Broadcasters are becoming more interested in mobile DTV opportunities and seem keen to use their spectrum to offer new services, rather than sell it in a voluntary auction like the one proposed in the FCC National Broadband Plan, said Open Mobile Video Coalition President Brandon Burgess. “We have gotten some surprisingly amazing support from our members encouraging us to do what we're doing,” Burgess, also Ion Media CEO, said Thursday. “We have members joining us in real-time.”

BERLIN -- “Achieving a standard for broadcast 3D is our objective,” CEO Ferdinand Kayser of SES Astra satellite broadcasting of Luxembourg told reporters Wednesday. “We recognize the need for this, or users will be lost,” Kayser said: “The lack of a standard is not an advantage for broadcasters, it’s not an advantage for viewers and it’s not an advantage for the industry. We have already said that we will issue a communique on this in 2010 and we now expect to have something positive to say over the next few weeks, or months."

Internet-capable, flat-panel TVs may eventually join tablet PCs and smartbooks as targets for Nvidia’s second-generation Tegra 250 processor-graphics chipset, which will ship in products this year, Bill Henry, the company’s director of Tegra product management, told us.

GameStop is “still being challenged” by PS3 and Wii hardware shortages, acting Chief Financial Officer Robert Lloyd said on a Q4 earnings call Thursday. The retailer is “working with” the console manufacturers “to accelerate through our supply chain any inventory that becomes available,” said Chief Operating Officer Paul Raines.

Energy efficiency advocacy groups are “more than happy” to work with the CE industry to develop a “consensus” federal energy standard for TVs, the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships said. State TV energy efficiency bills being pushed by NEEP and other groups won’t result in a patchwork of regulations because they all are embracing the standards adopted by the California Energy Commission, said Jim O'Reilly, NEEP’s director of public policy. If the CE industry is “really concerned about a mishmash of state standards,” they should “come to the table and talk about a national consensus standard,” he said. “We'd be more than happy to do that with them."

An unusual caveat in a notice formally starting FCC review of Comcast’s purchase of control of NBC Universal signals the agency is trying to be more transparent and efficient, antitrust experts and cable lawyers said. All issues with the deal should be flagged in initial filings, said an agency public notice released Thursday. The regulator has tried to take such a stance before, but hasn’t spelled it out formally, those who reviewed the notice said.

Apple’s iPhone has become “a formidable option for handheld gaming,” Majesco Entertainment CEO Jesse Sutton said in a Q1 earnings call, but he predicted that Nintendo will maintain its strength in the market. “Nintendo’s platforms will always have” Mario, Pokemon and other popular “brands that promote the hardware,” he said Tuesday.

Blockbuster and Trans World Entertainment are closing stores and trimming categories as they defend their turf against Netflix, Redbox and video download services. In addition to shutting 273 stores in January and February, Blockbuster will close another 150 U.S. locations in April, the company said in a 10-K filed Tuesday. Blockbuster, which expects to close 500 to 545 stores this year (CED Feb 26 p3), also is weighing outsourcing its main 850,000-square-foot distribution center in McKinney, Texas, that employs 910, the company said. Blockbuster has 38 smaller distribution facilities spread across the U.S. for its by-mail subscription service. If Blockbuster can’t meet its capital needs with cash on hand, it will consider other options including restructuring debt and filing for bankruptcy, the 10-K said.

LAS VEGAS -- No one knows for sure for how many hours people can view a 3D movie without suffering eye fatigue, headaches or other ill effects, Paul Panabaker, the chief technology officer of Master Image, which supplies 3D digital cinema systems and polarized 3D glasses to theaters, told theater owners Tuesday at a 3D seminar at the ShoWest trade show. “There’s a few guys out there trying to study that right now,” Panabaker said at the seminar, sponsored by the International Cinema Technology Association.

Utilities should be allowed to use the public safety wireless broadband network in the 700 MHz band to promote grid reliability and efficiency and Congress must consider amending the Communications Act to make it possible, the FCC said in a National Broadband Plan released Tuesday. The commission devoted an entire section to the “important” role broadband and advanced communications would play in achieving energy independence and efficiency.