The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated antidumping (AD) duty investigations of certain frozen and canned warmwater shrimp from Brazil, Ecuador, India, Thailand, China, and Vietnam.
HD-DVD proponents NEC and Toshiba disavowed any responsibility for the Wall St. Journal report that the Justice Dept. (DoJ) had begun a preliminary investigation into the rival Blu-ray camp (CED Jan 27 p1). A Tokyo-based spokeswoman for Toshiba said her company had no advance knowledge of the report and knew nothing about any DoJ probe. Similar replies were given by NEC’s point man on HD-DVD, Ryoichi (Rick) Hayatsu, and by Hideyuki Irie, dir. of the Office of the Secy. at the DVD Forum. All declined further comment. Meanwhile, an editing error in our report resulted in a quote attributed to a Thomson spokesman being transcribed incorrectly. The Thomson spokesman said his company, like the other Blu-ray members, had had no contact with the Justice Dept. He said Sony “has been the lead company with Blu-ray.” Although Thomson is a member of the Blu-ray Founders group, the spokesman said, the company “is also involved with other next-generation optical disc proposals.”
The International Trade Administration (ITA) frequently issues notices on antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued and neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period.
If the Justice Dept. (DoJ) has opened a preliminary probe into the activities of the Blu-ray Disc Founders (BDF)group, as the Wall St. Journal reported Mon., it’s news to Blu-ray companies Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Thomson and Zenith, their representatives told Consumer Electronics Daily.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the final results of its changed circumstances review of the countervailing (CV) duty order on carbon and certain alloy steel wire rod from Canada. As a result, the ITA is revoking this CV duty order for entries of subject merchandise with a time of entry on or after February 8, 2002.
The 2 top-rented videogames in the U.S. continued to be Need for Speed: Underground from Electronic Arts (EA) and True Crime: Streets of L.A. from Activision, both for PS2, Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Jan. 18 showed Thurs. Rentrak said the EA game earned an additional $237,551 in its 9th week of availability for $4.19 million to date, while Activision’s game earned an additional $226,341 in its 11th week for $3.88 million total. PS2 continued to dominate the rental chart, with every game in the top 10 for Sony Computer Entertainment’s console. EA again had the most titles in the top 10, this time with 4. Its 3 other games were Madden NFL 2004 at #3 (up 6 in its 23rd week, earning $224,742 and $6.18 million total), Medal of Honor: Rising Sun at #6 (down 3 in its 10th week, $135,388 and $4.68 million), The Sims: Bustin’ Out at #9 (down 1 in its 5th week, $125,257 and $1.11 million). Activision again had one other game in the top 10: Tony Hawk’s Underground at #5 (down one in its 12th week, $154,640 and $4.19 million). Rounding out the top 10 were Atari’s Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 at #4 (up one in its 7th week), Sony’s SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs at #7 again in its 11th week, THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain at #8 (up 7 in its 12th week), Take-Two Interactive’s Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne at #10 (up 8 in its 7th week).
EchoStar subscribers will be able to view the Super Bowl on CBS Feb. 1 due to a court order moving the preliminary injunction hearing to Feb. 27. EchoStar received a temporary restraining order (TRO) a week ago after Viacom threatened to pull its programming from Dish Network this month. The order, handed down Thurs. from the U.S. Dist. Court, Oakland, partially granted a motion from Viacom that asked for a scheduling conference prior to today’s (Fri.’s) hearing and a continuance of the hearing. Judge Claudia Wilken said the TRO would remain in effect until March 3. In its motion to the court, Viacom asked for the continuance to permit a “normal preliminary injunction discovery of the evidence and declarants relied upon by the parties and would have the advantage of pushing resolution of this matter past the Super Bowl, an issue which Viacom has always viewed as a superfluous distraction in this litigation.” EchoStar’s response to Viacom opposed the continuance unless it continued through May to allow EchoStar “a fair opportunity to discover facts known to Viacom and others relating to such defense.” Viacom said it was pleased with the judge’s order although it still felt a court hearing wasn’t the proper venue for the discussion: “We put a very fair offer on the table a week ago and have had no response from EchoStar, which continues to show more concern with legal maneuvers than providing more choice to their subscribers.”
In its 2nd full week of availability, MGM’s Out of Time became the #1-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Jan. 18 showed Thurs. Rentrak said the title earned $5.85 million on DVD in the week for a total $11 million to date. In combined DVD and VHS rentals, the title also was #1 -- moving up 2 steps -- as it earned $8.24 million in the week for $15.56 million total. In its first full week of availability, New Line’s Freddy vs. Jason was #2 in DVD rentals and combined DVD/VHS rentals. Rentrak said the horror film earned $5.08 million on DVD in the week for $5.1 million total and $6.91 million in combined DVD/VHS rentals in the week for $6.94 million total. The only other new title in the top 10 for the week was Universal’s comedy Johnny English, which Rentrak said earned $1.91 million on DVD in the week for $1.93 million total and $2.73 million in combined DVD/VHS rentals for $2.76 million total.
Initial response to Nintendo’s plan to ship a dual-screened portable game system later this year (CED Jan 22 p2) appeared to be mixed. Although 3rd-party game publishers we polled appeared to be intrigued by the new device, code-named “Nintendo DS,” it was too early to say how many of them actually would make games designed for the system. It wasn’t even clear Thurs. whether the new system would be cartridge-based like the current Game Boy Advance (GBA) or optical disc-based like Sony Computer Entertainment’s upcoming PSP, that company’s first handheld game system.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) frequently issues notices on antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued and neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period.