Panasonic, Philips and Sony jointly announced today that they are planning to create a new licensing firm for Blu-ray patents, making it much easier for potential licensees than the current process is.
The new license will cover all essential Blu-ray patents and should be introduced by the start of the Q3 2009. The firm would be overseen by a licensing company in the US and run by Gerald Rosenthal, the former head of intellectual property at IBM.
The three companies noted, and rightfully so, that joining forces would make licensing fees cheaper for potential licensees.
“By establishing a new licensing entity that offers a single license for Blu-ray Disc products at attractive rates, I am confident that it will foster the growth of the Blu-ray Disc market and serve the interest of all companies participating in this market, be it as licensee or licensor,” Rosenthal added.
Result for: q3
According to a WSJ report, Comcast and Time Warner are considering giving paying cable subscribers access to cable programming online, at no added cost.
Negotiations with content holders have been ongoing for months, and the report specifically notes Viacom and NBC Universal as being interested parties. Those companies own many of the most popular cable networks including TNT, USA and the MTV family.
The new Web services, which could launch as soon as the Q3 2009, should help attract new subscribers, says the cable companies although it will have to compete with free ad-supported sites such as Hulu and TV.com.
Sources familiar to the situation added that the “proposed Web services would likely be in a streaming format with ads, accessible in and out of the home, and without any additional charge to cable-TV subscribers.”
Brian Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast added, “online video is our friend, not our enemy.”
Result for: q3
Vizio has announced that they have surpassed Sony as the second-biggest seller of HDTVs in the United States, as of the 4Q 2008.
According to figures from iSuppli, Vizio accounted for over 14 percent of LCD and Plasma shipments, up 3.11 percent from the Q3. Sony fell 0.42 percent to 13.5 and Samsung remained the leader at 20.2 percent despite a small drop of 0.62 percent from the Q3.
Panasonic rose 3.12 percent for the quarter to settle in fourth place.
“Vizio’s success in the fourth quarter was partly due to increasing brand recognition, courtesy of the company’s strong marketing efforts and retail strategy,” iSuppli analyst Riddhi Patel added.
“This is an indication that in the present tough economic climate, consumers are becoming less brand conscious and prefer televisions that they perceive to have good picture quality and that are less expensive compared to the competition, rather than seeking models with a lot of extra features,” Patel concluded.
