This pandemic brought “this dramatic acceleration of people moving to a digital lifestyle,” PayPal CEO Dan Schulman told a J.P. Morgan investor conference virtually Thursday. How people work, play, pay and consume their entertainment -- “all of that is moving to the mobile phone,” and people “are staying there at elevated levels,” he said. The new smartphone “super app” that PayPal launched days ago, featuring a new two-day “early access” direct deposit component, was a “substantial upgrade to where we were from a consumer perspective,” he said. But it’s only the first “iteration” of an app PayPal plans to improve with each passing quarter, he said. Any company like PayPal that wants to be “a major financial services player” needs to be “world-class at regulatory compliance,” said Schulman. “We operate in 200 different jurisdictions around the world,” under 67 “different regulatory frameworks,” he said. It has “great engaged relationships with all the regulators,” he said. “If there are emerging fintechs who think they can play outside the regulatory boundaries, they're wrong.”

BlackBerry is making “significant progress” in negotiations to sell the portion of its patent portfolio involving mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking -- “areas of business that we are no longer actively involved with,” said CEO John Chen on a call Wednesday for fiscal Q2 ended Aug. 31. BlackBerry and the potential buyer reached preliminary agreement on “many of the key terms,” he said. “We expect to execute a definitive agreement this quarter.” Q2 licensing revenue was only $15 million because patent “monetization activities remain limited while negotiations for the potential sale continue,” said Chief Financial Officer Steve Rai. Neither he nor Chen identified the possible buyer. BlackBerry made the decision five years ago to exit handset development and manufacturing in favor of a royalty-bearing model that licenses the brand and intellectual property to other smartphone makers (see 1609280006). The stock closed 11% higher Thursday at $10.60.

The O-RAN Alliance and two of its members said they resolved issues about possible ramifications of the U.S. decision to list three Chinese alliance members on the Commerce Department's entity list. Equipment vendors Nokia and Ericsson had halted activities with the alliance over concerns about possible penalties (see 2109030053). The alliance said Sept. 13 its board "approved changes to O-RAN participation documents and procedures." It's up to individuals members "to make their own evaluation of these changes, [but] O-RAN is optimistic that the changes will address the concerns." The alliance didn't comment on what the changes were. Ericsson told us Tuesday it's now "satisfied" the alliance "found a solution that resolves the issue." Nokia said Wednesday it's "delighted" the alliance's work can now continue and will resume its technical contributions.

Disney “called it exactly right” when it shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic last year to the three-pronged strategy of releasing some feature films direct to theaters, others exclusively through Disney+, and still others as a hybrid Premier Access option through theaters and on Disney+ streaming, CEO Bob Chapek told a Goldman Sachs conference virtually Tuesday. Amid the market's "vast uncertainties," deciding which film goes to which channel is akin to working a stick shift, he said. The three-pronged distribution approach has “locked in” some “flexibility,” said Chapek. “We love theatrical exhibition. We’ve seen the power of that the last several decades.” But direct-to-consumer streaming is “strategically the most important thing our company is doing,” he said. The studio has a slate of upcoming movies conducive to “very short” theatrical exhibition “windows,” said Chapek, citing Encanto, the animated musical debuting Nov. 24 in theaters and 30 days later on Disney+. Its “relatively short theatrical window” will capture “99.9% of the viewers that would go see that movie anyway,” and create a buzz for those who want to watch it a month later on Disney+, he said. The media company is interested in sports betting, as are its partner sports leagues, the CEO said. In-game wagering is “definitely a place we want to be,” said Chapek. “It’s not something we would do necessarily solo in the gambling area, but we believe that our brands have the degrees of freedom to enable us to expand our presence there, and I think you’re starting to see us take some pretty big steps along that way.”

Six more Democrats are co-sponsoring legislation that would levy a performance royalty on radio stations playing music on terrestrial radio (see 2108120059), ex-Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., chairman of musicFIRST, told reporters Monday. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, Miss.; House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Calif.; Brad Sherman, Calif.; Thomas Suozzi, N.Y.; Jim Cooper, Tenn.; and Brian Higgins, N.Y., are sponsoring the American Music Fairness Act (HR-4130). MusicFIRST released an August poll of 1,455 U.S. adults, in which 54% said it’s “unfair” that “artists are not paid for radio airplay.” NAB, which supports a rival resolution, the Local Radio Freedom Act, responded to the poll: “Not only would a performance fee upend the century-long symbiotic relationship between radio and the music industry, but it would devastate thousands of radio stations across the country,” NAB CEO Gordon Smith said.

The royalty rates for sound recordings via streaming commercial subscription services is .0026 cent per performance for 2021, while for commercial nonsubscription services it's .0021 cents per performance, the copyright royalty judges said in a final determination Monday. Those rates for 2022-2025 will be adjusted using the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, they said. The rate for noncommercial webcasters is $1,000 annually for each station or channel for all webcast transmissions totaling not more than 159,140 aggregate tuning hours (ATH) in a month, for each year in the rate term. If a noncommercial webcaster makes total transmissions in excess of 159,140 ATH in any month on any individual channel or station, the fees for the transmissions it makes on that channel or station in excess of 159,140 ATH will be .0021 cent per performance in 2021. Those rates also will be adjusted going through 2025 using the index, they said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held over every item from Wednesday’s markup, including S-1787, the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act (see 2108100045). The committee spent several hours Wednesday in a hearing on the FBI’s handling of the investigation of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics doctor convicted of sexual abuse.

Innovators like Sonos “should be able to trust the courts” to protect their intellectual property from companies like Google “that attempt to free-ride” off its “high-quality engineering and hard work,” six Grammy- and Oscar-winning sound engineers and producers told the International Trade Commission Monday in docket 337-TA-1191 (login required). Google violated Section 337 of the 1930 Tariff Act for importing smart speakers and other devices found to infringe five Sonos multiroom audio patents, said a notice of initial determination (ID) signed Aug. 13 by ITC Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock (see 2108130080). A final ITC determination on Bullock’s recommended import ban of the infringing Google products is due mid-December. Google and Sonos filed petitions for review of Bullock’s decision, with Google alleging the infringement findings were “predicated on misunderstandings of the plain meaning” of the patents, and Sonos arguing the ID could permit Google to “continue importing every single product by making trivial software changes” in the accused goods. Prominent engineers and producers Tom Elmhirst, Nigel Godrich, Noah Goldstein, Chris Jenkins, Emily Lazar and Manny Marroquin “have collectively been working with Sonos to tune its speakers for over five years,” they said. “During our collaboration we have observed Sonos continually pushing the boundaries of home audio and leading in the space,” they said. “Sonos invented multi-room wireless audio, and we appreciate how Sonos listens to our feedback and incorporates it into their products. This is unusual for tech companies, which typically prefer to ‘engineer’ everything in-house, without asking creative professionals like us for our input.”

HD Radio expanded to motorbikes, said parent Xperi Monday. HD Radio receivers are available on the digital dash display of the 2022 BMW R 18 Transcontinental. The system, for AM and FM, broadcasts a digital signal over traditional radio frequencies, allowing for up to three additional channels of separate audio programming, along with improved “static-fee” sound quality, emergency alerts and metadata. HD Radio receivers have had an estimated 85-plus billion listening hours in cars since 2005; over 95% of all Americans are able to receive an HD Radio signal, Xperi said.

The FCC opened a help desk to answer questions on the $1.9 billion program for removing Huawei and ZTE equipment from carrier networks, the Wireline Bureau said Friday. The FCC has an Oct. 29 target for opening the reimbursement application window.