Sony Corp is bringing baseball to America's living rooms on its PlayStation 3 video game console

Sony Corp is bringing baseball to America’s living rooms on its PlayStation 3 video game console, ratcheting up the competition in the race to become the digital hub of the home.Sony not only ups the ante in its rivalry with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, but also positions itself as something of a challenger to cable companies and satellite television providers that have long been broadcasting sports to viewers in the United States.”This is one of the biggest deals we’re bringing to the PS3, and it won’t be the last one, there’s lots of conversations going on,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Sony, which has an installed base of 12 million PS3 consoles in the United States, will offer games in high-definition through Major League Baseball’s MLB.TV, an Internet subscription service that is already available on computers and smartphones.MLB charges $25 a month, or $120 a year, for a premium subscription.Sony designed a custom interface for the offering, and users can scroll through live-streaming or archived games. The PS3 provides the functionality of a digital video recorder, allowing viewers to pause, fast-forward and rewind, and to jump to a particular inning in any game on the schedule.

However, users will not be able to watch live games of teams in their local market, which are subject to local blackout rules.PS3 users will need to be subscribers to the free PlayStation Network (PSN) to access MLB.TV. PSN has 20 million members in North America.

Sony and Microsoft have been duking it out to control entertainment in the living room beyond games, offering movies, shows and videos through their subscriber networks, PSN and Xbox Live.Both offer streaming movies through Netflix, and have been hunting for deals that can help transform their gaming consoles into one-stop-shops for content.”We’re excited about bringing MLB onto the console this is something you can’t find on any other console,” Dille said.

In Europe, Microsoft has struck deals with Vivendi unit Canal Plus and British pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB to provide content through the console, including soccer matches.Sony’s PS3 has trailed Nintendo’s Wii, the market leader, and the Xbox in the U.S. market, although the PS3 has generated momentum since a price cut to $299 last year.MLB.TV is also available on the Roku set-top box and through media provider Boxee.(Reuters)

Tobacco companies defended menthol cigarettes to a U.S. advisory panel on Wednesday

Tobacco companies defended menthol cigarettes to a U.S. advisory panel on Wednesday as health advocates called for a government ban on the popular flavoring.About 19 million Americans smoke menthol cigarettes. Health advocates say the minty flavor masks the harshness of tobacco, making it easier to start smoking and harder to quit.

Manufacturers told a Food and Drug Administration panel that adding menthol did not make a cigarette more harmful or addictive.”Overall the weight of scientific evidence indicates menthol does not change the inherent health risks of cigarette smoking,” said James Dillard, a senior vice president at Altria, which sells menthol versions of its Marlboro brand cigarettes.

The panel of outside experts is studying the health effects of menthol and is due to submit a report by March 2011. The FDA eventually could ban menthol, although some activists and industry analysts doubt that will happen. Stronger warnings or advertising limits are other possibilities.Any government action against menthol could be a blow to Lorillard, the nation’s third-largest cigarette company and maker of the top-selling menthol brand Newport.

A 2009 tobacco law banned cigarette flavors such as chocolate, clove and fruit that could lure children. But Congress exempted menthol, the most popular flavoring with about 27 percent of the cigarette market, and instead called for an FDA review.The issue is racially sensitive as blacks overwhelmingly favor menthol and suffer more from smoking-related illnesses and deaths than whites. A government survey showed 83 percent of adult black smokers chose menthol cigarettes.The American Academy of Pediatrics and others urged a ban on menthol flavoring, telling the FDA panel that it appealed to young people.

“Menthol has become the industry’s last holdout and last hope for disguising the taste of tobacco… we should not allow companies to sweeten the poison,” said Brandel France de Bravo of the National Research Center for Women & Families, a consumer group.

R.J. Reynolds said there was no evidence of greater health risks with menthol.”There is no scientific basis to treat menthol cigarettes differently than regular cigarettes,” said Michael Ogden, an official with Reynolds American unit R.J. Reynolds, which markets menthol-flavored Camels.Lorillard Senior Vice President Bill True said there was no data to show that youth smoking rates would drop if menthol cigarettes were no longer available.

Advisory committee members drafted a broad list of questions they wanted the industry to answer in time for the next public meeting, expected in a few months.The topics included lists of menthol content by brand, data on consumer perceptions of menthol’s effects and details on any marketing campaigns aimed at particular groups.The FDA will seek answers from the manufacturers and provide information to the committee, agency spokeswoman Kathleen Quinn said.(Reuters)

anadian government approved for telecom Globalive Wireless Management Corp

telecom Globalive

The Canadian government said Friday that it has approved a request from Egyptian-backed telecom Globalive Wireless Management Corp. to launch its mobile phone service in Canada.

It will be the fourth major wireless company serving Canada, competing with Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said the federal cabinet has determined Globalive meets Canadian ownership requirements, reversing an earlier ruling by the country’s federal telecom regulator.

“Now we’re ready for action,” Globalive CEO and Chairman Anthony Lacavera told cheering supporters in Toronto. “We could be launching as early as next week.”

“The objective is to have a few–quite a few–WIND Mobiles under your Christmas tree,” Ken Campbell, CEO of WIND Mobile, the brand name Globalive will operate under across Canada.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission had turned down Globalive’s request in October because it is majority funded and controlled by Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Holding, the Middle East’s largest telecommunications operator by market capitalization.

Orascom, which is controlled by Egyptian telecommunications mogul Naguib Sawiris, holds 65 percent of parent company Globalive Holdings, while Canadian entrepreneur and Globalive chairman Anthony Lacavera owns the rest. Orascom also holds much of Globalive’s debt.

But Clement said 80 percent of Globalive’s voting shares are held by Canadians and the wireless company, which is based in Toronto, should be considered Canadian.

“We came to the conclusion the lender had influence over the company, which is perfectly acceptable under our legislation, it did not have control over the company,” Clement said. “This variance is effective immediately allowing Globalive to enter the market without delay.”

Globalive’s arrival is expected to put pressure on consumer prices across the industry, as it heralds the entry of more players into the market opened up through an auction of wireless spectrum in 2008. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s annual Communications Outlook study, published in August, found that Canada has the third-highest wireless rates among developed countries after the United States and Spain.

In that auction, Globalive paid 442 million Canadian dollars ($419 million) for airwaves over which to operate and has invested millions more in its network and employees.

Globalive has already hired 800 employees and approximately half have already finished their training and are now doing paid volunteer work at organizations such as food banks, boys and girls groups, literacy groups and the Salvation Army.

The telecom regulator reviewed Globalive’s corporate structure last spring and decided its operations would contravene the Telecommunications Act that stipulated companies be controlled by Canadian interests. That decision flew in the face of an earlier review by Industry Canada that gave the company a license in the interest of promoting competition.

The Canadian government, wanting to spark more competition in the telecommunications business, reviewed the earlier ruling with input from the industry.

And Clement said last week that the federal cabinet has the power to overrule the telecommunications regulator and that Globalive was entitled to launch its own protest.

Clement stressed that Friday’s announcement was not giving Globalive special treatment.

“Let me state for the record, government is not removing, reducing, bending or creating an exception to Canadian ownership and control requirements in the telecommunications and broadcast industries,” he said.

Rogers Communications, BCE and Telus, which together control 95 percent of the Canadian market, lobbied to halt Globalive’s advances, saying Globalive was breaking the Telecom Act because it was under foreign control.

“It’s disappointing, as we think Globalive quite clearly does not meet the requirements for Canadian control,” said Bell Canada spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis. “We’ll be taking a close look at the reasoning behind this decision.”

Michael Hennessy, senior vice president of Telus’s regulatory and government affairs, said the ruling “has established an enormous precedent going forward as to how people are supposed to interpret our Canadian ownership laws.”

“This could be enormous from airlines to banks to telecom to broadcasting,” he said.

But Rogers said competition is good for Canadian consumers.

“We’ve always thrived in a competitive environment and we’re ready to meet the competition head on,” said spokeswoman Odette Coleman.

Deloitte Canada analyst Duncan Stewart said the federal government wants more competition in the cell phone industry. Globalive is probably the new competitor that the established players fear the most, said Stewart.

Shares in the major telecoms dropped Friday in early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Rogers shares fell 3.4 percent to 32.25 Canadian dollars, Bell Canada parent BCE’s stock was off 2.4 percent at 27.75 Canadian dollars and Telus stock slipped 1.7 percent to 33.10 Canadian dollars.