LA JOLLA, Cal. -- The CE business finally will “start to see the stars aligning” this year behind consumer adoption of 1080p, the “holy grail of HDTV,” keynoter Jim Sanduski, mktg. vp for Samsung’s Visual Display Products Group, told the DisplaySearch Flat-Panel Display Conference here Tues.
CE industry lobbyists have begun emphasizing a fallback position in their dealings at the FCC, should the Commission side with cable and decide to extend the July 2006 integration ban on digital cable set-tops.
The CE industry reacted sharply Fri. to the disclosure that Microsoft had broken ranks with most CE and IT companies and now supports cable’s effort to persuade the FCC to delay the July 2006 integration ban on digital cable set-top boxes. Microsoft “is out of step with the rest of the CE and IT industries,” CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro told Consumer Electronics Daily.
The first Dolby Labs shares ever traded publicly were bought Feb. 17 by Chmn. Ray Dolby, an SEC filing disclosed. Dolby purchased 100 shares of Class A common stock at $23 per share, their opening price on their first day of trading on the N.Y. Stock Exchange. His sale to the public of 17 million shares was the majority part of the 27.5-million- share Dolby Labs IPO that became effective last week. He and his family and associates also own a significant number of Class B shares, each with 10 times the voting power of Class A, assuring he'll maintain control over key Dolby Labs decisions.
The FCC already has extended the integration ban on cable set-top boxes (STBs) once, and doing so again beyond the July 1, 2006, deadline would “compromise” the ability of technology companies to innovate, Hewlett-Packard Exec. Vp Shane Robison told FCC Chmn. Powell in a letter. “The time has come to end consumers’ exclusive reliance on STBs provided by their cable company,” Robison said: “In fact, it is long overdue.” Nothing has happened since the Commission’s 2003 decision to extend the deadline beyond Jan. 1, 2005 “to justify further delay,” he wrote. Maintaining the July 2006 date is “critical” to achieving the goal of giving consumers “the widest possible range of choices in the market for navigation devices,” Robison said. Without a firm deadline, “parties that benefit from delay and uncertainty could ultimately undermine Congressional intent” in the DTV transition, Robison said. “The current compliance date is also critical to the further development of reliable and innovative functionalities and gives equipment manufacturers and cable operators the appropriate market incentives and appropriate timeframe to develop and deploy swiftly compatible products to the public.”
Shares of Dolby Labs opened at $23 Thurs. from the $18 IPO price Wed. On Feb. 11, the company said it expected an IPO price in the $13.50-$15.50 range. As part of the transition from private to public company, founder Ray Dolby on Feb. 16 transferred all the rights he held in intellectual property related to the company’s business, which previously he had licensed to Dolby for royalty payments. In an SEC filing, the company said it was threatened recently with litigation by InterVideo, one of its “significant licensing customers,” regarding Dolby’s licensing royalty rate practices, including potential antitrust claims. It advised shareholders that damages and requests for injunctive relief asserted in a such a claim “could be material, and could have a significant impact on our business.” Despite the statement, Dolby’s stock closed Thurs. at $24.30, up 5.65%
Ultimate Electronics Wed. shuffled its top management, including the departure of CEO David Workman, as majority owner Chmn. Mark Wattles installed his own management team at the bankrupt specialty CE chain. In addition to Workman, Senior Services Vp Gerry Demple left and Senior Sales Vp Neal Bobrick will depart March 1. Wattles assumed Workman’s post.
The FCC launched a formal rulemaking (05-24) to consider the CE industry’s request that it move up the deadline by which all TV sets with 25-36” screens must have ATSC tuners.
The cable industry has installed over 25,000 CableCARDs to date, of which Comcast has accounted for over 12,000, Comcast told the FCC in an ex parte filing. That volume is well below the one million CableCARD-ready DTV products CEA had projected would be shipped by year- end 2004. But Comcast said the cable industry “is fully honoring its commitments to support CableCARDs” and working “assiduously” on negotiations toward a bidirectional plug & play agreement. Those are among the reasons Comcast and other MSOs have cited in urging the FCC to extend or scrap the July 2006 integration ban on cable set-tops over the objections of CE companies. Comcast told the Commission 14 CE makers have been approved by CableLabs, or self-verified for marketing CableCARD-ready products, which now number 161 models.
The Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC) Fri. called “radical” RIAA’s statements that using a DAB receiver/recorder to build a library of copyrighted sound recordings wasn’t protected as fair use (CED Feb 9 p3).