ISPs’ lawsuit against New York’s broadband affordability law raises similar preemption issues to cases industry lost in other venues, but law experts disagreed in interviews which side would win. Plaintiffs at U.S. District Court for Eastern New York (case 21-cv-2389) make the same arguments that failed in Maine ISP privacy and California net neutrality cases, which are “structurally almost identical” to the New York case, argued Stanford Law School professor Barbara van Schewick. Former FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson countered that 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case law gives ISP plaintiffs an “additional arrow in their quiver.”

Xperi is targeting the TiVo Stream connected TV platform at Tier 2 OEMs for the U.S. market and other geographies outside North America, CEO Jon Kirchner told an investor conference last week. It’s available now as a dongle that plugs into the TV, and the company is working toward an integrated platform with TV makers for introduction next year.

FCC inaction on an NAB petition for clarification of ATSC 3.0 rules is making the transition to the new standard more difficult, broadcasters said. The petition was filed in November and has been a focus of NAB lobbying in recent months and was again Friday (see 2011100067).

HP and Dell each reported quarterly consumer PC revenue growth high into double-digit percentages on sustained demand for remote work and learning connectivity tools. The two top-five computing brands indicated Thursday that year-on-year growth likely would have been even higher if not for the global chips shortage and other supply-chain disruptions that impeded order fulfillment. HP’s fiscal Q2 and Dell’s Q1 both ended April 30.

Stimulus spending, the sustained role of technology and the ongoing shift to hybrid work models caused unexpected gains in Best Buy’s comparable sales for fiscal Q1 ended May 2, said CEO Corie Barry on a Thursday earnings call. Comparable sales grew 37% from a year earlier, led by home theater, computing and appliances.

AT&T's spinoff of WarnerMedia and combining it with Discovery (see 2105160003) isn't likely to go through FCC review, we've learned, even though some interest groups critical of media consolidation hope the agency will get involved. FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told reporters no application is pending. In some past mega-deals of this sort, the regulator also didn't get very involved. The agency didn't comment now.

Federal regulators are likely looking closely at possible antitrust action against Amazon, but the company's $8.45 billion buy of MGM announced Wednesday isn't expected to face federal or state antitrust challenges, experts told us. Lawmakers we interviewed questioned the potential monopoly power of Amazon and want the deal scrutinized.

Telecom-focused Democratic senators demurred Monday and Tuesday from criticizing President Joe Biden for offering to substantially reduce the proposed broadband spending request in his infrastructure counteroffer to Republicans (see 2105210056). They insisted in interviews that Biden’s revised plan, which lowered the proposed broadband money from $100 billion to $65 billion to align with an April GOP framework (see 2104220067), won’t hamstring efforts to enact an infrastructure package that contains a larger amount of connectivity funding via budget reconciliation if talks with Republicans collapse. Lobbyists and others we spoke with believe Biden’s shift doesn’t mean a higher figure won’t ultimately pass.

Amazon's proposed $8.45 billion MGM buy, announced Wednesday, will bolster its proprietary content stash for Prime membership “and support the program's continued expansion,” S&P Global wrote investors Wednesday. Amazon has consistently expanded its Prime subscriptions by more than 30% annually, said S&P: “We believe Amazon will continue to invest in its entertainment offerings and delivery capability to attract new subscribers.” Transaction size is “manageable,” given Amazon's “sizable cash balance” of $73.3 billion as of March 31, it said.

The COVID-19 pandemic set new expectations and behavior for the smart home, with more than a third of households having a member working from home and one in five learning from home, said Parks Associates analyst Jennifer Kent, opening the virtual Connections conference Tuesday. Household connectivity usage led to a major increase in demand for broadband coming into the house and on the reliable functioning of the home network, she said.