Roku Chief Financial Officer Steve Louden set expectations for “tough” year-on-year comparisons in second-half 2021 on the company's Q2 call Wednesday, after pandemic-driven “outperformance” in 2020. Q3 guidance is for revenue growth of 51% at the midpoint to $680 million. Q2 revenue increased 81% year on year to $645 million, said the company shareholder letter, crediting “exceptional performance in platform monetization.”

Vizio’s smart TV shipments slumped 31% in Q2 to 1.1 million sets, driving device revenue 9% lower than a year earlier, to $335.6 million, the company reported Wednesday. But Vizio’s Platform+ business, including SmartCast streaming, generated 146% revenue growth in the quarter to $65.5 million.

Large indoor industry conventions will be high-risk situations if the ongoing rise of the delta variant of COVID-19 continues, said infectious disease doctors in interviews. Further complicating matters, they said it's unclear what the landscape of variants and vaccinations will be by October's NAB Show.

Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner highlighted the company’s media IP business on a Q2 earnings call Tuesday, calling it a top strategic growth area for its overall IP business as its pay-TV business declines along with industry trends. Revenue in that segment fell 9% year on year to $54 million due to subscriber churn, Kirchner said.

SAN ANTONIO -- Product shortages are “day to day, product by product,” ProSource CEO Dave Workman told a press briefing Wednesday during group’s summer show. He ticked off supply chain challenges facing manufacturers, saying, “You can’t get it out of China. If you get it out of China, it sits in the dock in Long Beach [California] or wherever; you can’t get it offloaded.”

The Trump administration’s “radical escalation” of Section 301 tariffs on Lists 3 and 4A Chinese goods “transgressed the statutory limits carefully delineated by Congress” when it crafted the 1974 Trade Act and delegated foreign-trade powers to the executive branch, said Akin Gump lawyers for sample case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products. This came in a cross-motion for judgment on the agency record filed Monday at the U.S. Court of International Trade in docket 1:21-cv-52. Akin Gump’s proposed order asks that the Lists 3 and 4A tariffs be vacated, that any duties paid be refunded with interest and that the government be “permanently enjoined” from imposing the tariffs again.

As new ransomware attacks make almost daily headlines, ATSC values the security of the 3.0 suite of standards and its commercial deployment “very seriously,” insisted President Madeleine Noland. “We are vigilant” about security, she told us Friday. “It is not an afterthought. It is absolutely one of the most important parts of the standard.”

The U.S. Court of International Trade postponed for two weeks this Friday's deadline for Customs and Border Protection to create the repository through which Section 301 importers can seek to freeze liquidations of customs entries from China with Lists 3 and 4A tariff exposure under the court's July 6 preliminary injunction (PI) order. Judge Claire Kelly told a status conference Monday that the court also is postponing for two weeks Friday's deadline for plaintiffs and the government to propose modifications to the PI order.

Target became the latest major retailer to institute new masking rules in response to the surge in delta variant COVID-19 cases, saying Monday that employees in high-risk areas will be required to mask up beginning Tuesday.

Senate Intelligence Committee leaders are negotiating with the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) over a cyber legislative package in response to the recent flurry of high-profile attacks on U.S. businesses and government, leaders from both committees said in recent interviews. They are discussing potential inclusion of a bill that would require agencies, contractors and critical infrastructure operators to report cyberhacks within 24 hours of discovery (see 2107210023), said lead sponsor and Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va. He’s in conversation with HSGAC Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, “in support” of their cyber work, he told us.