Dish Network lent its support to a so-called quiet period so carriage disputes between broadcasters and pay-TV providers wouldn’t mean the loss of signals to viewers around the time of the digital TV transition. In an FCC filing Tuesday, the satellite-TV provider said it agreed with small cable operators, which first sought the pause, that retransmission consent disagreements shouldn’t be allowed to “undermine” the transition. The period “would maintain the status quo during the fragile period,” it said. The commission should approve a quiet period and change the retransmission consent process, which is “broken,” Dish added, citing “demands by broadcasters for exponential increases” in rates. The commission should require broadcasters to let pay-TV companies carry each affiliated TV station and cable channel individually and not only in bundles, it said.
LG expects to price its new BD300 Blu-ray player with Netflix streaming capability (WID Aug 1 p9) “somewhere under $500” when it ships next month in wide retail distribution, Vice President Allan Jason told a New York news conference late Thursday. “We're essentially not charging a premium” for the Netflix feature, Jason said. The BD300 “will be priced with other premium Blu-ray players.” Quoting no definitive price point on the BD300 suggests LG wants to be able to react flexibly to Blu-ray pricing trends as it makes the Netflix decks a cornerstone of its Q4 marketing strategy. Netflix and LG will throw in a two-week Netflix trial subscription for BD300 buyers who aren’t Netflix customers, Jason said. LG sees the BD300 as “a true convergence device,” melding the playback of “traditional” physical media like DVDs and Blu-ray movies with Internet content, Jason said. The deck is “a perfect marriage between content and hardware,” he said. “This is a premium Blu-ray player,” with 1080p playback and BD Live, among other features, he said. LG put Netflix “instant streaming” in the BD300 because it sess the feature as “a great consumer benefit,” he said. The means of bringing “that feature from Netflix direct to our TV” drove BD300 development, a six- to eight-month process, Jason said: “We think we're doing this in a very easy and seamless way.” An icon-based on-screen menu includes pause, fast-forward and rewind functions with which viewers are so comfortable on PVRs, he said.
LG expects to price its new BD300 Blu-ray player with Netflix streaming capability (CED Aug 1 p6) “somewhere under $500” when it ships next month in wide retail distribution, Vice President Allan Jason told a New York news conference late Thursday.
The FCC needs to adopt “meaningful, enforceable conditions” if it’s going to approve the proposed XM-Sirius merger, House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, D- Mass., said in a letter Tuesday to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. The commission should take “immediate steps to enforce its previous requirement for interoperable receivers,” Markey said. The Justice Department relied in part on the commission’s “failure to enforce this rule” in approving the merger, he said. “This fact should give great pause to all Commissioners when reflecting upon the marketplace as it has developed… The Commission has a duty to see that its previous rule, as well as others are no longer ignored.” And since the combined company probably would take commercial advertising eventually, competing with over-the-air radio, terrestrial HD Radio reception “should be required in all new satellite radio receivers as a condition of the merger,” the letter said. “Only through such a mandate will the Commission adequately ensure that competition in digital radio services is as robust as possible.” Markey also suggested the commission double the companies’ proposed three-year restriction on price increases on service. The letter praised the FCC for seeking a set-aside of capacity for noncommercial programming but said the allotment should be “expressed and established as a percentage of total capacity rather than specifying a set number of channels.”
The FCC needs to adopt “meaningful, enforceable conditions” if it’s going to approve the proposed XM-Sirius merger, House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, D- Mass., said in a letter Tuesday to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. The commission should take “immediate steps to enforce its previous requirement for interoperable receivers,” Markey said. The Justice Department relied in part on the commission’s “failure to enforce this rule” in approving the merger, he said. “This fact should give great pause to all Commissioners when reflecting upon the marketplace as it has developed… The Commission has a duty to see that its previous rule, as well as others are no longer ignored.” And since the combined company probably would take commercial advertising eventually, competing with over-the-air radio, terrestrial HD Radio reception “should be required in all new satellite radio receivers as a condition of the merger,” the letter said. “Only through such a mandate will the Commission adequately ensure that competition in digital radio services is as robust as possible.” Markey also suggested the commission double the companies’ proposed three-year restriction on price increases on service. The letter praised the FCC for seeking a set-aside of capacity for noncommercial programming but said the allotment should be “expressed and established as a percentage of total capacity rather than specifying a set number of channels.”
The v.2.40 PS3 firmware update previously disclosed by Sony Computer Entertainment America (CED June 23 p8) will also add Google-powered Internet search functionality on the console’s XrossMediaBar (XMB) graphical user interface, SCEA said Monday. The new feature will enable PS3 users to input search terms and be directed to a search results page without having to first open the PS3 Internet browser, SCEA said. The company also disclosed that the update will be available Wednesday. Previously, SCEA had said on its PlayStation blog only that the update would add XMB Access In-Game, the ability for gamers to access the console’s system menu without having to pause or exit a game, as well as a new trophies feature for online gaming. The addition of Google search functionality hardly came as a shock: Sony added that to PSP through a recent firmware update (CED June 17 p5). Providing details on the trophies feature for PS3, SCEA said the new integrated system “enables gamers to tout their accomplishments via profiles, which also allow users to compare their skills to other members of the community.” PS3 users can earn virtual trophies, which will be viewable on the XMB’s Game category under a new Trophy Collection icon, and will also be touted through individual profiles, SCEA said. The profiles will serve as virtual representations of PS3 users, letting them personalize their identities and display their gaming accomplishments within the PlayStation community, the company said. Gamers will be ranked on a level-basis, depending on the bronze, silver, gold, and platinum trophies they earn across all games. They also will be able to see how much progress they have made toward the next level, as well as compare their Trophies to friends’. Super Stardust HD, a PlayStation Network-exclusive released in June 2007, will be the first game to leverage the Trophies system and will offer a variety of trophies, SCEA said. Also slated to offer Trophy support are the first-party games Buzz! Quiz TV, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, NBA 09, Pain, PixelJunk Eden, Resistance 2, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation and Warhawk. There will be “additional first and third-party games bringing Trophy support to their feature sets through 2008 and beyond,” SCEA said, saying it was “actively working with developers to ensure that Trophies are incorporated into new titles in the future.”
The v.2.40 PS3 firmware update previously disclosed by Sony Computer Entertainment America will also be adding Google-powered Internet search functionality on the console’s XrossMediaBar (XMB) graphical user interface, it said Monday. The new feature will enable PS3 users to input search terms and be directed to a search results page without having to first open the PS3 Internet browser, SCEA said. The company also disclosed that the update will be available Wednesday. Previously, SCEA had said on its PlayStation blog only that the update would add XMB Access In-Game, the ability for gamers to access the console’s system menu without having to pause or exit a game, as well as a new trophies feature for online gaming. The addition of Google search functionality hardly came as a shock: Sony added that to PSP through a recent firmware update (WID June 17 p8). Providing details on the trophies feature for PS3, SCEA said the new integrated system “enables gamers to tout their accomplishments via profiles, which also allow users to compare their skills to other members of the community.” PS3 users can earn virtual trophies, which will be viewable on the XMB’s Game category under a new Trophy Collection icon, and will also be touted through individual profiles, SCEA said. The profiles will serve as virtual representations of PS3 users, letting them personalize their identities and display their gaming accomplishments within the PlayStation community, the company said.
Watching TV shows on a laptop from the couch will remain the dominant way to view non-native TV programming for the foreseeable future, online video panelists agreed at the Digital Media Conference near Washington Thursday. The poorer quality of online video and lack of interest in open platforms from TV makers point to segregated platforms, they said. TiVo may be the only device that can serve as the bridge between screens, said John Girard, CEO of Click ability, a Web content optimization company.
Watching TV shows on a laptop from the couch will remain the dominant way to view non-native TV programming for the foreseeable future, online video panelists agreed at the Digital Media Conference near Washington Thursday. The poorer quality of online video and lack of interest in open platforms from TV makers point to segregated platforms, they said. TiVo may be the only device that can serve as the bridge between screens, said John Girard, CEO of Clickability, a Web content optimization company.
Sony confirmed it will release yet another firmware upgrade for PS3, this one enabling gamers to access the console’s system menu without having to pause or exit a game. The Version 2.40 upgrade formally is called “XMB access in- game.” It came to light last week on Sony’s PS3 blog site, with no release date. A spokesman for Sony Computer Electronics America told Consumer Electronics Daily that the V2.40 update is forthcoming, but did not say when. “We're not providing any additional comment at this point beyond what’s in the original blog post,” the spokesman told us. “We'll have additional information to share soon,” he said. In the meantime, Sony will release a V2.36 upgrade. Essentially a software-fix to improve playback of PS3 game discs already in the field, it resembles other updates released since PS3’s debut “to improve system stability when playing select PlayStation format software titles.” V2.40 adds a “trophies” feature to PS3 on-line gaming, the spokesman said. This is expected to give winning gamers graphics to flaunt. The advantage of V2.40’s “XMB access in- game” is to spare gamers from having to stop then re-load a game, such as data-heavy titles like Grand Theft Auto IV.