Verizon's 5G expansion plans; Intel's quest to reclaim market lead

The Daily Digest highlights top news and exclusive insights on the technology, media and telecommunications sectors.

Top News

Verizon CEO says 2021 will be a 'big year' for 5G deployment

Verizon Communications Inc. Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said the company plans to add 5G home broadband services to over 20 additional U.S. cities in 2021, while nearly doubling its number of 5G ultra-wideband locations across the country.

Intel faces years of struggle if it wants to catch, surpass rival AMD

There are few shortcuts that would let Intel Corp. catch up to rivals in chip manufacturing, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. may be too busy to handle outsourcing for a customer the size of Intel, analysts said.

Chart of the day

Data Dispatch: Broadband sub growth to again boost big cable companies in Q4'20 – analysts

Broadcast

NFL conference championship games score audience gains

FOX (US) posted a nearly 5% gain to 44.8 million average viewers for the Tampa Bay-Green Bay NFC battle, while CBS (US) viewership improved 2% to 41.9 million with Kansas City's win over Buffalo in the AFC contest.

Ratings & Research

S&P upgrades Netflix ratings on 2020 operating performance

S&P Global Ratings upgraded Netflix Inc.'s ratings to BB+ from BB, expecting the company to "maintain strong operating metrics for the next few years and generate sustained free operating cash flow potentially in 2021."

Capital Markets

Salesforce starts consent solicitation for Slack's senior notes

The move is in line with Salesforce.com Inc.'s proposed acquisition of business communications platform Slack Technologies Inc.

Cyberrisk

Norway to fine Grindr $11.7M over EU privacy violations

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority initially concluded that Grindr LLC illegally shared its users' data with several third parties.

Earnings & Guidance

Declines in wireless equipment revenues, legacy wireline products impact Verizon

Verizon's total operating revenues for the fourth quarter of 2020 were $34.69 billion, down 0.2% year over year from $34.78 billion.

M&A

Glacier to acquire GVIC's class B voting, class C nonvoting shares

Glacier Ventures International Corp., or Glacier Media, struck a definitive agreement to acquire all class B common voting shares and class C nonvoting shares that it does not already own in GVIC Communications Corp.

Personnel

Sinclair appoints chief compliance officer

Jeffrey Lewis joined Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. in a newly created role of chief compliance officer.

Kagan Research

Global Multichannel: Fiber pushes speeds in Eastern Europe further up

Connection speeds have been rising constantly in recent years, with Hungary leading the pack with an average speed nearing 100 Mbps.

Global Multichannel: CEE broadband revenues overview

The fixed broadband revenues in most of the six Central Eastern European markets in our analysis are rising in local currency terms, still driven by subscriber growth, whereas average revenues per user remained stable.

Multichannel Trends: 2021 outlook: SWOT analysis underlines cable robustness to tackle next decade

The top 10 public MSOs grew overall cable revenues 3.2% year over year in the first three quarters of 2020 to boast a weighted average EBITDA margin of 40.7%.

Technology: Q3'20 FTTH revenues flat YOY; DSL declines persist

Worldwide third-quarter fiber-to-the-home, FTTH, revenues were flat year over year at 1.3%, while DSL revenues declined 29% as operators in almost every global region migrate from copper/DSL broadband technologies toward FTTH or "deep fiber" solutions.