Paul Gluckman

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco met Thursday with retail CEOs at the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) annual summit in Washington, where she cautioned them to be “mindful” about the “blended threat” of sophisticated "cyber-criminal groups" and "nation-state actors" forming “alliances of convenience,” said a DOJ readout Friday. She encouraged retailers to bolster their cyber defenses and "proactively develop" relationships with their local FBI field offices, it said. Monaco also addressed “organized retail crime” with the CEOs, including how U.S. attorneys across the country are bringing federal charges to punish and thwart “aggravated retail theft,” said DOJ. Retailers "appreciated the opportunity to discuss a number of high priority issues with Deputy AG Monaco, including cybersecurity," emailed RILA President Brian Dodge. "We appreciate the department’s attention to organized retail crime and the role they are playing investigating and prosecuting large cases," he said. RILA represents Best Buy, Target, Walmart and other big-box retailers.

Nearly two-thirds of telecom decision-makers in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific think it will take another one to three years before 5G technology becomes mainstream, a Jabil poll found. “Continued growth in 5G complexity and diversity creates a wealth of opportunities as well as obstacles for traditional telco service providers, equipment manufacturers and software developers,” said Emanuele Cavallaro, Jabil president-communications and networking.

Though the global outlook for online video subscriptions remains “very positive,” Netflix projections of losing 2 million more subscribers in Q2 (see 2204190066) is ample warning that online video services “cannot take growth for granted,” reported Omdia Monday. Netflix reports second-quarter results July 19.

BlackBerry’s sale of its “legacy” patent portfolio for $600 million (see 2201310001) remains on hold as buyer Catapult IP Innovations works on securing the financing, said CEO John Chen on an earnings call Thursday for its fiscal Q1 ended May 31. Because the sale has taken longer than expected, BlackBerry is “no longer under exclusivity” with Catapult, and “we are free to explore new options as they come our way,” he said. “We will provide more details as and when appropriate.” Under terms of the Catapult deal, BlackBerry will get back a license to the patents being sold, which mainly involve mobile devices, messaging, wireless networking and other businesses in which BlackBerry is no longer actively involved. “We are being approached by others” seeking to buy the legacy patents, said Chen. “I am not actively looking” for buyers “or starting from square one,” he said. “I want to make sure that the shareholder knows that we are not just stuck with one option,” he said. “We do expect to see, and we would like to see, the previously announced deal with Catapult” progress to completion, he said. “We have been getting calls, and we are now responding to the calls because now the exclusivity has expired.”

In the FCC’s further NPRM on ATSC 3.0, released Wednesday in docket 16-142 (see 2206220067), the commission seeks comment on the extent to which patent licensing may be “inhibiting the development of 3.0 TV sets or other 3.0 equipment by non-patent holders.” Comments are due 30 days, replies 60 days, after the NPRM is published in the Federal Register.

The 50-50 Charter-Comcast joint venture to develop a national streaming platform on branded 4K streaming devices and smart TVs (see 2206170008) brings together two “legacy cable providers” that have “an aptitude for the aggregation side,” plus lots of “interactions with consumers who are at the point where they're considering video products,” Charter Chief Financial Officer Jessica Fischer told a Credit Suisse investors conference Wednesday. “When you click that together with what really Comcast has created, it's a world-class platform that we can deploy fully across a national footprint,” she said. “Our opportunity to sort of reach scale there and to do so pretty quickly is very good.” Charter’s cable subscriptions have “shrunk more slowly” than those of “some of our peers” because “we're always looking to provide the packages that consumers want,” said Fischer. The offering with Comcast “enables us to sort of do that even more broadly, whether consumers want linear, whether they want streaming, whether they want skinny, whether they want fully loaded,” she said. “We're going to be in a place to pull together what it is that consumers are looking for.”

It’s unclear whether tech companies that challenge New York’s new right-to-repair legislation in the courts would sue right away or wait closer to the effective date a year after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signs the measure into law before taking action, said a lawyer familiar with the legislation. “There’s nothing in the constitution that says states can’t regulate interstate commerce,” said the lawyer on background. “It just gives that authority to the Congress and by implication, states are not allowed to go outside of their boundaries” by impairing or creating an undue burden on interstate commerce, said the lawyer. The New York bill was written carefully to say that it applies only to products or equipment sold in New York or to repair providers that operate in New York, said the attorney. But there's already talk among right-to-repair advocates about the wider-ranging interstate commerce implications of the New York law, including those who say nothing would stop a consumer or independent repair shop from buying the parts from a New York entity and having them shipped to California (see 2206060031). Other advocates have cautioned that a legal challenge to the law is a virtual certainty. CTA, then doing business as the Consumer Electronics Association, went to court in 2009, seeking an injunction against New York City’s e-waste law on grounds it illegally exceeded the authority of the city to regulate interstate commerce by violating the Dormant Commerce Clause doctrine of constitutional law (see 0907280100). The complaint argued the program violated the doctrine by imposing burdens on interstate commerce that far outweighed the local benefits to city residents. The suit was withdrawn about two years later when New York enacted a statewide e-waste law that superseded the door-to-door collections require in the city law. CTA didn’t respond to queries seeking comment on its ambitions to challenge New York’s right-to-repair law in the courts.

How well ATSC 3.0 performs commercially “is up to us in this room and the companies we represent,” CTA CEO Gary Shapiro told ATSC’s NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday in Detroit. “It could be a total flop, or it could be a great success,” he said. He told the conference broadcasters will need to “promote the heck” out of 3.0 for it to become a commercial success (see 2206090065).

For ATSC 3.0 to become a commercial success, broadcasters “have to promote the heck out of it,” CTA CEO Gary Shapiro told the NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday in Detroit. Shapiro spoke in person on a panel with NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt, who participated via Zoom because, he said, his wife tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday. Shapiro said he tested positive a few weeks ago.

Good cause exists for the International Trade Commission to grant Dish Network’s unopposed motion for a two-week deadline extension to June 29 to move to limit or quash the June 3 subpoenas served on it by Broadband iTV, Dish said in a Wednesday filing in docket 337-TA-1315. The ITC opened a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into BBiTV allegations that cable set-tops from Comcast, Charter and Altice infringe four VOD and electronic program guide patents (see 2204280027). The extension will give BBiTV and Dish additional time “to engage in discussions in an attempt to resolve any disputes relating to the scope of the subpoenas,” said Dish.