President Obama’s broadband stimulus program was “vindicated” by new NTIA findings that up to two-thirds of America’s schools can’t get broadband at speeds they need, NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling said Thursday, after NTIA unveiled its new broadband map. The map indicated that up to 10 percent of Americans can’t get broadband. The map is based on more than 125 million searchable records in the new mapping database, with information from some 1,600 broadband companies. “All of these records can be analyzed in countless ways,” Strickling said. “But the data continues to show that a digital divide continues to exist.”

Virgin Media gained 50,000 pre-registrations for TiVo’s DVR service in advance of a Q2 commercial rollout as the cable company builds on a year-old partnership, Virgin executives told analysts Thursday. The U.K. cable operator will spend an incremental $64.6 million in the second half on capital projects related to mobile and TiVo-related businesses, but will keep overall capital costs at 15-17 percent of total revenue, Chief Financial Officer Eamonn O'Hare said. “There will be an increase in capital expense related to TiVo, but that funding will be provided by doing less in other areas."

Bringing THQ’s uDraw GameTablet “to other platforms” is something that “we don’t want to rule out,” CEO Brian Farrell told the Goldman Sachs conference in San Francisco Wednesday. The console accessory is available only for the Wii.

Reducing costs is a driving force behind ESPN’s decision to shoot Friday Night Fights all in 3D this Friday, said Phil Orlins, coordinating producer of ESPN 3D, in a conference call Wednesday. Boxing is “well-suited to do that,” he said, saying side-by-side 2D/3D production “is a significant cost hurdle.” Orlins wouldn’t disclose the cost savings of creating an all-3D production and then taking the left eye HD feeds of each camera for the 2D channel. The network will take the same approach next week, Orlins said, when it telecasts an NCAA men’s basketball game between Georgia and Florida on Feb. 24. Looking ahead, each 3D event will be assessed on a “case by case” basis and “we'll do it where it makes sense,” he said, saying not all sports can be shot effectively that way.

Top-tier TV suppliers with Internet-connected platforms are bypassing Rovi’s TotalGuide for its media cloud data services, while those “playing catch up” are opting for the full-blown interactive program guide (IPG), Rovi CEO Fred Amoroso said in a conference call. Among the CE suppliers, Samsung is deploying Rovi’s media cloud and advertising services as part of a Smart TV platform that starts shipping in March.

Jakks Pacific will back the release of its I Am T-Pain Mic, unveiled at CES (CED Jan 10 p12), with a major ad campaign including national TV spots, a company spokeswoman said at the American International Toy Fair in New York Wednesday. The company declined to say how much it’s spending on the campaign.

Having introduced a remote-storage DVR (RS-DVR) in its New York City system, Cablevision executives are looking at new products and service offerings the technology will let them introduce, they told investors Wednesday. Because the technology allows any digital cable box to function as a DVR, with storage taken care of back at Cablevision’s facilities, there are many possible new products, they said. “We could do free previews of DVR service. We could do very limited storage and include that as part of another package,” said Chief Operating Officer Thomas Rutledge. “Or we could expand the storage and sell that as an incremental price opportunity. There are a variety of ways of looking at the DVR currently in the market, breaking it into various components and selling it for less or more depending on how you put it together."

Dell’s consumer business operating profit improved 2.1 percent in fiscal Q4, the company said late Tuesday in its quarterly earnings webcast. Overall, the company reported profit of $927 million, more than double the year-ago quarter, with growth driven by the enterprise side. The stock rose 12 percent to $15.56 Wednesday.

The EA Sports Active 2 fitness title that Electronic Arts released late last year sold weaker than expected over the holiday season, CEO John Riccitiello told a Goldman Sachs conference in San Francisco Tuesday. EA added a bundled heart rate monitor to its second Active title -- a move that “cost money” and created the need for the title to be sold at more than the typical $50 price, he said. The game was released at about $100, about twice the price of most console fitness games.

LONDON -- Panasonic will offer its first 3D LCD TVs this spring, along with new Blu-ray 3D players that offer 3D effect and depth control, as well as new 2D-to-3D conversion technology, the company said this week at its European convention.