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Main Stories
o Charter Files Lawsuit to Block RIAA Subpoenas for Subscriber Identities
o "Minor Snags" Delay Vivendi, NBC Merger Deal
o Nokia to Launch $299 N-Gage Hybrid Phone/Video Game on Tuesday
o Vodafone, 3 UK Sign Mobile Video Deal with English Soccer League

o Briefly Noted: mmO2 - wireless video service, TiVo - Coca-Cola - "Sound Check," Rockstar Games - "Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne," THQ - "Scooby Doo Two: Monsters Unleashed," Midway Games, Namco - "Spawn: Armageddon," Atari - Humongous Entertainment, Portal Software - Vivendi Universal Games, Celecast, MPAA - studios' specialty divisions - "screener" controversy

St. Louis -- Charter Communications, the nation's third-largest cable TV operator and a provider of high-speed cable Internet services, has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block subpoenas seeking the identities of some of its subscribers that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) believes are online music pirates, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. "We are the only major cable company that has not as yet provided the RIAA a single datum of information," Tom Hearity, vice president and associate general counsel for Charter, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The company said that it is asking the court to quash RIAA subpoenas for the identities of 150 Charter Internet subscribers. Charter reported having 1.38 million broadband Internet subscribers as of June 30. In addition to Charter, fellow ISPs Verizon and Pacific Bell Internet Services, a division of telco SBC, have filed lawsuits to block RIAA subpoenas for their subscribers' identities.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z52621F16
http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2003/10/06/charter/index.html
http://www.charter.com
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o "Minor Snags" Delay Vivendi, NBC Merger Deal

Paris -- Last-minute snags delayed the highly anticipated merger deal between Vivendi Universal and General Electric (GE) last week, according to news reports on Monday. Executives from GE's television broadcaster NBC and French media conglomerate Vivendi are reportedly ironing out a few minor issues concerning taxes and minority shareholders. The $40-billion deal is expected to be finalized by week's end. Neither Vivendi nor NBC would comment on the deal's progression, however.
http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/vu/en/home/index.cfm 
http://www.ge.com/en
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o Nokia to Launch $299 N-Gage Hybrid Phone/Video Game on Tuesday

Helsinki -- Cell phone maker Nokia is set to begin selling its N-Gage hybrid mobile phone/handheld video game device on Tuesday, and hopes to sell "several million N-Gage units in 2004," Nokia Mobile Phones spokesman Kari Tuutti told Reuters. The company will host parties at midnight tonight in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago-area Electronics Boutique retail stores, so gamers may purchase an N-Gage as soon as they go on sale. Nokia's N-Gage will be offered in over 30,000 retail outlets in 60 countries, and will sell for $299 in the U.S., around $382 in the U.K., and for about $410 in continental Europe. Games for the device, which also offers an MP3 player and FM radio tuner, will initially include titles like "NCAA Football 2004," "Red Faction" and "Tomb Raider," with Nokia expecting 20 games to be available by the end of the year.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031006/65391_1.html
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I2D212F16 
http://www.n-gage.com
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o Vodafone, 3 UK Sign Mobile Video Deal with English Soccer League

London -- Vodafone and 3 UK announced that they have won the rights to beam highlights of England's Premiership League football to their customers' phones. 3 UK, which earlier this year launched the country's first 3G mobile service, currently holds the mobile rights to previews, archive footage, league round-ups, scores and audio bulletins. Vodafone says that it plans to launch its 3G service next year. The two companies will split the costs of the mobile broadcasts down the middle, a 3G UK spokesman said.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?J598351E5 
http://www.three.co.uk/index.omp

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(London) British wireless carrier mmO2 on Monday unveiled a new mobile video service that allows customers to download or stream video content over its existing network. Over the next two months, customers will be able to access video clips from this year's Rugby World Cup in Australia. The company also said that the service would be provided free of charge until Jan. 31. A similar video service will be rolled out in Germany and Ireland sometime next year. The service is currently supported by the Nokia 3650 and Sony Ericsson P800 phones.
http://www.mmo2.com/docs/media/press_releases.html

(San Jose, Calif.) TiVo, a maker of digital video recorders that can pause and record live television, announced on Monday that The Coca-Cola Company has signed on to sponsor "Sound Check," a 25-minute entertainment program featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes content from recording artists on labels including Geffen and Interscope A&M. The monthly music program will be promoted to TiVo subscribers, and automatically recorded to the TiVo hard drive of those interested in receiving the program. The first Sound Check will feature artists including Ashanti, Sting, Mary J. Blige and Leona Naess.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031006/sfm094_1.html 
http://www.tivo.com

(New York) Rockstar Games, the game publishing unit of Take-Two Interactive Software responsible for the popular "Grand Theft Auto" game franchise, announced on Monday that its "Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne" PC game has "gone gold" and entered the manufacturing process. Developed by Finland-based Remedy Entertainment, the game will ship in North America on Oct. 15 and in Europe on Oct. 24; versions of the game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox will also go on sale on Dec. 3.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031006/65299_1.html 
http://www.rockstargames.com 
http://www.remedy.fi

(Calabasas Hills, Calif.) Game developer THQ said on Monday that it has begun development on "Scooby Doo Two: Monsters Unleashed," based on the Warner Bros. Studios film of the same name, for Nintendo Game Boy Advance and the PC. The games are scheduled to ship in early 2004, in conjunction with the theatrical release of the movie.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031006/65163_1.html 
http://www.thq.com

(Chicago) Game developer Midway Games said on Monday that it will re-launch its "Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance" title for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube with a new $19.99 price tag. The game achieved "Greatest Hits" status for PlayStation 2 by selling over 450,000 units on the platform; it also achieved "Platinum Hits" for the Xbox by selling 400,000 units, and made the Nintendo "Player's Choice" standard for selling over 250,000 units.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031006/65267_1.html 
http://www.midway.com

(San Jose, Calif.) Namco Hometek, the U.S. arm of the Japanese game developer, announced on Monday that it will release "Spawn: Armageddon" for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, a collaboration with comic legend Todd McFarlane, in November. The company also announced that the game will feature the heretofore mysterious "Mammon" character that has not yet figured prominently in the "Spawn" comic or video game series.
http://www.namco.com/news/31 
http://www.spawn.com

(Beverly, Mass.) Video game publisher Atari announced on Monday that it has shipped two new PC titles developed by Bothell, Wash.-based Humongous Entertainment. The company began selling Humongous' original titles "Pajama Sam: Life is Rough When You Lose Your Stuff" and "Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise" on Monday. Atari said that 2.5 million "Pajama Sam" games and over 5 million "Putt-Putt" games have been sold to date.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031006/65047_1.html 
http://www.atarikids.com 
http://www.funkidsgames.com

(Cupertino, Calif.) Portal Software, a provider of billing and subscriber management software, announced on Monday that Vivendi Universal Games will use its software to power the billing service for its online massively multiplayer games. The software will let VU Games quickly offer new game titles with different subscription models, multiple payment methods and promotional bundles.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031006/65277_1.html 
http://www.vugames.com 
http://www.portal.com

(San Francisco) Wired News on Monday reported on Celecast, a Georgia-based start-up offering college football fans the ability to listen to streaming audio versions of games on their cell phones. Celecast uses a network that gathers broadcasts from different schools' radio-rights holders, using satellite and coupler links, and then routes an individual game broadcast to the appropriate subscriber's phone. The service charges $10 for one week's games, or up to $90 for an entire season.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60670,00.html
http://www.celecast.com

(New York) IndieWire.com on Monday continued its coverage of the controversy surrounding the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) decision to cease distributing "screener" copies of Oscar-hopeful films on DVD and VHS to voting Academy members, who otherwise may not see smaller-budget films produced by independent studios or the specialty film divisions within the studios supporting the ban. A group of executives from independent film studios and the major studios' specialty divisions -- including Focus Features, Miramax, Sony Pictures Classics, and United Artists -- met on Friday via conference call, which resulted in a joint letter sent to MPAA CEO Jack Valenti, questioning the reasoning behind the ban and offering solutions to the piracy issue that come short of a ban on screeners.
http://www.indiewire.com/biz/biz_031006screener.html

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