Columbia TriStar’s Anger Management was top-rented DVD in U.S. in week ended Sept. 28, VSDA said preliminary data showed. VSDA said title earned additional $5.84 million in week for $12.17 million total rental earnings to date. Only 2 new DVDs in week were Columbia TriStar’s Daddy Day Care at #2, which VSDA said earned $5.07 million in its first full week of availability (and $5.19 million to date), and Disney’s Holes at #3 ($2.53 million in week and $2.60 million to date).

PS2 again dominated top 10 videogame rentals in U.S. in week ended Sept. 28, VSDA preliminary data showed. This time, 7 games for Sony Computer Entertainment’s console were in top 10, which again was led by PS2 version of Madden NFL 2004 from Electronic Arts (EA). VSDA said PS2 version of hit football game earned additional $280,000 in week for total rental earnings of $2.15 million to date. Only new videogame in top 10 was PS2 version of Activision’s Cabela’s Deer Hunt 2004 Season, which VSDA said moved up 2 notches to #9, earning additional $70,000 in week for total of $290,000 to date. Other PS2 games in top 10 were: Namco’s Soul Calibur II at #2 again (additional $150,000 in week and $1.04 million to date), EA’s NCAA Football 2004 at #3 again ($130,000 and $2.61 million), Atari’s Enter the Matrix -- up 4 notches at #8 ($90,000 and $9.02 million), Take-Two Interactive’s Midnight Club II -- up one to #5 ($90,000 and $6.77 million), Sega’s ESPN NFL Football 2K4 at #7 again ($80,000 and $340,000). No GameCube titles made top 10 but 3 Xbox titles did: Madden NFL 2004 -- up 4 steps to #6 ($90,000 in week and $740,000 to date), Soul Calibur II -- down 4 to #8 ($70,000 and $530,000), LucasArts’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic -- down one to #10 ($70,000 and $1.44 million).

Finding that the city of San Jose’s cable franchise renewal requirements, including providing up to 10 public, educational and governmental (PEG) access channels, were content-neutral and serving important govt. interests, the U.S. Dist. Court, San Jose, denied Comcast’s motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the formal renewal process instituted by the city before a designated hearing officer. Comcast had challenged the proceeding on the grounds that it violated its constitutional right to free speech and process as well as provisions of the Cable Act. Besides arguing that its process adequately safeguarded all of Comcast’s constitutional rights, the city contended that the company’s request for relief under the Act wasn’t ripe since the statute permitted judicial review only after final denial of a renewal application or where a cable operator had been affected adversely by the failure of the local franchising authority to follow the procedural requirements. Comcast said the city’s renewal proposal was illegal because it “demands goods and services which exceed the scope and purpose” of the Act. It said the city had “improperly” demanded 10 PEG channels, noncable services such as Internet access, a full-service telecom network, specific fiber transmission technology and a parental control device at no charge to the subscriber. Comcast contended the city’s requirements on the number, use, location, management of and trigger for the PEG channels violated the First Amendment. The court said those requirements didn’t violate Comcast’s First Amendment rights or “seriously infringe or curtail” its expressive rights. It held that a review of the city’s administrative procedures showed that Comcast’s due process rights were protected.

Spec for “HDV” format that would enable HD digital recording on existing Mini DV camcorder tapes has been completed and will be published today (Wed.). Announcement came Tues. from 4- company consortium that proposed goals and preliminary HDV specs in summer (CED July 14 p1) and included digital camcorder heavies Canon, JVC, Sharp and Sony -- with Panasonic being notable absentee.

Take-Two Interactive said in preliminary proxy statement filed with SEC Fri. that it planned to hold special stockholders meeting Nov. 17 at its N.Y.C. hq. Take-Two said main item on meeting agenda was to consider amendment to company’s certificate of incorporation to increase the authorized common stock from 50 million to 100 million shares. Company said that as of Fri., financial services company FMR (Fidelity Investments held largest stake -- 10.7%, with 4.65 million shares. In recent 10-Q SEC filing, Take-Two also provided more details of its recent purchase of San Francisco developer Frog City. It had disclosed only sketchy details of deal to analysts in May at E3 Expo (CED May 19 p6). But it said in 10-Q that in quarter ended July 31, it had “acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Frog City, the developer of Tropico 2: Pirate Cove, and Cat Daddy Games LLC, another development studio.” It had made no mention of Cat Daddy in May meeting or in recent conference call discussing 3rd-quarter results (CED Sept 4 p4). In latter conference call, Take-Two announced plan to buy competitor TDK Mediactive -- no doubt most significant purchase of 3 companies. Take-Two said “the total purchase price for both studios” -- Frog City and Cat Daddy -- “consisted of [$757,000] in cash and [$319,000] of prepaid royalties previously advanced to Frog City.” Take-Two said it “also agreed to make additional payments of up to [$2.5 million] to the former owners of Cat Daddy, based on a percentage of Cat Daddy’s future profits, which will be recorded as compensation expense if the targets are met. In connection with the acquisitions, the company recorded goodwill of [$1.27 million] on a preliminary basis.” Take-Two also said that in 2003 it “entered into an agreement with Destineer Publishing, a publisher of PC games, under which Destineer granted the company exclusive distribution rights to 8 PC games to be published by Destineer.” Take-Two said it “agreed to make recoupable advances to Destineer of approximately [$6.7 million]… In addition, the company agreed to make a loan to Destineer of [$1 million].” In return, it said, “Destineer granted the company an immediately exercisable option to purchase a 19.9% interest in Destineer and a 2nd option to purchase the remaining interest for a price equal to a multiple of Destineer’s EBIT, exercisable during a period following April 2005.”

The neighboring state commissions of Cal. and Ore. drew exactly opposite conclusions on whether they needed to conduct the 90-day case to challenge the FCC’s presumption that unbundled switching isn’t essential for local competition in the “enterprise” market for large business customers served by DS-1 or larger loops. Meanwhile, several other states set deadlines for CLECs to request a challenge to the FCC’s presumption.

In its first full week of availability, Columbia TriStar’s Anger Management was top-rented DVD in U.S., VSDA said preliminary data for week ended Sept. 21 showed. VSDA said title earned $6.22 million in week for total rental earnings to date of $6.34 million. It was only new DVD in top 10. Last week’s #1 DVD -- same company’s Identity -- slipped to #2, earning additional $3.11 million and increasing total rental earnings to $12.04 million.

PS2 version of Madden NFL 2004 from Electronic Arts (EA) was #1-rented videogame in U.S. again, VSDA said preliminary data for week ended Sept. 21 showed. VSDA said PS2 SKU of latest entry in EA’s hit football franchise earned additional $310,000 in week for total of $1.87 million to date. EA and Namco again led publishers in top 10, each with 3 SKUs making cut. EA’s PS2 version of NCAA Football 2004 again was #3 game (additional $150,000 in week and $2.48 million total to date), while its Xbox version of Madden dropped 2 notches to #10 (additional $80,000 in week and $660,000 total). All 3 of Namco’s entries in top 10 were Soul Calibur II, with PS2 version again at #2 (additional $200,000 in week and $890,000 total); Xbox version again at #4 ($120,000 and $460,000) and GameCube version at #5 again ($110,000 and $400,000). It again was only GameCube title in top 10. PS2 again was represented by total of 6 titles in top 10 and no new games from any publisher made list. Only other non-PS2 game in top 10 again was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic from LucasArts, which moved up one notch to #9, earning additional $80,000 in week for total $1.37 million to date, VSDA said. Rounding out top 10 were Take-Two Interactive’s Midnight Club II on PS2, moving up 3 notches to #6 ($100,000 and $6.67 million); Sega’s ESPN NFL Football 2K4 on PS2, dropping one step to #7 ($100,000 and $260,000); Atari’s Enter the Matrix on PS2, down one to #8 ($90,000 and $8.93 million since May).

Chinese TV glass-maker Henan Anyang confirmed it had begun 3-month preliminary work on transferring Corning Ashai’s equipment from State College, Pa., factory to its facilities in China. Corning, which in April announced it would close 36-year- old plant, signed agreement in June to sell equipment to Henan. Terms weren’t disclosed, but Corning has said sale price offset “significant portion” of $40-$65 million cost of closing State College facility. Once Henan engineers complete preliminary work, Sida Corp., which is company’s U.S. buyer and distributor, will hire contractor to dismantle equipment, company said. About 35 Corning employees have resumed work at plant this month to help Henan engineers prepare equipment for shipping and 10 will travel to China to install it, company said.

Covad is the biggest company winner in the FCC’s Triennial Review Order, after the preliminary decision in Feb. had looked fatal to the data CLEC, Precursor Group analyst Patrick Brogan said late Mon. The order encourages line splitting between CLECs, protecting Covad’s DSL business and allowing it to compete against Bells with a voice-data bundle, Brogan said. That’s a much more favorable outcome than the earlier announcement emphasizing elimination of line sharing by data CLECs with Bells, he said.