The effort aimed at restoring profitability at Ultimate Electronics is “yielding results,” and “we believe we have all the pieces in place” for a successful holiday season, CEO David Workman told financial analysts Thurs. Although 3rd-quarter revenue fell 1.6% from a year ago on an 8% decline in same-store sales, Ultimate said its gross margin improved 160 basis points and the chain reduced its operating loss by 44%.
The Blu-ray camp views the endorsements of HD DVD by Paramount, Universal and Warner as little more than a “trial,” much as they're conducting trials of video-on- demand or other forms of HD content delivery, Maureen Weber, gen. mgr. of HP’s Optical Storage Solutions Business and a key Blu-ray spokeswoman, told Consumer Electronics Daily. As such, she said, “we're not looking at any of this as threatening.”
Ray Dolby not only is the legendary founder of Dolby Labs and its dominant shareholder, he’s also its chief landlord, it was disclosed in the prospectus filed by Dolby Labs at the SEC for the long-awaited IPO in which Dolby hopes to raise $460 million for general corporate purposes (CED Nov 22 p8).
Over the last 5 years, many major TV manufacturers, most of them CEA members, have acquired V-chip licenses from technology patent holder Tri-Vision International, and those license agreements have been fair, nondiscriminatory and based on reasonable royalties, said V-chip inventor Tim Collings and Najmul Siddiqui, Tri-Vision CEO, in a filing at the FCC. Their filing was to oppose CEA’s petition for clarification and/or reconsideration of the Commission’s V- chip mandate for DTV in which it had said the FCC should monitor Collings and Tri-Vision because they, through V-chip license agreements, were “expecting a financial windfall that television manufacturers, and ultimately U.S. consumers, would have to fund.”
For every fan who wants more NBA in high-definition at one time or another, “there are others who want more of their particular sports interest” in HD, Bryan Burns, ESPN vp- strategic business planning & development, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Through ESPN HD and the soon-to-be- launched ESPN2 HD, “we work to accommodate all interests based on our knowledge of viewer preferences, time of the season and facilities availability,” Burns said. He was responding to Internet reports of fan complaints alleging there has been a dearth of NBA games on ESPN HD compared with other networks, such as TNT. Burns said TNT’s situation “is dramatically different” from ESPN HD’s, “with only the NBA to consider.” ESPN HD will “start to strip” its Fri. night NBA telecasts after Jan. 1, but will “place more focus” on the NBA in the spring when interest is at its highest after the conclusion of the NCAA season, Burns said. ESPN will likely telecast the NBA Playoffs in HD through to the Western Conference Finals, and will produce the NBA Finals in HD “for our friends at ABC,” Burns said. He said “the NBA is handled very appropriately within our overall schedule of ESPN HD and soon to be ESPN2 HD telecasts.” He said there will be an increase in NBA telecasts next year to 300 across ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD from the 180 in 2004, not to mention an overall HD program lineup encompassing over 2,000 programs and 6,000 hours. That’s “well ahead of the demand curve charted by HDTV set sales to this point,” Burns said. “And we'll try to stay ahead of that curve in the coming months and years.”
There’s “no validity” to cable’s claims that FCC adoption of plug-&-play rules undermines or displaces the need to stick to the July 2006 ban on set-top boxes with integrated security, said the CEA in an ex parte filing at the FCC. It offered a point-by-point rebuttal to arguments made recently by the cable industry in its stepped-up campaign to convince the Commission to extend or waive the July 2006 deadline.
“Immediate” authorization by the FCC Media Bureau of multicasting for iBiquity’s HD Radio DAB system would enable public radio stations to receive conversion funding to implement the technology and reduce their costs, NPR told the Commission in an ex parte filing. NPR stations are converting to DAB “in large numbers,” and Congress and the Corp. for Public Bcstg. have committed “substantial funds” to the conversion effort, “principally because of the multicasting capability” of the iBiquity technology, NPR said. A rapid multicasting authorization also is necessary so CE makers “can begin large-scale production of radio receivers capable of receiving a station’s multiple audio program services,” NPR said. Such an authorization in advance of the Jan. CES would enable receiver manufacturers to use the show “to discuss and promote their plans for incorporating multicast functionality into new digital radio receivers,” NPR said. The public interest justifies an immediate authorization because of the “noncontroversial nature of multicasting as a technical matter” and the “urgency” for radio stations and the CE industry to begin commercializing the technology, NPR said.
Tweeter said it still projects 25% erosion this holiday selling season in the average selling prices (ASPs) of entry-level flat-panel TVs. But overall ASPs in the flat-panel category are expected to remain unchanged from last year because of the unexpectedly stronger mix of higher-end TVs priced over $5,000, the chain’s executives told financial analysts Tues.
The signing of former Viacom CEO Mel Karmazin as Sirius CEO (CED Nov 19 p1) may kill any prospect that Howard Stern will arrive at Sirius before his Infinity Bcstg. contract expires in Dec. 2005, outgoing Sirius CEO Joseph Clayton told Consumer Electronics Daily Fri.
Former Viacom CEO Mel Karmazin has been tapped as the new CEO at Sirius Satellite Radio, Sirius announced late Thurs. after the markets had closed. Karmazin replaces Joseph Clayton, who will remain with Sirius as chmn., but a prepared statement suggested Clayton would stay on only for a “transitional period,” given that his employment agreement is set to expire Dec. 31.