The FCC stopped taking COVID-19 telehealth applications, it announced Thursday (see 2006250069). "Based on the applications received to date, demand for funding exceeds available" money. Some $200 million was allotted. The FCC doesn't "want to impose burdens on health care providers who may prepare new applications that cannot be funded under the current appropriation." The program has approved 444 requests in 46 states plus Washington, D.C., for $157.64 million, the agency announced. The latest awards were disclosed this week. A Wireline Bureau public notice has details on the cessation of accepting new requests for money. The bureau began taking applications for the congressionally mandated program April 13 after the commission approved program rules earlier that month (see 2004010042). The bureau was directed to review applications and award funding commitments on a rolling basis until funding exhausts or the pandemic ends. The bureau prioritized funding applications targeting areas hardest hit by the coronavirus and where the support will have the most impact on healthcare needs, as Congress directed. The American Telemedicine Association has asked Congress to expand the program in the next COVID-19 legislative package, a spokesperson emailed Thursday. Commissioner Brendan Carr has been a proponent at the agency for telehealth funds. “Less than two years ago, we set out to establish a new FCC telehealth program to support the trend towards connected care," Carr said in a statement to us. "I am pleased that this leg work enabled the FCC to stand up the emergency telehealth initiative in record time. And I am pleased with the interest that health care providers have shown in participating. I look forward to the FCC’s continued work on these efforts, including the upcoming Connected Care Pilot.” The FCC didn't answer our questions.
Rev launched live captions for Zoom virtual meeting users, said the speech-to-text company Thursday: Zoom quickly became the leading video conferencing platform during the pandemic (see 2006120054), previously lacking “a solution for on-screen captions.”
Some 31 Apple stores were shown closed on the company’s website Thursday, including seven in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced the state will pause further reopening phases amid the surge in COVID-19 cases. The Department of Health State Services estimated 50,774 active cases statewide. Apple showed all four Houston stores closed; the Texas Medical Center reported intensive care unit beds at 100% capacity Wednesday. Harris County, Houston's home, led with 25,786 confirmed cases Wednesday, said Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Seven states reported new highs for current coronavirus hospitalizations this week, said The Washington Post : Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. All six Apple stores in Arizona were temporarily shuttered. The state had the biggest upward trend of new cases, said Johns Hopkins. In Florida, Apple stores in Estero and Naples were shown closed, while four of five stores in North Carolina -- and both South Carolina stores -- were shuttered. Two of four Tennessee stores -- Germantown and Nashville -- were closed. Apple began a gradual reopening of U.S. stores last month (see 2005180043) after it temporarily shut all U.S. storefronts in March. The company didn't comment.
More than a quarter of the more than 1 million people searching online for new homes at the peak of COVID-19 in April and May were looking at locales in other U.S. regions, said Redfin. There was a “huge increase” in people in large metropolitan areas “looking online at homes in small towns,” it said Thursday: The pandemic and resulting work-from-home trends are “accelerating migration patterns.” New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles had the biggest “net outflow” of users in April and May, the digital real estate brokerage said.
One-page technical abstracts are due July 3 for the annual Symposium on Vehicle Displays and Interfaces, said the Society for Information Display Wednesday. SID originally planned to hold the conference physically Sept. 29-30 in Livonia, Michigan, but COVID-19 forced it to convert it to a virtual event Oct.14-15. Organizers are seeking technical papers on a such subjects as trends in automotive displays and consumer acceptance of different display and interface technologies. Authors whose abstracts are chosen will be notified later in July, and their full papers will be due Aug. 17, said SID.
The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation won’t hold a 2020 Giants of American Broadcasting luncheon due to the pandemic, it said Wednesday.
Mediacom, which provided unlimited data to broadband subscribers during the pandemic, starting in September will offer up to 100 Gb of additional data free to any customers who hit their monthly allotment, it said Wednesday. It's also extending through August its free access to all its Wi-Fi hot spots, free 60 days of its low-cost internet service for new qualifying families and 12 months of discounted Internet 60 service pricing to new customers.
The cancellation of the 2020 emergency alert system test is the first such cancellation in nearly a decade, blogged Fletcher Heald Tuesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the cancellation last week, pinning the move on the COVID-19 pandemic. FEMA “is moving the next national test of the system to 2021 out of consideration for the unusual circumstances and working conditions for those in the broadcast and cable industry,” the agency said. “Systems remain in place for rapid automatic transmission of the test message by broadcast and cable operators,” but “follow-on reporting activities associated with a national test place additional burdens on technical staff that are already quite busy maintaining as close to normal operation as possible.”
Sonos is eliminating 12% of its workforce, said a Wednesday SEC filing. It didn't respond to questions on which departments will be affected. It's also closing its New York retail store and six satellite offices. The store was reportedly damaged during looting in the SoHo neighborhood associated with George Floyd protests last month. CEO Patrick Spence said in a statement "the pandemic and resulting economic impacts have caused us to have to make some hard choices, including reductions to our workforce. ... These changes are necessary in order for us to emerge from this period ready to take advantage of opportunities we see in the future." The board approved a 20% cut to Spence’s base salary July 1-Dec. 31. All directors agreed to forgo their annual cash retainers for that period.
The “spike” in over-the-top “engagement” that began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic “has since plateaued” but is "holding steady for now," reported Comscore Wednesday. Consumption of OTT content grew through the roof in terms of total homes and viewing hours. The researcher estimates 69.8 million homes used OTT in April, up by 5.2 million from the same 2019 month. The average home viewed 102 hours of OTT content in April, an increase of 17 hours from April 2019, it said: The use of “pure-play” vMVPDs to view OTT content jumped 70% in February through April, compared with the same 2019 period.