Apple TV+ leads over-the-top streaming services in monthly active churn rate at 15.6%, said Verimatrix Product Management Director Sebastian Braun on a Wednesday Parks Associates webinar. NBCUniversal’s Peacock (not including the free tier) was second at 9.5%, followed by Showtime (8.8%), Starz (8.4%), HBO Max (6.7%), CBS All Access (5.9%), Hulu (5.2%), Disney+ (4.3%) and Netflix (2.5%).
Mark Warner, D-Va., is confident the Senate Intelligence Committee he chairs will produce "strong" bipartisan legislation “within the next couple of weeks” on mandatory reporting of cyberattacks, he told an Axios webinar Thursday. He hopes the Biden administration endorses the legislation “since it will be strongly supported,” and that “we can move on this quickly,” he said.
April imports to the U.S. of laptops, tablets and smartphones were flat or marginally lower compared with March, but double digits higher than in April 2020, the first full month of COVID-19 lockdowns, according to Census data accessed Wednesday through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool.
President Joe Biden revoked former President Donald Trump’s bans on U.S. transactions with major Chinese apps. Biden replaced them Wednesday with an executive order directing the Commerce Department to evaluate “transactions involving” apps “that may pose an undue risk of sabotage or subversion of” U.S. information and communications technology. Last month, Biden revoked Trump’s social media order that sought an FCC rulemaking to clarify interpretation of Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2105140074).
Buoyed by a more “resilient economy” than expected at its February forecast, plus higher COVID-19 vaccination rates and government stimulus, the National Retail Federation upped its 2021 forecast on Wednesday to $4.44 trillion-$4.56 trillion, for 10.5%-13.5% sales growth. The trade association forecast 6.5%-8.2% growth to $4.3 trillion-$4.4 trillion in February (see 2102240038).
The global semiconductor shortage “continues to negatively impact U.S. workers and consumers and is a persistent headwind to the U.S. economic outlook,” said the 100-day supply chain review published Tuesday by the White House in answer to President Joe Biden’s call for the report in his Feb. 24 executive order. The Commerce Department’s assessment took center stage in the 250-page report. The Energy, Defense and Health and Human Services departments also weighed in.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., plans to introduce legislation to regulate online platforms like common carriers, he told us Monday. Citing a recent opinion from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas advocating for such (see 2104090046), Wicker hoped to introduce the bill this week.
Roku will continue to invest “proportionally” in content with the scale and growth of The Roku Channel, which doubled in viewership in Q1 vs. the year-ago quarter, said Chief Financial Officer Steve Louden on a Monday investor call. Viewership on the channel grew twice as fast as the overall platform, he said.
Productivity, video-calling advances, Spatial Audio and shared entertainment experiences were headliners at Apple’s virtual Worldwide Developers Conference keynote announcing new features of the upcoming iOS 15 Monday. Apple Senior Vice President-Software Engineering Craig Federighi opened the event, highlighting features designed to help users stay connected in new ways.
The Senate plans to vote Tuesday on final passage of the Endless Frontier Act (see 2105270082) and several potential amendments, an aide for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told us Friday. The Senate could consider a manager’s amendment, which might open the door to a host of additional provisions, per an aide for co-sponsor Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. Some 30 senators are attempting to attach provisions to the manager’s package, lobbyists said.