Rovi hopes to have the first CE manufacturers signed on for its TotalGuide electronic program guide by late March and deliver the source code for it in Q2, company officials said in a conference call.

Pharmaceutical companies have been hesitant to join the social media world to the same extent that other industries have because of unclear guidelines, speakers told a Food and Drug Administration panel investigating how FDA-regulated medical products can be promoted via the Internet and social media. Industry and Internet speakers suggested the Internet is a superior medium for meeting FDA goals of disclosure because it doesn’t face the time or space limitations of print or broadcast advertising. Online discussions will reach people where they are and have the potential to improve public health, some said. But at least one speaker, from the National Research Center for Women & Families, viewed industry comments with skepticism and said the FDA should do more to regulate and enforce rules of direct-to-consumer advertising, in all mediums.

Hoping to fill a high-end TV niche that companies like Pioneer and Runco once occupied, specialty TV supplier NuVision met with dealers at the exclusive Soho House members’ club in Manhattan this week to re-launch its brand of upscale LCD TVs. It came armed with new financial backing from a Weston, Conn.-based investment firm, Cat Trail Capital.

ICANN must be fully independent and accountable as of Oct. 1, EU Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said Monday. With ICANN’s joint project agreement with the U.S. Commerce Department due to expire Sept. 30, the European Commission also wants ICANN subject to review by an independent judicial body, and a “G12 for Internet Governance” in which to discuss general policy and security issues, Reding said in a video on her Web site. Meanwhile, members of the ICANN community disagreed on what Internet governance means.

As DivX prepares to bundle Google’s Chrome browser with downloads of its video software, it’s suing Yahoo for breaching an earlier toolbar agreement. The trouble began Nov. 11 when Yahoo told DivX it was “repudiating” their two- year agreement and “demanded” to renegotiate the deal, DivX alleges in the suit. It was filed in California Superior Court in Santa Clara. Yahoo wanted changed payment terms and argued that the DivX pact “had been not economically viable,” the suit said. A Yahoo spokesman declined to comment.

As DivX prepares to bundle Google’s Chrome browser with downloads of its video software, it’s suing Yahoo for breaching an earlier toolbar agreement. The trouble began Nov. 11 when Yahoo told DivX it was “repudiating” their two- year agreement and “demanded” to renegotiate the deal, DivX alleges in the suit. It was filed in California Superior Court in Santa Clara. Yahoo wanted changed payment terms and argued that the DivX pact “had been not economically viable,” the suit said. A Yahoo spokesman declined to comment.

“It is not unusual” for PS3 users who've signed up for the open PlayStation Home beta test to spend “upwards of 40 to 50 minutes” at a time using the 3-D virtual online world, PlayStation Home Director Jack Buser said Wednesday at the Engage Expo in New York. Users are “spending significant amounts of time inside PlayStation Home,” exploring with their avatars, downloading content and performing other activities, he said. About 5 million PS3 users have downloaded PlayStation Home, about 2.2 million in the U.S. and Canada, Buser said. He declined to say when the beta test will end and the official launch will come. Buser also declined to say whether Home will be eventually extended onto a future Sony console. The online efforts of Nintendo and Microsoft with the Wii and Xbox 360 pale in comparison with what Home offers, Buser said. Home’s more realistic avatars that come with virtual living spaces users can personalize are superior to what the competitors offer, he said. “Avatars without a space” are “pointless” because spaces can define a gamer as much as the avatar itself, if not more, Buser said. Of Sony’s console competitors, he said, “the other guys haven’t even woken up” when it comes to significant online efforts. Home users have indicated that they want content and activities added regularly and Sony is trying to comply, he said, telling the conference there will be a “ton of content,” including new mini games made available in 2009. Home is “a revenue driver” for Sony, as well as “a differentiator” against competing consoles, Buser said. More Home content will be developed by companies other than Sony, he said. The biggest challenge for Sony is “how fast” it can “execute on this opportunity,” he said. This is the third year that Show Initiative has produced the conference, but the first time under the Engage Expo name. It used to be part of the Virtual Worlds Conference, held in 2007 and 2008 in New York. Show Initiative decided to split the event for 2009, targeting the consumer market with the Engage Expo and businesses for its coming 3D Training, Learning and Collaboration conference in Washington, April 20-21, Executive Director Christopher Sherman told Consumer Electronics Daily. About 600 people registered to attend the Engage Expo this week, but it’s too early to say where registration will come in for the other conference, he said. Sherman said he’s happy with the 600 and would be happy if 300 register for the April conference. Combined, that would represent a dip in attendance from the 1,200 who attended Virtual Worlds last year, he told us. But “given the state of the economy,” he said 900 attendees for the conferences this year would be fine.

“It is not unusual” for PS3 users who've signed up for the open PlayStation Home beta test to spend “upwards of 40 to 50 minutes” at a time using the 3-D virtual online world, PlayStation Home Director Jack Buser said Wednesday at the Engage Expo in New York. Users are “spending significant amounts of time inside PlayStation Home,” exploring with their avatars, downloading content and performing other activities, he said. About 5 million PS3 users have downloaded PlayStation Home, about 2.2 million in the U.S. and Canada, Buser said. He declined to say when the beta test will end and the official launch will come. Buser also declined to say whether Home will be eventually extended onto a future Sony console. The online efforts of Nintendo and Microsoft with the Wii and Xbox 360 pale in comparison with what Home offers, Buser said. Home’s more realistic avatars that come with virtual living spaces users can personalize are superior to what the competitors offer, he said. “Avatars without a space” are “pointless” because spaces can define a gamer as much as the avatar itself, if not more, Buser said. Of Sony’s console competitors, he said, “the other guys haven’t even woken up” when it comes to significant online efforts. Home users have indicated that they want content and activities added regularly and Sony is trying to comply, he said, telling the conference there will be a “ton of content,” including new mini games made available in 2009. Home is “a revenue driver” for Sony, as well as “a differentiator” against competing consoles, Buser said. More Home content will be developed by companies other than Sony, he said. The biggest challenge for Sony is “how fast” it can “execute on this opportunity,” he said.

NEW ORLEANS -- Pioneer’s decision to exit the plasma TV business has left Nationwide buying group member dealers scrambling to find replacement lines, executives said at the group’s Primetime meeting here. In some cases, they're finding no replacements at all and so are giving the bulk of their businesses to LCD TVs, they said.

Qualcomm officials had a meeting at the FCC at which they explained that, “contrary to the claims of the advocates of the unlicensed white space,” unlicensed use of the TV white spaces will not support provision of broadband in rural areas, the company said in an ex parte. Qualcomm said 700 MHz spectrum sold on a licensed basis to carriers is much more effective for providing wireless Internet. “Even taking into account the propagation of a signal from an unlicensed transmitter in the TV white space, the much higher power which can be used in licensed spectrum to cover wide areas without causing interference makes it vastly superior to an unlicensed service,” Qualcomm said.