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Google's lobbying effort; Apple's cheaper iPhone plan; Android 10's launch

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Google's lobbying effort; Apple's cheaper iPhone plan; Android 10's launch

Top news

* Google LLC is lobbying to make amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act in an effort to seek exemptions for digital advertising, Bloomberg News reports, citing a document and people familiar with the matter. The law limits how Google and other companies collect and make money from user data online.

* Apple Inc. is considering plans to launch a lower-cost iPhone in 2020 in a bid to halt a decline in sales, the Nikkei Asia Review reports. While the company has yet to decide the name and price for the new iPhone, it is expected to be an updated version of the iPhone SE.

* Google rolled out its Android 10 operating system to Pixel phones on Sept. 3, according to an official blog post. A successor to Android 9.0 Pie, Android 10 will become available for other devices soon. The new Android OS supports the latest technologies such as 5G and foldable phones, along with other new features.

* Altitude Sports & Entertainment (US)'s distribution woes grew higher over the Labor Day weekend as the regional sports network did not reach new carriage agreements with Comcast Corp. or AT&T Inc.'s DIRECTV by Sept. 1 and has been unavailable to those distributors' video subscribers since then. The disconnect follows the network going dark to DISH Network Corp. subscribers when Altitude's prior deal with DISH expired Aug. 29.

Internet & OTT

* YouTube LLC removed more than 100,000 videos from the platform and terminated over 17,000 channels in the second quarter, according to an official blog post. The company added that the removal of total comments nearly doubled in the quarter to more than 500 million because of the updated hate speech policy.

* Netflix Inc. applied for a license to continue operating in Turkey, amid fears of censorship under the country's new online broadcasting rules, Reuters reported. As part of obtaining a new license, Netflix will reportedly set up a local unit in the country and pay 0.5% of revenue generated to the government.

* In other Netflix news, the streaming service picked up animated series "Centaurworld" from first-time showrunner Megan Nicole Dong. The 20-episode musical comedy, which comes from the company's in-house Netflix Animation, will be produced by Dong along with co-executive producer Dominic Bisignano.

* The majority of state attorneys general are preparing to begin an antitrust investigation into Google, The Washington Post reports. A group of attorneys general representing the effort are expected to make an announcement on the investigation Sept. 9. The report comes amid mounting regulatory pressure and competition concerns against big tech companies.

* Facebook Inc. is getting rid of its tag suggestions feature and replacing it with the face recognition feature, according to a company post. The new feature will be available to users who are newly joining Facebook or previously had the tag suggestions setting.

* Apple's upcoming streaming service Apple TV+ pulled the plug on "Bastards," an eight-episode series based on the dark Israeli drama starring Richard Gere, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The iPhone maker had placed a straight-to-series order for "Bastards" last year.

Technology

* AT&T promoted John Stankey to the newly created position of president and COO of the company, effective Oct. 1. Stankey will continue as CEO of WarnerMedia. In addition, AT&T named Jeff McElfresh CEO of AT&T Communications LLC, succeeding John Donovan, who announced his retirement, effective Oct. 1.

* In other AT&T news, AT&T Communications struck a new agreement with American Tower Corp. to streamline wireless network deployments on the latter's U.S. sites. The new multiyear agreement includes a focus on keeping up with mobile data usage while improving capacity and coverage across the entire country, especially in underserved rural areas, the companies said.

* Apple will consider hiring contractors who were part of its "grading" program for voice assistant Siri when work resumes in the coming months, Dublin's The Irish Times reports. The iPhone maker suspended the program over data privacy concerns.

* Apple is expected to introduce a sleep tracking feature with the next Apple Watch, TechCrunch.com reports. When enabled, the sleep tracking feature tracks a person's movements using the accelerometer.

Regulation

* The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau division rejected cable operator HolstonConnect's retransmission consent complaint against Nexstar Media Group Inc., Multichannel News reports. HolstonConnect filed the complaint in March, alleging that Nextar failed to negotiate in good faith for the carriage of Nexstar's ABC (US) affiliate WATE Knoxville and WJHL-TV Tri-Cities.

The day ahead

Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.

In Asia, the Hang Seng surged 3.90% to 26,523.23, and the Nikkei 225 ticked 0.12% higher to 20,649.14.

In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 gained 0.30% to 7,290.21, and the Euronext 100 was up 0.86% to 1,071.42.

On the macro front

The international trade report, the Redbook and the Beige Book are due out today.

Featured news

The Daily Dose Asia-Pacific: Huawei's source code; HTC, Alibaba investment in Bitmark; Xiaomi's share buyback: Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. offered to make its source code available to the Japanese government, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and HTC Corp. invested in a Taiwanese digital property rights startup, and Xiaomi Corp. revealed plans to buy back about HK$12 billion of its stock.

M&A Replay: Sony closes Olympus stake sale; China's HUYA to buy stake in MTG's esports unit: Sony completed the sale of its entire 5.03% stake in Olympus back to the medical equipment maker, while livestreaming platform HUYA struck a deal to buy a stake in Modern Times Group's esports business

Featured research

Economics of TV & Film: KBOX Week 34: Summer box office still trailing 2018 with one week to go: Weekly box office declined for the third week in a row, dropping 0.8% from $167.0 million in 2018 to $165.6 million in 2019. The summer season is also down 0.8% to $4.27 billion in 2019, compared to nearly $4.31 billion in 2018.

The Best Of: Kagan research and analysis, editor's picks: Presenting the editor's top picks from Kagan's exclusive research and analysis for the week ended Aug. 30.

Wireless Investor: Subs congestion per tower, MHz in Latin AmericaWireless Investor: US regulatory bumps in the road on the way to full performance 5G: Political strategies and economic policy waffling in the U.S. are giving pause to the telecom and technology companies trying to roll out 5G. The fate of Huawei and the future of the 5G technology supply chain are caught up in this web.

Wireless Investor: Subs congestion per tower, MHz in Latin America: Taking into account the 558.7 million subscriptions in the six mobile markets Kagan covers in Latin America, there were 3,194 average subs per tower and 177,651 average subs per MHz of spectrum as of year-end 2018.

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