Nintendo was hurt in Q1 ended June 30 by declines in DS hardware and software shipments, as well in as Wii software demand outside the Americas and Japan, it said Thursday. The company swung to a 25.2 billion yen loss from a 42.3 billion yen profit in Q1 last year, while revenue fell 25.6 percent to 118.6 billion yen. Operating profit tumbled 42.2 percent to 23.3 billion yen. Q1 earnings were the worst that the company has reported in the console cycle that started when the Wii was introduced in 2006.

British Sky Broadcasting will begin to offer its first 3D channel, 3D Sky, in October, the company said Thursday. The channel won’t require a set-top box upgrade and will be free to BSkyB customers already subscribed to the company’s top HD and channels package, it said. The immediate financial effect on the U.K. direct broadcast satellite provider remains unclear, CEO Jeremy Darroch said on an earnings teleconference.

Pointing to “an incredible surge in orders for Blu-ray 3D titles in the second quarter into the third quarter Q3” for 3D Blu-ray titles due in the market by year-end, Bob Michaels, Technicolor’s vice president of worldwide DVD services, told Consumer Electronics Daily that the ball is in retailers’ court to manage demand for the next-gen format. “The manufacturers have released TVs and Blu-ray players, and broadcasters have started showing 3D channels,” he said. “The next shoe that needs to drop is what’s going to happen at a retail level. How are they going to position this product?” Observing “a lot of Catch-22 going on,” he said content providers are concerned about delivering titles without a consumer base to support the rollout.

Sony swung to a $753 million operating profit in its first quarter, ended June 30, based on the yen exchange that day, from a significant operating loss a year earlier. The consumer, professional and devices (CPD) and the networked products and service (NPD) businesses contributed to the improvement, the company said. Sales in CPD were up 7 percent to $9.9 billion mainly due to unit sales of LCD TVs, Sony said. Despite a 32 percent rise in sales to $3.6 billion for NPS, which includes Vaio PCs and the videogame business, the segment reported an operating loss of $43 million. That was blamed on unfavorable foreign-exchange rates and an increase in sales and administrative expenses from increased sales. Revenue rose from increased unit sales of PCs and cost reductions on PS3 hardware, Sony said.

The Harmony remote category was the “fastest growing retail product category” for peripheral maker Logitech in Q1 ended June 30, CEO Gerald Quindlen said in an earnings call. The company reported improved revenue and swung to a $20 million profit, 11 cents per share, from a $37 million loss, 21 cents, in Q1 last year. Total revenue increased 47 percent to $479 million.

Arris Group will start field trials of its IP home gateway this year, and market tests involving subscribers are due in early 2011, James Lakin, president of advanced technology and services, told us. The devices entered customer testing labs for evaluation in Q2 and could emerge for pilot production in early Q4, Lakin said.

Kodak’s Q2 results were hurt by price compression on its low-cost digital cameras, the ongoing transition away from its once-core film business, and other factors, the company said Wednesday, reporting weaker revenue than Q2 a year ago and a larger-than-expected loss. An 11 percent decline to $1.57 billion in Q2 revenue was caused in part by a “negative price mix” in Kodak’s Digital Cameras and Devices business as sales of “lower-end digital cameras” increased, Chief Financial Officer Frank Sklarsky said on an earnings call. Price cutting on low-cost models was due to “competitive pressures,” said CEO Antonio Perez.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A coming federal appeals court ruling offers hope for clearing up a legal morass involving the “first sale doctrine,” which defines the rights that the Copyright Act gives those who lawfully acquire entertainment and other works, experts said. But there’s no telling how long the three 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges who heard arguments last month will take to decide the cases, said lawyers, including participants in the cases, late Tuesday at a Bar Association of San Francisco seminar. The cases concern applying the first-sale doctrine to the World of Warcraft videogame and to productivity software and promotional music on CDs. In any event, buyers of purely digital works, not on physical media, can’t make use of the right as it’s written, the speakers said.

Silicon Image reported second-quarter earnings of $2 million, $0.03 a share, on revenue of $44.6 million that beat projections for the quarter despite an “industrywide supply-chain constraint,” CEO Camillo Martino said Tuesday on a conference call. The company credited the results to an increase in production of digital TVs, citing DisplaySearch forecasts of a 28 percent increase in 2010 DTV shipments, to 204 million units. Silicon Image said its market share has increased from expansion into the mainstream TV business and from sales of audio/video receivers and Blu-ray players, especially in Japan. A Japanese government incentive program to promote energy-efficient products has increased demand for ICs, Martino said.

LCD panel manufacturers are slowing production after global LCD inventory grew to 18.5 weeks in Q2 from 16 weeks the previous quarter, AU Optronics and Corning executives told analysts Wednesday in separate conference calls. The inventory bulge was fueled a decline in U.S. TV sales and a build up of inventory in China, company officials said.