The House Commerce Committee voted 53-2 Wednesday to advance bipartisan, bicameral privacy legislation to the floor (see 2207190040). Some California Democrats criticized the strength of the bill, saying they may not support the measure on the floor. Some questioned whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will bring the legislation up.

If there was a “single thing” in Q2 that spared Netflix half the 2 million net subscriber losses it projected in April (see 2207190077), it was May's debut of the fourth season of the science fiction horror series Stranger Things, said co-CEO Reed Hastings on a quarterly earnings webcast Tuesday. “We're talking about losing 1 million instead of losing 2 million, so our excitement is tempered by the less-bad results,” he said.

Consumer tech products imported from China bore more than $32 billion in Section 301 tariff exposure between July 2018, when the first of the tariffs took effect, and December 2021, without dissuading most U.S. importers to abandon Chinese sourcing, said a newly released CTA report produced with Trade Partnership Worldwide. A CTA spokesperson said Wednesday the association released the report to coincide with this week's International Trade Commission public hearing as part of its Tariff Act Section 332 investigation (332-591) into the economic impact of the Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs on U.S. industries.

Vizio is still evaluating 8K TV and ATSC 3.0, focusing instead on improvements to 4K TV, said John Schindler, senior vice president-product management, on a recent webinar briefing that was embargoed until Tuesday. “There’s still a lot of innovation left in 4K,” he said.

Netflix Q2 paid net subscriber losses reached 970,000, roughly half of the 2 million losses it had forecast in April (see 2204190066), reported the company in its quarterly shareholder letter Tuesday. The Q2 losses were up 385% from the 200,000 losses it sustained in Q1.

Cable operators are moving increasingly toward acting as over-the-top video service aggregators, often as a way of replacing the lost customer stickiness due to ongoing cord-cutting of traditional linear video packages. Cable executives, analysts and others tell us that probably will someday replace the linear programming bundle, though not soon.

The Senate planned to vote Tuesday evening on moving forward with a chips package that has broad bipartisan support. Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, helped negotiate with Republicans, and House leadership and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo remained in close contact with negotiators, members of Congress said.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr's staff is scheduling a meeting with TikTok representatives after the popular Chinese social media app requested the appointment amid scrutiny over the company’s ties to Beijing. Carr said in an interview Thursday he remains focused on TikTok’s data practices and will push for the federal government to take action.

The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is reviewing the types of semiconductors and chipmaking equipment that can be exported to China to determine whether it needs to tighten those restrictions, said BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez. Speaking during a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday, Estevez said the agency is considering tightening the “cut-off point” of semiconductors that are subject to strict export licensing requirements.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is telling senators to expect a floor vote as early as Tuesday to start moving a smaller chips package that would include, at a minimum, emergency chips funding and an investment tax credit for semiconductor manufacturing (see 2207130053), a source familiar with discussions told us Thursday.