SAN JOSE, Calif. - Pay-TV distributors should play up the technology included in set-top boxes in their marketing so consumers assign some value to the devices, Dish Chief Marketing Officer Ira Bahr said at a conference Thursday. Calling the set-top the “worst category name in the history of consumer electronics products,” Bahr said most consumers assign no value to the devices, and react harshly to fees associated with them. “We, ourselves and as an industry, have failed to create any distinction between what is a box feature and what is a service feature,” he said. “We're introducing a lot of features and people are yawning.” Pay-TV’s esteem among consumers has fallen when compared to coveted product along the lines of Apple’s iPhone to something little different from a power company, he said: “Many of these problems would be ameliorated if we could get to a place where people ascribe some value” to the box.

The California Office of Administrative Law late Wednesday approved the state’s TV energy standards, dashing CE industry hopes of seeing the regulation stalled on procedural grounds. Industry had contended that the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) procedures in adopting the regulations were flawed. Industry is weighing various options, including litigation, sources said. Accusing the CEA of “misleading” other states about the fate of California’s TV regulations, environmental activists said OAL clearance would provide added impetus to efforts to get similar measures adopted in other states next year. The California standards go into effect in two phases -- January 2011 and January 2013.

Panasonic ushered in what it called “the next wave of 3D production” Wednesday with the availability of the AG-3DA1 Full HD 3D pro camcorder, one of the 3D cameras being used by CBS Sports at the U.S. Open, which opened Monday in Flushing, N.Y., and concludes next week. CBS is using the $21,000 dual-lens camcorder for the first-ever telecast of 3D tennis, which will be beamed this weekend and next to DirecTV subscribers over the Panasonic-sponsored n3D channel. At a press conference at the National Tennis Center touting the company’s “end-to-end 3D strategy,” Panasonic made several 3D announcements covering business partnerships, product news and industry initiatives as part of its goal to establish a leadership position in 3D.

Kobo e-reader sales were “well ahead of” Borders Group’s “expectations on our pre-orders,” while sales of the Aluratek and Velocity Micro e-readers it recently started carrying “have also exceeded our expectations,” Borders CEO Mike Edwards said on an earnings call. But, like rival Amazon with the Kindle, he wouldn’t provide specific e-reader sales data.

BERLIN -- In a veiled reference to CES, a top executive at IFA organizer Messe Berlin said his show now surpasses “our American competitor” in the one metric that matters most, net square meters of exhibit space. That declaration, by Messe Berlin Chief Operating Officer Christian Goke, was stunning because CEA officials long have accused IFA organizers of inflating their estimates of exhibit space they sell by counting areas of the expansive Messe Berlin fairgrounds that hold no exhibits.

BERLIN -- Panasonic and Sony both used last year’s IFA show to declare their intentions of staking leadership positions in consumer 3D technology. A year later, at back-to-back IFA news conferences Wednesday, both companies announced what they called “a full suite” of 3D product introductions to reach European stores in time for Christmas, albeit with few showstopper surprises.

The Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships will push for state TV energy standards in 2011 if there’s evidence that the “market hasn’t really moved” in terms of efficiency gains from levels early this year, said David Lis, the group’s appliance standards program manager. TV energy bills that the group supported this year either were defeated in committee or were stalled in a handful of states. Making things a little complicated for state TV standards is the U.S. Department of Energy’s move to develop federal standards for TV energy use.

Crutchfield opened a sub-10,000-square-foot “lab” store in Charlottesville, Va., to be a test bed for future retail concepts that include allowing customers to try out speaker systems based on the listening environment, Rick Souder, executive vice president of merchandising, told us.

Despite a 26 percent increase in Q2 global TV shipments year-over-year, to 56.2 million units, the North American market suffered a 3 percent decline, DisplaySearch said. The North American drop followed a weak 1 percent increase in unit sales Q1, the research company said. After triple-digit growth in 2009, the China market cooled to 31 percent growth year-over-year, the report said, because of holiday season sales weaker than forecast.

As e-reader promotions and pricing heat up, there may be little room at retail beyond the Kindle, Nook and iPad, said dealers we polled. Sales of Sony’s e-readers have slowed, and Staples said Wednesday it was adding Amazon’s Kindle in its more than 1,500 stores. Staples had carried the Sony e-readers in a display near the PC peripheral section. One of the early sellers of Sony e-readers, Crutchfield, saw sales slow once the product became widely available, said Rick Souder, executive vice president of merchandising.