Excellent post here at The Legion of Decency with analysis of and commentary on the latest round of CRTC rulings. The key points:

1. Private Broadcasters have the right to charge fees for formerly free-to-air broadcasts on cable and satellite.

2. Private broadcasters have the right to Blackout signals for which they own Canadian rights.

3. “Programs of National Interest” replaces Priority programming and is redefined to comprise only drama and comedy, feature documentaries and Award shows.

4. 30% of network gross income must be spent on Canadian programming (5% on Programs of National Interest).

5. Total Canadian Content on Canadian networks reduced from 60% to 55%.

7. Reduced restrictions on where a network’s Canadian Production spend is exhibited. With as much as 25% movable anywhere within the conglomerate holdings.

8. CMF investment no longer counted as part of broadcaster programming spend.

The rest gets a bit inside baseball unless you’re in the industry or follow it closely, but there’s plenty good there too. Point number two is the one that may cause waves, as Dennis points out, since it favours the broadcasters but requires action by the cable companies:

Canada’s top two cablers aren’t going to make it that easy. They’re set to announce by end of business that they’re pulling all U.S. network feeds from the cable packages in sixty days. This will predictably cause outrage and hate from customers, which the companies will blame entirely on the networks…

This is happening at a time when it is arguably easier for me to bootleg TV shows than watch them in the sanctioned ways. It is laughable. Ha! Well, except for the enormous wasted opportunities and the dire condition of our national culture industry. That is more like cryable. Cry!

The problem with the Canadian TV industry in a nutshell is that all these guys, broadcast networks and cable & satellite companies alike, make their money showing American TV to Canadians. That’s not exactly a valuable service these days. Years ago, the US channels that were reliant on non-exclusive content like movies or syndicated shows realized they had to have some actual exclusive shows to attract viewers and to gain leverage in the New World of post-internet entertainment, where content is suddenly available through a million different avenues. That’s why we got The Sopranos (HBO), Mad Men (AMC), Breaking Bad, etc. etc. The Canadian industry could have learned this lesson long ago and actually started investing in Canadian shows. It would have hurt them financially for a few years, but eventually paid off as they could sell the shows to the US and elsewhere (did you know The Listener is a big hit in Italy?). But no, they do the bare minimum required by their pal CRTC and then defend their relic of a business model by imposing false scarcity in an age of information abundance.

Here’s an interesting article speculating on the economics of Dr. Horrible, and Joss Whedon himself weighed in to say it is “sensible.” Long and short of it is that the show would need to sell about 100,000 copies on iTunes to see a modest profit, and more like a million to compete with Hollywood paychecks for the creators involved (assuming a budget of $250,000). This is before any DVD revenue is taken into account.

I think we can assume Dr. Horrible will make money for its makers, but is there anything more we can take away from it? Joss Whedon is, after all, a special case within a special case – he has a pro budget and talent pool, and beyond that a rabid extant fan base. But nothing about the success of this show means much for amateur creators, those who couldn’t get Neil Patrick Harris to work for scale, and couldn’t afford to pay him scale anyway. There still doesn’t seem to be a system that can help such talent succeed, other than “get a million viewers on YouTube.” That’s not a system, that’s the problem already solved. A million viewers, whether on the web or on TV, spells success. It’s how to get there that counts. (I know this isn’t Joss’ fault, it’s just you get to thinkin’.)

That’s enough of that particular subject. Soon: Dark Knight!

For every article that’s positive about the PSP (like the previous post), you’ll find one that’s negative. Take this interview with a Sony rep at IGN. There’s four pages of optimistic-yet-vague PR speak, then the final page, in which the IGN editors get pretty goddamn negative on the poor ol’ PSP.

In This Reporter’s Opinion? Yeah, Sony is messing a lot of things up. They claim the PSP is a multimedia machine, but getting movies onto it, especially if you’re a Mac user, couldn’t be much harder without requiring you to pitch a perfect game and then split the atom. And frankly, who’s going to want it for that when the iPod experience is so seamless? It has so much potential, but Sony takes months if not years to bring out new features. Meanwhile, homebrew developers run free being all awesome, giving people all the more reason to run custom firmware, and at that point, why would they pay for games? Which just makes software sales worse. The fact that it’s as expensive to develop for as the PS2, without the benefit of the massive install base, must make it even harder to get third party publishers interested.

That said, it has enough great games in its back catalogue to warrant a buy. And it’s great hardware, with a great screen. For most people, I’d recommend a DS, but there are reasons to get the PSP instead. Or hell, get both!

Honestly? I think its troubles get a lot of ink because we can’t pretend any other console has any troubles right now. People especially like giving Sony a hard time, and you can’t really do that over the PS3 at the moment.

What’s up with the PSP? Is it riding the boxcars, bindle on shoulder, swilling rat whisky? Recently an article cropped up titled Ubisoft Urges Sony to Act on Directionless PSP, claiming publishers are abandoning the platform since Sony can’t provide a clear direction. Sky is falling! Except the quote comes from Ubi’s UK managing director, and yes, sales are weak in Europe. But they are far from weak in Japan, where the PSP regularly outsells the Wii. In April in North America, the PSP sold more than the PS3 and Xbox 360 (although they all lagged far behind both Nintendo platforms).

More interesting, perhaps, is this article, which spells out Sony’s, er, direction for the platform, while also filling in some of its background:

When Sony first launched the PSP it had targeted mostly professionals, 28 to 40 years old, who would take it to work every day on subways, trains and taxis. Since then, the purchase demographics have slowly evolved, getting younger and younger, said John Koller, Sony Computer Entertainment PSP senior marketing manager.

The audience has also become more multi-ethnic, with heavy use among urban teens, 15 to 16 years old, from Hispanic, African-American and Asian communities.

That said, Sony seems to have trouble making up their mind about what direction to take. At one point “Sony’s forthcoming marketing efforts will start to put more emphasis on women,” but then the big marketing pushes will include the God of War bundle, a NFL film bundle and a GPS add-on, which are hardly things women are clamouring for. It does seem that emphasizing the system’s non-game functions distinguishes it from the DS, but then that’s hardly the sort of thing that will make game industry folk like Mr. Ubisoft very happy. Oh well.

Bottom line: the system is doing well, so nobody panic.

Leigh Alexander of Sexy Videogameland is writing for Kotaku now and has an excellent article about what’s really happening with EA’s hostile takeover bid of Take Two, publisher of Grand Theft Auto IV, Bioshock and the 2K Sports series. The article is based on interviews with analysts who generally think Take Two should sell, since the $26 per share EA is offering is generous, and points out that Take Two chairman Strauss Zelnick has a lot of stock in his company that he wouldn’t get if the EA buyout went through, so perhaps his interests and his company’s aren’t entirely aligned. Deep in the comments, though, a Take Two employee points out that Zelnick’s specialty is preparing companies for sale, and so the board may simply think that the company will be worth more once their restructuring is complete in a couple years. We’ll know more tomorrow anyway, as shit is bound to go down at Take Two’s shareholder’s meeting.

We discussed the takeover on a recent Robot Sounds, but from the angle of what it means for gamers. If it goes through, seeing as EA is likely to kill 2K Sports, it’s hard to view it as a positive thing.

In North America anyway! Ha! Scrabble has launched their official version on Facebook but because of certain legal issues it can’t be played in the the States or Canada.

That’s hilarious!

I don’t Facebook myself but I know many who do and also play the much adored ripoff. I just think it’s funny that the “official” version of a game can’t be played in the hotspot of activity that started the whole desire to make an “official” version in the first place!

Toku, Nadine and D discuss the news of the day, including the February console sales figures, a potential ‘open platform’ console/gaming PC from Acer, and the pricing issues with downloadable content.

The music: the tracks “Dirty Cartridge” and “For the Meek” by NES musician SLiVeR, available here from the Pterodactyl Squad, a video game music netlabel. The album is awesome, and free, so go get it!

Angry Robot Sounds 12 (31MB mp3, 32mins)

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So this interesting tidbit quotes Activision CEO Bobby Kotick on the crazy mad success of World of Warcraft.

Seems the juggernaut really can’t be stopped…or the business model to defeat it hasn’t yet been formulated.

I’m going to get geeky now.

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Yeah, I bet they do:

They see the videogame business as an opportunity for significant growth, especially compared to their more mature, traditional businesses such as television and movies. Box office revenue inched 4.0% higher last year, in large part because of ticket price increases, while home-video sales declined 3.2%, according to Adams Media Research. In contrast, videogames are the fastest growing sector of entertainment, with sales in the U.S. rising 34% last year to $8.64 billion, according to NPD Group Inc.

Prepare for Scary Movie 6: The Game.

Last week, Nadine and I attended the launch party for N+, the Xbox Live version of N, Metanet Software’s kickass ninja platforming flash game (which you can get right here) N+ is coming to the ‘Arcade on wednesday. It’s also in development for the DS and PSP.

The party was at the Gladstone Hotel. There was a little play area for trying out the game. Why not experience it in video form, it’s like you’re really there!

And then read on for the interview with the creators of N and N+, the charming Reigan Burns and Mare Sheppard. Symbolically anyways, it’s robots interviewing ninjas.

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To double-dip in the ‘NPD group sales reports’ dip bowl: January sales reports are in, and the PS3 has outsold the 360, PSP and the DS for the month. And with 269,000 units to the Wii’s 274,000, damned near beat out the Wii, too, which would have taken a dump in everyone’s “casual games are the future” theories.

OK let me never again mention dump-taking and dip bowls in the same paragraph.

Why did this happen? Well, there’s that thing called Blu-Ray. Also, supplies of both other consoles may have been constrained. And I do think the 360’s hardware problems are catching up with it – more than once, people asking me for console-buying advice have voiced concern that the 360 would fall apart on them.

Game Software (in units sold)
1) Halo 3 (360, Microsoft) – 4.82 million
2) Wii Play with Wii Remote (Wii, Nintendo) – 4.12 million
3) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360, Activision) – 3.04 million
4) Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2, Activision) – 2.72 million
5) Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo) – 2.52 million
6) Pokémon Diamond (DS, Nintendo) – 2.48 million
7) Madden NFL 08 (PS2, Electronic Arts) – 1.9 million
8) Guitar Hero II (PS2, Activision) – 1.89 million
9) Assassin’s Creed (360, Ubisoft) – 1.87 million
10) Mario Party 8 (Wii, Nintendo) – 1.82 million
(via)

The New York Times analyzes the numbers and concludes that it’s evidence of a sea change from hardcore to casual, given the success of the Wii and Guitar Hero, the lack of PS3 titles and top-reviewed games Bioshock and The Orange Box. What do you think?

So says an NDP Group Report that from what I can tell isn’t publically available. There’s this brief press release, that’s about it. Ars mentions Nintendo, of course, but without seeing the study it’s hard to know: what are these people playing on? I’m guessing they’re counting PC Solitaire, as they usually do.

At ars, Jacqui Cheng debunks the Microsoft HD/DVD conspiracy theories. Or does she? She notes that there’s no proof that Microsoft wants to keep the format wars going in order to champion (Microsoft-supplied) downloads. But where’s the proof that they want to win?

If Microsoft wanted the format wars over and a clear winner decided, they would either a) not be in bed with Toshiba behind the HD DVD format, ceding the fight to Sony’s Blu-Ray or b) put everything at their disposal into HD DVD. Have they really done the latter? Microsoft still doesn’t include an HD DVD drive with the Xbox 360 – they sell an add-on drive. While the drive is cheap (now $129 in the US, $200 in Canada), it’s still $579 for the console + drive, while the entry-level PS3, with its built-in Blu-Ray drive, is $400. So if they were really trying to battle Blu-Ray, they’d be competing on price at the very least.

Microsoft makes no money from Blu-Ray, whereas they earn licensing fees from HD DVDs, and they must take a substantial cut from their own digital downloads. They clearly don’t want Blu-Ray to win, but the question of how badly they want HD DVD to win could be answered if you knew how much money they made from downloads vs. HD DVD. Since we don’t know that, we can only speculate… and from their actions, they’re not backing HD DVD that hard.

Why do all the games come out right now? Kyle Orland’s got an article in the Escapist exploring that question. Short answer: it’s the time of year where non-gamers by games (for gamers), and publishers consider a small piece of a big pie better than a big piece of a much smaller, springtime pie.

While I’m at it, there’s also an interview with a Sony guy in MTV Multiplayer about the new, relatively unknown PSP download store.

OK, here’s a problem: the PSP download store doesn’t support Macs.

Yup. Despite Microsoft’s year-long head start. And lookit poor Sony, with not even half of either competitor’s numbers.