Vizio smart TV shipments fell 31% in Q2 to 1.1 million sets, driving device revenue 9% lower than a year earlier to $335.6 million even as the Platform+ business had 146% revenue growth to $65.5 million. Vizio generated more advertising revenue in first-half 2021 than 2020 total, said Chief Financial Officer Adam Townsend on a call Wednesday (see Q2 materials here). Industrywide “supply and logistical challenges” contributed to shipment decline, as did tough comparisons with Q2 a year earlier as the COVID-19 took hold in the U.S., said Townsend. “The good news is, consumer demand remains robust and average unit prices continue to shift higher.” Amid the pandemic, it’s hard to predict “what will happen next” in the supply chain, said CEO William Wang. The semiconductor and components shortage situation is “getting better,” he said. With the delta variant “unpredictable, we don’t really know what’s going to happen,” he said.

Pointing to Tuesday's 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in NCTA's challenge of Maine's public, educational and government access channel carriage provisions, state Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) said community-run TV stations “are a priceless public resource,” and the ruling "will go far in ensuring their continuing vitality by protecting against marginalization by cable television operators." Judges Sandra Lynch, David Barron and Allison Burroughs, in an opinion (docket 20-1431) penned by Barron, agreed with a lower court that the Cable Act doesn't preempt state law provisions. NCTA said Wednesday it's reviewing the opinion. Public Knowledge Legal Director John Bergmayer said states “have the authority to enact consumer protection laws and have stepped up to promote privacy, broadband affordability, and net neutrality” and the ruling “should give state lawmakers some assurance that industry lawsuits are often grasping at straws.” PK filed an amicus brief.

Eugene, Oregon's petition for rehearing of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' partial rejection of a consolidated challenge to the FCC's 2019 cable local franchise authority order (see 2107120060) was denied. In an order Tuesday (docket 19-4161, in Pacer), Clerk Deborah Hunt said the original panel of Judges Raymond Kethledge, Richard Griffin and David McKeague reviewed the petition and decided the issues raised in the petition "were fully considered upon the original submission and decision of the cases." No judge asked for a vote on rehearing en banc when the petition was circulated to the full 6th Circuit, Hunt said. Eugene outside counsel Tim Lay of Spiegel and McDiarmid emailed that the 6th Circuit action is "frustrating because it ducks our arguments" about the Oregon Supreme Court's contrary holding and avoids explaining how it's consistent with 6th Circuit precedent. He said a Supreme Court petition for writ of certiorari "certainly will be considered."

Discovery+ has “strong traction,” with 130% year-over-year revenue growth and 17 million paid direct-to-consumer subscribers globally at the end of Q2, said Discovery CEO David Zaslav on an earnings call Tuesday. “We are really pleased with the cadence and monetization” of discovery+, “notwithstanding the seasonally slower summer period, only exacerbated by the post-COVID reopening,” he said. The company had 13 million discovery+ subscribers in Q1.

Fiscal Q2 revenue in Harmonic’s video segment was up 34% year over year, including 68% growth in streaming software-as-a-service revenue, said CEO Patrick Harshman on a quarterly call Monday. The quarter ended July 2. The scaling of “existing customer usage,” plus new customers, drove the streaming revenue growth, he said. “The streaming market continues to grow,” and “streaming brand awareness” keeps improving, said Harshman. “We're pleased to see continued resurgence in broadband project activity worldwide.” Revenue growth “reflected overall broadcast market resilience and happened with nearly no 5G bandwidth reclamation contribution, as Q2 was between 5G-driven projects," he said. The stock soared 23% Tuesday, closing at $10.63.

MVPDs pushing consumers toward apps rather than set-top boxes could help Universal Electronics Inc. as it shifts from remote controls to chips and embedded software, Colliers' Steven Frankel wrote investors Monday. UEI has been “battling headwinds from the [COVID-19] pandemic, a mix shift from finished remotes to higher margin software/chips and the de-emphasis of some lower margin products,” said the analyst. UEI reports Q2 Thursday.

Brightcove’s better-than expected Q2 revenue was tempered by disappointing Q3 guidance, Colliers analyst Steven Frankel wrote investors Thursday. Brightcove reported a 7% bump in revenue to $51.5 million Wednesday. It gave Q3 guidance of $50.5 million-$51.5 million, reflecting continued fears of media churn in the second half, said Frankel. Potential for additional churn led the company to lower full-year mid-point revenue guidance by $2 million, he said. Consistent with expectations, the company lost “another” media customer in Q2, which Frankel said wasn’t a competitive loss, noting some of Brightcove’s larger media customers that run on its cloud product “are pivoting to in-house,” do-it-yourself solutions. New and renewed customers in the quarter included Black News Channel and SoftBank. Shares fell 14% Thursday to close at $11.31.

Some 72% of consumers report regularly using multiple platforms to watch video, according to Parks Associates. It reported Tuesday that about 40% view video on all tested platforms: TV and TV-connected devices, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and PCs.

Altice's Altice Mobile service is becoming Optimum Mobile, said the cable operator Friday. Altice said the name change is the start of a plan to align all its operations under its Optimum brand. The first of the moves takes effect Sunday.

The push into games is in “the early stages,” said Netflix's Q2 shareholder letter. Games will be included free in subscriptions at no additional cost, with initial focus on mobile, it said Tuesday. “Since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games,” it said. Mobile is “a great platform for games,” said Greg Peters, chief operating officer and chief product officer. “It’s very mature. It’s got great enabling technology, tools, a great developer community, and the vast majority of our members have phones that are capable of great gameplay experiences.” The video streamer beat its global net subscriber additions target by 54% in Q2 (see 2107200068), and it’s forecasting 59% year-over-year net adds growth in Q3.