panel sales amid COVID-19 demand for telework and remote-learning connectivity tools, said the company Thursday.

“No seventh-inning stretch needed for this crowd!” tweeted Fox Sports Thursday, announcing the introduction of “virtual fans” for live MLB broadcasts, beginning Saturday. Fox collaborated with Pixotope software, Silver Spoon Animation and SMT to “deliver an elevated viewing experience,” said the network. Pixotope describes itself as an “open software-based solution” for creating virtual studios, augmented reality and on-air graphics. Silver Spoon is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based studio specializing in motion-capture and virtual production services. SMT supplies “visual data intelligence” services for live sports broadcasts, including “virtual insertion.”

With Las Vegas so “dependent” on group and convention business, Rob Goldstein, Las Vegas Sands chief operating officer, sees “nothing that indicates” the business will “return at all” to the city this year, he said on a Q2 investor call Wednesday. “Las Vegas cannot perform without return of these segments. It cannot make money with limited hotel occupancy.” Even with the recent reopenings of the Venetian and Palazzo, “we’re running a regional casino” destination that’s “predicated” on customers driving in from other locales, he said. "Airlift" traffic through McCarran airport is only about 40% of its pre-COVID-19 volume, he said. “I don’t have a crystal ball into 2021,” said Goldstein. “I remain pessimistic" about the group and convention business for next year, he said. The “slowest return” will be the “large-deal group business” because it's “more tech-driven, and those people are more reluctant to travel,” he said. Goldstein doesn’t want to “predict 2021 because I don't feel I have enough insight into what might happen to the vaccine or the virus,” he said. “But I would be less than honest if I didn't tell you that Las Vegas is in a very difficult place." The city is "struggling here," said the COO. "It's painful, and I think it remains painful for the immediate future.” The stock closed 4.2% lower Thursday at $44.88. CES 2021 is scheduled Jan. 6-9 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Best Buy’s announcement Tuesday of a 2.5% sales increase for Q2 through Saturday (see 2007210062) showed the retailer’s “agility and tenacity” during a “difficult environment,” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Wednesday. Shares reached a 52-week high Wednesday, closing 7.8% higher at $97.36. Best Buy likely benefited from the temporary or permanent shuttering of smaller brick-and-mortar competitors during the pandemic, but stimulus benefits for those receiving unemployment will soon end, “and a recession is likely to follow,” said Pachter. Best Buy said Tuesday online sales were up 255% quarter-to-date, and sales increased 15% since stores began reopening June 15. That showed customers "are gaining comfort with online purchasing while remaining loyal to the store,” it said. Temporary incremental unemployment benefits boosted Q2 sales, plus persistently strong connectivity products needed for remote work and school. Growth in computing and tablets is likely to continue as people continue to work from home and students prepare to do more schoolwork from home starting in the fall, Pachter said: “Aa looming recession and high unemployment rates could significantly impact Best Buy’s sales, as finances for Best Buy’s core consumer come under increasing pressure by October.” Best Buy's Q2 ends Aug. 1. It reports Aug. 26.

An executive walked gingerly around questions whether Snap's ad revenue is benefiting from the Facebook ad boycott. It’s "difficult to ascertain exactly what the impact of the Facebook boycott is on revenue,” said Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman on a Q2 call Tuesday. Gorman speculated some of Facebook’s lost ad revenue could be "related" to cuts in advertisers’ “overall content marketing budgets, just given the environment” of COVID-19. The Facebook hate-speech “conversation has opened the door for us” to “engage” with potential new advertisers, including with CEOs and chief marketing officers, he said. Facebook didn't comment Wednesday. The global health crisis “accelerated the shift to a more digital economy,” said Gorman. Snap’s advertisers “are exploring more ways to offer services digitally, including at-home fitness apps, online education programs, retail stores and restaurants offering online ordering and delivery services, and mobile-first banking and trading,” he said. The pandemic is encouraging business owners “to adopt digital marketing methods to engage with their customers globally,” said Gorman. Daily active users grew 17% year over year in Q2, with 238 million people using Snapchat “every day on average,” said CEO Evan Spiegel. Ad revenue grew 17% to $454 million, despite “extreme dislocations,” said Spiegel. As hard-hit industries like travel and theatrical entertainment “pull back spend,” he said, "we have transitioned to helping them plan for a future recovery led in part by our audience." Other industries like streaming and e-commerce that have thrived from “some of the COVID-related changes in consumer behavior” have been “leaning in as advertisers on our platform,” he said. “The path to this outcome was not a straight line,” said Chief Financial Officer Derek Andersen. “The operating environment has remained challenging as COVID-19 continues to impact macroeconomic conditions, and the businesses of our advertising clients." Advertisers hardest hit in the pandemic are those that “rely on in-person interaction with their customers” he said. The stock closed down 6.2% Wednesday at $23.20.

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved applications by Windstream and Leon County, Texas, for historic review of wireless facilities during the pandemic (see here and here).

Though Texas Instruments Q2 revenue of $3.2 billion was down 12% from a year earlier, it wasn't "the depth of the decline we saw in the 2008 financial crisis,” said Dave Pahl, head of investor relations, on a Tuesday evening earnings call. “We remain cautious on how the economy might behave over the next few years.” The main “weakness” was in automotive, down about 40% sequentially and from a year earlier, he said. “Excluding automotive, TI was up 8% sequentially and down 3% versus a year ago. The automotive market appears to have bottomed in May as North American and European assembly plants resumed operations.” TI’s personal electronics business was up more than 20% from Q1 and about 10% higher than the 2019 quarter, he said. “This can best be explained by work-from-home trends and TI being in a position to support unforecasted demand in the quarter.” Short lead times and high availability “are important capabilities that allow us to continue to support customers' near-term and unforecasted demand,” said Chief Financial Officer Rafael Lizardi. “Our product portfolio of mostly long-lived parts affords us to have a steady hand and therefore, we will take a similar approach to our factory operating plan again in third quarter.”

Republican lawmakers urged the White House to do more to sanction China-backed cyberattackers who steal U.S. intellectual property. Reps. Michael McCaul, Texas; Greg Walden, Ore.; and Patrick McHenry, N.C., said Chinese hackers are more frequently targeting U.S. agencies to try to steal information and public health data on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. The lawmakers said the Treasury Department has “not sufficiently imposed” sanctions. The White House didn't comment Wednesday on Monday's letter.

COVID-19 uncertainties caused a “sharp decline” in global flat-panel TV shipments in Q1, reported ABI Research Wednesday. It forecasts 222 million unit shipments in 2020, down 3% from 2019. Stay-at-home orders and the pandemic's “economic upheaval” are bringing lower consumer spending on more discretionary consumer tech gear, it said. Conditions are likely to speed a decline in TV prices, said analyst Khin Sandi Lynn. Video streaming services’ popularity during lockdown caused a 4 million unit bump in streaming media adapter shipments year on year, said the analyst. Streaming media device and service growth is expected to continue beyond the pandemic. ABI expects the global flat-panel TV market to rebound in 2021, growing at a 4.3 compound annual growth rate to 275 million units in 2025.