Rural wireless carriers pressed the FCC Thurs. for relief on Enhanced 911 Phase 2 requirements, citing funding and technology dilemmas they faced with current deadlines. They spoke at the 2nd day of a 2-day meeting of the Commission’s E911 Coordination Initiative, stressing problems with the accuracy of some network-based technologies for pinpointing rural subscribers and a lack of commercial volume of location-capable handsets for TDMA and GSM networks.

In its first full week of availability, Columbia TriStar’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle was the #1-rented DVD in the U.S., VSDA said preliminary data for the week ended Oct. 26 showed. VSDA said the title earned $6.01 million in rentals for the week, for a total of $6.12 million to date. The only other new DVD in the Top 10 was Fox’s horror film 28 Days Later at #3, which VSDA said earned $4.74 million in the week, $4.83 million to date. Last week’s #1-rented DVD -- Warner’s The Matrix Reloaded -- dropped to #2, earning an additional $4.77 million for a total of $12.68 million to date.

PS2 continued to dominate the Top 10 rental chart in the U.S. in the week ended Oct. 26. VSDA’s preliminary data for the week showed that every game in the Top 10 was for Sony’s console. Electronic Arts (EA) again was the dominant publisher in the week -- it provided half of the top 10 games, led by Madden NFL 2004 once again. VSDA said the PS2 version of the game earned an additional $240,000 in rentals in the week, for $3.24 million to date. EA’s other top 10 games were NCAA Football 2004 at #3 ($150,000 week, $3.22 million to date), NBA Live 2004 at #5 ($120,000 and $190,000), Freedom Fighters at #6 ($120,000 and $350,000), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 at #10 ($110,000 and $530,000). Sony, Atari, Take-Two Interactive, Vivendi Universal Games and Eidos each had one title in the top 10 -- Jak II at #2 ($160,000 and $230,000), Enter the Matrix at #4 ($140,000/$9.53 million), Conflict: Desert Storm 2 at #7 ($110,000/$190,000), Simpsons: Hit & Run at #8 ($110,000/$450,000), Backyard Wrestling: Don’t Try This at Home at #9 ($110,000/$230,000).

Consumer intentions on buying TV sets rose in Oct. from Sept., according to preliminary data in the Conference Board’s monthly survey. Of 5,000 households polled, 6.9% said they planned to a buy TV set in the next 6 months, compared with 6.3% in Sept., 7.4% in Aug., 7.5% in Oct. 2002. The Consumer Confidence Index jumped more than 4 points in Oct., the Conference Board saying “a more favorable job market was a major factor in the turnaround.” Moreover, it said, the belief that that trend would continue had boosted consumers’ expectations: “With the holiday season around the corner, this improvement in consumers’ spirits is a good omen for upcoming retail sales.”

In its first full week of availability, Warner’s The Matrix Reloaded was the top-rented DVD in the U.S. for the week ended Oct. 19, VSDA said its preliminary data showed. VSDA said the title earned $7.72 million in rental revenue in the week for a total to date of $7.85 million. The only other new DVD in the week was Fox’s Wrong Turn at #3, which VSDA said earned $3.09 million in the week and $3.15 million to date. Last week’s #1 DVD -- Paramount’s The Italian Job -- dropped to #2 ($5.24 million and $11.79 million). On the videogame front, VSDA said the top-rented title again was the PS2 version of Madden NFL 2004 from Electronic Arts (EA), which earned an additional $270,000 in the week for $3 million to date. After some recent rental gains for GameCube and Xbox, every title in the top 10 this time was for PS2. EA again had the most games in the top 10 with 4 -- the other 3 titles being NCAA Football 2004 at #2 again ($150,000 in the week and $3.07 million to date), Freedom Fighters at #4 ($140,000 and $230,000), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 at #5 ($110,000 and $420,000). Atari, Eidos, Namco Hometek, Sega, Take-Two Interactive and Vivendi Universal Games each had one game in the top 10.

TVs that can receive images from digital broadcasts and the Internet will be developed jointly by the Japanese govt. and private industry. The new Internet Protocol TV will enable users to view DTV broadcasts via high-speed broadband connections, without the need for a PC, the participants said. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry will pony up ?100 million ($909,000) in development costs for the project. Preliminary work should be completed by March, followed by the development of copy protection and customer billing for the service, with final implementation scheduled for 2010. Companies involved in the effort include NEC, NTT, Sun Microsystems Japan and the Tokyo Bcstg. System.

Some states continued to move ahead while incumbent telcos, CLECs and their attorneys attempted to straighten out the legal tangle over whether a federal appeals court in N.Y. had the legal authority to issue its temporary stay of the FCC Triennial Review Order (TRO) presumption that unbundled switching wasn’t necessary for effective local competition in the enterprise market.

Latest developer to be acquired by publisher Electronic Arts (EA) is Liverpool-based Studio 33, best known for console racing titles including Destruction Derby Arenas, Formula One, Newman- Haas Racing. But EA said those particular games, developed for other publishers, were “not part of the transaction” for which financial terms weren’t disclosed.

PS2 platform and Electronic Arts (EA) again were big winners in VSDA’s top 10 videogame rental chart for week ended Oct. 12. VSDA said preliminary data for week showed that 4 EA games were in top 10, led by PS2 version of Madden NFL 2004 at #1 again, which earned additional $320,000 in week for total of $2.73 million to date. EA’s other titles in top 10 were PS2 version of NCAA Football 2004 at #2 again ($170,000 in week and $2.92 million to date), PS2 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 at #3 (up one step from last week, $150,000 and $310,000), Xbox version of Madden NFL 2004 at #10 (up 4, $90,000 and $910,000). Only other non-PS2 games in top 10 were Atari’s Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes for Xbox at #7 (up from #12, $90,000 and $220,000) and GameCube version of Soul Calibur II at #9 (down 2, $90,000 and $650,000). PS2 version of latter game dropped one to #4, earning $140,000 in week for $1.32 million to date. PS2 games rounding out top 10 were Take-Two Interactive’s Midnight Club II at #5 again ($130,000 and $7.02 million), Atari’s Enter the Matrix at #6 again ($120,000 and $9.25 million), Sega’s ESPN NFL Football 2K4 at #8 (up 2, $90,000 and $510,000).

There was a slight shakeup in the top 10 videogame rental chart for the week ended Nov. 9 as Activision showed more strength than rival Electronic Arts (EA). The PS2 version of Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Underground held onto the top spot, Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data showed. The PS2 version earned $483,204 in rentals for the week, raising its total earnings to $766,182, Rentrak said. The Xbox version of the title, meanwhile, jumped to #7 from #13, earning an additional $186,770 in the week for a total of $294,062. Activision’s True Crime: Streets of L.A. for PS2 was the 6th- most rented game in its first full week with $249,859. In comparison, only one EA game made the top 10 this time -- the PS2 version of Madden NFL 2004, which dropped to #5 from #3, earning an additional $250,405 in the week for a total $3.70 million. Two other Xbox games made the top 10: Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield at #4 (up from #15, earning an additional $273,957 in the week for total $374,256) and Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto double pack at #10 ($176,978 in its first week). Sony Computer Entertainment America, THQ, Atari and Konami each had one PS2 game in the top 10 as well: Respectively, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs II at #2 in its first week ($330,164), WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain at #3 (additional $321,747 in the week for $534,711 to date), Enter the Matrix at #8 (additional $184,162 for $9.83 million to date), Castlevania: Lament of Innocence at #9 (additional $178,127 for $398,429 to date). No GameCube titles made the top 10.