Roku’s dispute with Google over what it calls unfair terms (see 2104260060) for YouTube TV “has nothing to do with an economic deal,” said Roku Chief Financial Officer Steve Louden at a Monday investor conference. “I do get a lot of folks that say is this just another carriage dispute, and it’s very different,” he said.

Being vertically integrated with content helped AT&T's domestic connectivity business, but it became apparent its HBO Max platform needed to be global in scale to compete and wouldn't fit with the U.S. focus, hence the spinoff and Discovery deal (see 2105160003), CEO John Stankey said Monday during a JP Morgan conference. He said AT&T's smaller dividend after the DirecTV and WarnerMedia spinoffs will mean more capital the company can invest into wireless and fiber deployment for connectivity.

Speakers questioned whether the U.S. can completely separate itself from Chinese suppliers, during a webinar sponsored by Huawei Monday. Experts warned about the semiconductor shortage, a new FCC focus (see 2105190001).

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser's (D) May 17 order lifting COVID-19 capacity restrictions on large business gatherings by June 11 made ATSC President Madeleine Noland “definitely more optimistic” her group's annual NextGen Broadcast Conference can be an in-person event Aug. 25-26 at the Reagan Building, Noland told us Monday. ATSC hopes to hold the conference as a hybrid event with a virtual component, she said.

Eighty-nine percent of the 950 ISPs in the FCC’s $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit program aren't selling connected devices to EBB-eligible households, per the FCC. Experts said in recent interviews it could hurt enrollment efforts. Providers can get $100 for providing a connected device so long as a customer makes a $10-$50 co-payment. Eligible devices are laptops, desktops and tablets.

Sonos has “never seen demand like we’re seeing right now” in its installed solutions business, said CEO Patrick Spence on a Thursday investor call. Demand combined with component constraints resulted in significant product delays in the channel: “Demand continues to outpace what we can ship.”

“Good cause exists” for the U.S. Court of International Trade to grant Section 301 sample-case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products leave to reply to DOJ’s opposition to the preliminary injunction plaintiffs seek to freeze liquidation of unliquidated customs entries from China with Lists 3 and 4A tariff exposure, said Akin Gump’s motion (in Pacer) filed Thursday in docket 1:21-cv-52.

Current chip-capacity shortfalls show “the highly efficient just-in-time supply chains that have served the semiconductor industry well for the past two decades may not be the most effective strategy going forward,” said Applied CEO Gary Dickerson on a fiscal Q2 earnings call Thursday. The company supplies semiconductor production equipment to chipmakers and OLED vapor-deposition products and services to Chinese panel makers, offering a bellwether of conditions in the semiconductor and display industries.

Imports sustain an estimated 21.4 million net U.S. jobs, including a “net positive number” of employees in every state, said a Trade Partnership Worldwide report, “Imports Work for American Workers,” commissioned by CTA, the National Retail Federation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and six other business and trade associations.

ProSource CEO David Workman referenced a “new normal,” on a Thursday state of the business webcast, saying many changes during the pandemic are likely here to stay. ProSource held the YouTube webcast in lieu of the in-person address given at the buying group’s spring summit, which wasn’t held this year due to COVID-19. It plans to return to Las Vegas for the summit next spring and hold an in-person meeting for Pro and Power members in San Antonio in August.