LG’s recent decision to license its webOS TV platform (see 2102240004) means more TV brands adopting Universal Electronics Inc.’s QuickSet technology, said UEI Monday: “As LG is expanding its footprint through TV manufacturing partners, it is including UEI’s QuickSet as the standard for device discovery and control.”

Paramount+ arrives in the "streaming space" March 4 “with real advantages that our competitors do not have,” said ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish in a virtual investor day presentation Wednesday. “As the streaming segment continues to evolve and mature, we believe consumers will increasingly be looking for the combination of genres that have long made linear television popular.” Paramount+ will be the first streaming service “that can do it at scale” in each major genre, from live sports to news to episodic TV to movies, “all in one place,” said Bakish. Some of the “biggest, most anticipated” new Paramount feature films will go exclusively to Paramount+ 30 to 45 days after their theatrical release, he said. All other new Paramount movies will appear on Paramount+ after their theatrical run, “some as early as 90 days,” he said. “New movies from MGM will also appear on Paramount+ during the pay one window.” All ViacomCBS studios also “are ramping up production to provide a continuous flow of new original movies made exclusively for Paramount+,” he said. New content “will be underpinned” by a library of more than 2,500 films from Paramount, Miramax “and a number of other leading Hollywood studios,” he said.

Xperi-TiVo 2020 revenue grew 21% to $1.15 billion, which “far exceeded” expectations, said Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner on a Wednesday call. Q4 revenue was $427.8 million vs. $90.4 million in the 2019 quarter, before the TiVo deal, the company reported. The company has a “cautious outlook” for 2021, said Chief Financial Officer Robert Andersen on a call (see Q4 materials here), with risk in the consumer segment. While cord cutting continues, IPTV deployments are increasing, said Kirchner. Q4 had a licensing deal with Comcast through 2031, Kirchner said. Xperi renewed and extended licenses with Cox, Sony and TCL in Q1. The company delayed to 2022 plans to separate the product and IP businesses, said Kirchner, citing impact from COVID-19 and the need for both businesses to be able to “stand on their own two feet” with “attractive growth stories.” He referenced “complex systems work” that has to be right to operate independently. Xperi stock closed down 3.7% at $21.21.

The mid-December SolarWinds cyberattack (see 2012170050) was “a wakeup call to all enterprises to modernize cybersecurity and will serve as a net incremental tailwind not just for us but also for the industry,” said Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora on a fiscal Q2 call Monday. The cybersecurity vendor fielded more than 1,000 “assessment requests” after the SolarWinds breach and completed more than 500, he said. “This resulted in more awareness of and focus on cybersecurity, which in all candor is the need of the hour, given the complete reliance of technology in these times.” The Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing on the breach Tuesday (see 2102230064).

Residents of Washington, D.C., spend the most in the U.S. on streaming, an average $52.59 monthly, reported Reviews.org Monday. New Mexicans spend the least, $39.58. The 54% of Americans with a cable subscription pay an average $107 monthly for service.

Personal data flows to the U.K. should be permitted because its privacy laws are essentially equivalent to the EU's, the European Commission said. It published draft "adequacy" decisions under the general data protection regulation and the law enforcement directive for review by the European Data Protection Board and EU governments. The EU "has shaped the UK's data protection regime for decades," but adequacy findings must be future-proof after Brexit, the EC said. The decisions would be valid for four years and renewable. Data flows between the European economic area and U.K. continue under an interim regime that expires June 30. The decision is good news because the U.K. "remains an important trade partner of the EU," said the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

The FCC should reconsider the FM portion of its order eliminating the radio duplication rule, said the American Association of Independent Music, Future of Music Coalition, REC Networks and musicFIRST Coalition in a conversation Jan. 28 with Commissioner Nathan Simington, per an e filing posted Thursday in docket 19-310. Duplicate programming on commonly owned FM stations harms viewpoint diversity, they said. The groups spoke with an aide to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on the same matter (see 2102090063).

Three North Koreans were indicted on charges of helping lead the November 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment cyberattack and an international campaign to steal more than $1 billion from companies and organizations, DOJ announced Wednesday (see 1809060044). Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il and Park Jin Hyok were charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud in an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. They created “multiple malicious cryptocurrency applications” and developed and fraudulently marketed a blockchain platform, DOJ alleged. They helped create WannaCry 2.0 ransomware in May 2017, the department alleged. “The scope of the criminal conduct by the North Korean hackers was extensive and long-running, and the range of crimes they have committed is staggering,” said acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Tracy Wilkison. Then-Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai used his CES 2015 speech to blast the SPE hackers as extortionists (see 1501050055).

TCL’s North American smartphone subsidiary became one of the largest importers to join the massive Section 301 litigation when it filed a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in the U.S. Court of International Trade. Like the roughly 3,500 other lawsuits inundating the court, TCT Mobile (US) seeks to get the List 3 and 4A tariffs on Chinese goods vacated and the duties refunded with interest. TCT's claims “accrued with each and every entry of products” with List 3 or 4A tariff exposure, said the company. The action was filed within two years of the date that TCT paid the duties, it said, satisfying the court’s statute of limitations requirement on the timeliness of complaints. “With a mobile handset product portfolio that includes TCL and Alcatel devices,” TCT is “the fourth largest handset manufacturer in North America,” it said. The complaint lists two dozen import categories for which TCT has List 3 or 4A tariff exposure. Most are for capital goods, packaging materials or components, including lithium-ion batteries. Finished smartphones that TCT imports from China under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8517.12.00 subheading are on List 4B. The Trump administration postponed indefinitely the 15% tariffs on List 4B goods from taking effect in December 2019 after reaching the phase one trade deal with China (see 1912130042).

Reviewing ASCAP and BMI music licensing consent decrees (see 2101150067) would be a waste of time and government resources, the MIC Coalition wrote President Joe Biden and congressional leaders Thursday. DOJ's closing its latest review of the decrees should be enough to conclude that leaving them in place “best serves competition,” the group wrote, quoting Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.