UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- There’s “no reason” 3D TVs should cost more than other sets, said David Coombes, Sony Computer Entertainment America’s platform research manager for developer support. They'll actually probably cost less than current 2D TVs because the cost of manufacturing TVs has dropped, he said Wednesday at the 3D Gaming Summit.

Sony’s Bravia LCD TV shortages are being driven by “unprecedented” high demand for the products and not from a manufacturing glitch, Chief Marketing Officer Mike Fasulo told us in an interview Thursday. Retailers reported being told by Sony in recent weeks that orders were slashed as the company sought to fix an “engineering issue” with a processor module in the TVs (CED April 16 p2).

Apple is “on track” to begin shipping the 3G version of the iPad in the U.S. on April 30 and the Wi-Fi and 3G versions in nine other countries at the end of May, executives said late Tuesday on the company’s second-quarter earnings call. Apple expects no iPad production shortages, though early demand has far exceeded expectations, they said.

The CE industry is backing a measure in the California Senate that would put on hold a requirement for TVs to carry energy use labels and calls for regulators to use consumer credit financing rates as a basis for evaluating cost effectiveness in setting energy standards. The Natural Resources Defense Council opposed the measure, accusing CEA of “sponsoring” the bill in an attempt to weaken the TV energy standards adopted last November by the California Energy Commission (CED Nov 19 p1).

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- Hollywood has done a strong job of making consumers interested in 3D, helped by the popularity of Avatar, but the game industry needs to do a better job of promoting 3D gaming and educating consumers about the technology, speakers said at the 3D Gaming Summit Wednesday.

CableCARDs didn’t meet the goals of Congress in Section 629 of the Telecom Act because they failed to create much of a market for consumers to buy devices from retailers that they could use to get pay TV, all five FCC members agreed Wednesday. Some expressed hope that newer gateway devices letting cable, telco-TV and DBS subscribers get online and subscription video using devices other than set-top boxes will gin up the retail market while boosting broadband use. A rulemaking on fixes to CableCARDs and an inquiry on setting standards for gateway devices to be used by all pay-TV providers was approved at Wednesday’s commission meeting.

Riding a wave of e-reader sales, Prime View International (PVI) expects electrophoretic displays to account for 60-70 percent of its 2010 revenue, up from 50 percent last year, as newly acquired E Ink generates sales, executives said on a quarterly earnings call. PVI completed its $445 million purchase of E Ink on Dec. 23.

The proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement won’t restrict civil liberties, harass consumers or require what are called three-strikes systems for Internet infringement, the European Commission said Wednesday. It published the negotiating text from eighth round of talks, held in Wellington, New Zealand, April 12-16.

Rising subscription-video rates accompanied by declining interest in linear channels and coming advancements in set-top box technology augur increased viewer interest in online video viewed on TV sets, said outgoing FCC broadband plan initiative head Blair Levin. “Over-the-top video will eventually emerge” as a competitor to multichannel video programming distributors and “everyone is both excited and scared” by that prospect, he said. Since the technology is “a big bandwidth hog,” those with more capacity will do better, Levin told an American Cable Association conference.

The FCC has put an unrealistic amount of work on its agenda to complete in too short a time following release of the National Broadband Plan, Larry Darby, former FCC Common Carrier Bureau chief and chief economist, said during a New York Law School panel discussion late Monday. Some of the issues the FCC plans to tackle will likely elude easy resolution and Congress may have to step in, Darby warned.