Rural telecom companies are uniquely positioned to provide wireless services in the vast majority of rural areas, parties said in comments filed with the FCC. They urged the Commission to adopt rules and policies that would provide opportunities for rural telephone companies and eliminate outmoded barriers to deployment of wireless broadband service. The comments came in response to a rulemaking the Commission began in Sept. (CD Sept 11 p6) asking how to promote spectrum-based services in rural areas.

It was a repeat performance for videogames from Electronic Arts (EA), Atari and Activision as the 5 top-rented titles in the week ended Dec. 21 were the same as a week ago, Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data showed. PS2 again dominated the chart as every game in the top 10 was for Sony Computer Entertainment’s console. Universal Home Video’s Seabiscuit was the top-rented DVD in its first full week of availability.

Electronic Arts (EA) again had the top 2 rented videogames in the U.S., Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Dec. 14 showed. The chart again was dominated by PS2 games -- this time, every game in the top 10 was for Sony Computer Entertainment’s console. Rentrak said EA’s Need for Speed: Underground again was #1, earning an additional $395,472 in the week for total rental earnings of $1.60 million to date. EA’s Medal of Honor: Rising Sun was again #2 ($370,136 and $2.83 million). One other EA title made the top 10: Madden NFL 2004 at #6, up 4 places after earning an additional $220,891 in the week for a total of $4.82 million in rental earnings. Activision and Take-Two Interactive each had 2 games in the top 10. Activision’s were True Crime: Streets of L.A. at #4 (down one with $303,013 and $2.05 million) and Tony Hawk’s Underground at #5 (down one also with $268,598 and $2.56 million). Take-Two’s games were Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne at #9 (up 13 with $200,551 and $327,997) and Manhunt at #10 (down 5 with $172,125 and $849,934). Rounding out the top 10 were Atari’s Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 at #3 (up 12 , $315,066 and $488,482), THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain at #7 again ($205,369 and $1.71 million), Sony’s SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs at #8 (down 2, $203,965 and $1.59 million). Separately, Rentrak said it signed a multiyear revenue sharing deal with Hip Interactive that it said “will allow gamers to rent new videogame titles from Xicat, Arush, CDV and Groove from more than 6,000 video store locations served by Rentrak’s… revenue-sharing program.” Hip plans to use Rentrak’s Video Game Essentials to track and analyze performance of their titles, as well as administer royalties and associated payments to both retail stores and the individual game publishers, the companies said. Hip Games Vp Pete Young said: “Our agreement with Rentrak enables us to penetrate the videogame market to a greater extent than ever before. Allowing consumers to view our games -- and those of the publishers we distribute -- represents a unique opportunity for increased brand recognition and market share.”

For the 2nd straight week, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was the #1-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Dec. 14 showed. Rentrak said the title earned an additional $6.74 million in the week on DVD for total rental earnings of $16.22 million to date. Combined DVD and VHS rental earnings in the week for the title were $10.11 million and total combined earnings to date were $23.18 million. There were 3 new DVDs in the combined DVD/VHS top 10: Columbia TriStar’s Bad Boys II at #2 ($9.71 million in the week and $9.93 million to date), Warner’s How To Deal at #6 ($2.66 million and $2.73 million), Columbia TriStar’s box-office bomb Gigli at #8 ($2.11 million and $2.18 million).

U.S. Commerce Dept. investigators are meeting TV manufacturers in China in an effort to check production costs at local factories, China Daily reported. Commerce officials were expected to meet with Sichuan Changhong Electric, Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronic (Xoceco), Konka Group and TCL Holdings as a follow-up to the department’s decision in Nov. to impose antidumping duties of up to 47% on TV sets imported from China. Commerce selected 4 companies of the original 12 named in a complaint filed by Five Rivers Electronic Innovations in May because it lacked the resources to visit all the companies involved in the case, China Daily said. “They are coming to us to check some original data to see whether or not their calculations are right,” an unidentified spokesman at one of the companies being visited by Commerce investigators told the newspaper. Commerce is asking the companies to furnish documents certifying production costs, commodity prices and staff salaries, the spokesman said. Commerce officials weren’t available for comment. Chinese TV manufacturers were fully prepared for the investigation, a spokesman said. “We expect this trip can help change their preliminary ruling on our costs, which is entirely unjustified,” the spokesman said, saying that his company’s costs were lower than those of Funai, whose plant in Malaysia was named in the complaint. Commerce’s preliminary decision imposed a 0.03% duty on Funai’s imports. It’s expected to issue its final decision in the case April 12.

In its first full week of availability, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was the top-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Dec. 7 showed Thurs. Rentrak said the DVD earned $9.39 million in the week and $9.49 million to date, while combined DVD and VHS rental earnings for the movie were $12.92 million and $13.07 million. It was the only new movie in the top 10. Last week’s #1-rented DVD -- Universal’s Bruce Almighty -- slipped to #2, earning $6.86 million in the week for total rental earnings of $16.41 million. Rentrak said combined DVD and VHS rental earnings for Bruce Almighty were $10.86 million in the week and $26.92 million to date.

Electronic Arts (EA) again had the top-rented videogame in the U.S., Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Dec. 7 showed Thurs. This time it was EA’s Need for Speed: Underground for PS2 in the top spot, earning $459,621 in the week for a total of $1.21 million to date, Rentrak said. EA’s Medal of Honor: Rising Sun for PS2 dropped to #2, earning $457,549 for a total $2.46 million to date. EA had 2 other games in the top 10: The Xbox version of Rising Sun at #8 (down 2, $203,814 and $1.06 million) and Madden NFL 2004 for PS2 at #10 (up 3,$195,056 and $4.598 million). The only other publisher with more than one game in the top 10 again was Activision, with True Crime: Streets of L.A. for PS2 at #3 (up one, $332,150 and $1.75 million) and Tony Hawk’s Underground for PS2 at #4 (down 2, $310,809 and $2.29 million). The rest of the top 10 all were PS2 games. Take-Two Interactive’s Manhunt moved up 4 to #5 ($214,912 and $677,810), Sony’s SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs up 5 to #6 ($213,000 and $1.38 million), THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain moved up 7 to #7 ($208,329 and $1.51 million), Square Enix’s Final Fantasy X-2 up one to #9 ($201,071 and $605,227).

Boise Cascade said it was withdrawing a statement released early Mon. detailing the preliminary vote for its proposed $1.38 billion acquisition of OfficeMax because of a clerical error. Boise didn’t elaborate on the error made by the exchange agent, Wells Fargo Shareholder Services. A Boise spokesman said a recount was under way and the new figures might be released by late Mon. Earlier, Boise Cascade said 63% of OfficeMax shares had been voted by the 5 p.m. deadline Dec. 5 to state shareholders’ preference for stock or cash in the deal, based on preliminary totals. Of that total, 97% had asked to receive Boise Cascade shares. OfficeMax reached an agreement to sell the chain to Boise in July after warding off Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, whose Orient Star Holding subsidiary had purchased a 14.9-million-share (12%) stake in the company in 2000. OfficeMax later adopted a poison pill strategy that would have been triggered had an investor acquired 15% or more of the outstanding common stock. Orient -- as well as Gateway, which once owned 6.4 million shares (5.2%) as part of failed proposal to develop a store-within-a-store format at OfficeMax -- since has sold its stake. Wellington Management and Dimensional Fund Advisors are currently OfficeMax’s largest shareholders with 6.42 million (5.2%) and 6.37 million (5.1%) common shares, respectively. OfficeMax CEO Michael Feuer, who founded the chain in 1988, owns 6 million shares (4.7%). Another one-time OfficeMax investor was Kmart, which had an equity stake from 1990-1995. OfficeMax operates about 970 stores in 46 states, 30 outlets in Mexico and 17 PowerMax inventory/delivery centers. Its stores carry 8,000 SKUs, about 800 of which are private label or direct import products. The chain went through a major restructuring in fiscal 2002, when it closed 46 stores and since has reduced the size of its store format 15% to 20,000 sq. ft.

Several states encountered unusual issues as they wound up the procedural preliminaries in their reviews of the network unbundling issues delegated to them by the FCC in its Triennial Review Order (TRO), sources said. Meanwhile, more states split their TRO cases into multiple phases with separate procedural schedules.

Activision grabbed the top 2 spots in the top 10 videogame rental chart for the week ended Nov. 30, Rentrak’s preliminary Home Video Essentials data showed. Rentrak said the PS2 version of Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Underground moved up 3 steps to become the #1-rented title of the week, earning an additional $336,002 for total rental earnings of $1.89 million to date. The publisher’s PS2 version of True Crime: Streets of L.A., again was the #2-rented title, earning an additional $324,059 for total rental earnings of $1.33 million. Electronic Arts (EA) once again had the most titles in the top 10 with 4: Madden NFL 2004 at #3 (up 5 steps in its 16th week, earning $219,046 in the week for $4.36 million to date), Medal of Honor: Rising Sun at #4 (down 3, $217,810 in the week and $1.48 million to date); Need for Speed: Underground at #6 (down 3, $188,365 and $516,714); The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at #8 (up 2, $166,959 and $705,163 to date). All 4 were for PS2, as were all other titles in the top 10 as Sony’s console again dominated rentals. Rounding out the top 10 were Atari’s Enter the Matrix at #5 (up from #23 in its 29th week, $189,802 and $10.26 million), THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain at #7 again ($168,029 and $1.24 million) , Sony’s SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs at #9 (down 3, $157,493 and $1.06 million), and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy X-2 at #10 (up 5, $144,707 and $273,672). In video rentals, Rentrak said the DVD of Universal’s Bruce Almighty, in its first full week of availability, was the #1-rented title, earning $7.59 million in the week for $7.69 million to date.