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Gaming industry executives gather for an online round panel exploring several industry developments that are leading to increasing growth in the video game sector. Increased broadband access, open platforms, new platforms and other structural developments are cited.

Discussion of whether Google will leave China with comments from Chinese bloggers and media analysts.

I just played the first hour of Final Fantasy XIII and it got me thinking that Square is onto something with its flagship series: take calculated risks and change up the formula, keep it interesting but keep it familiar.

"Taiwanese regulator the National Communications Commission (NCC) has revised its mobile TV licensing plans, announcing that, contrary to its previous announcement, only one concession will be awarded in 2010. As reported by CommsUpdate on 18 January 2010, the NCC revealed that it planned to award two operators concessions for mobile TV services, allocating each licensee 6MHz in the 600MHz frequency band across which it will deliver 18-20 programme channels using either the Qualcomm-developed MediaFLO or DVB-H as its mobile TV standard."

Electronic Arts will be moving away from distributing externally-developed games to focus more on its internal titles, which can generate higher margins, the company said Monday, and it plans to keep its headcount steady through its upcoming fiscal year.

The University of California at Los Angeles on Wednesday announced that it will continue streaming copyrighted videos in online "virtual classrooms" despite legal objections from an educational media trade group. The university's decision is the latest development in a copyright dispute with the Association for Information and Media Equipment over whether it is legal for the university to convert DVDs from its libraries into a digital format that students can stream from password-protected course Web sites. UCLA considers the practice "essential," since it allows students to watch the videos on their own computers and on their own time, rather than having to gather in a classroom. Many educators at other colleges have watched the case with intent, waiting to see what implications, if any, the spat might have on their own institutions' use of streaming video.

ubroadcast, inc. (UBCI 0.03, +0.00, +3.85%) , a leader in Internet Broadcasting, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Alexandria, VA-based iVu Media Corp., the developer of a state-of-the-art Video Content Management (VCM) system that works in tandem with a High Definition Playback technology. iVu Media's clients include Sony, Ford and Honda. For 2009, iVu Media had revenues of less than $500,000.

Cuban discusses the drawbacks of traditional subscription/advertising models for newspapers and develops some solutions of his own for new revenue/marketing strategies.

Consumer groups urge action on the cable industry's TV Everywhere, which the groups claim will limit online television development and access to protect traditional cable business models.

A very small number of news organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and Newsday, already charge online readers, each with a system developed largely in-house, and The New York Times announced recently that it planned to do the same. But with advertising plummeting, many other publishers eager for a new source of revenue are considering making the switch, despite the risk of losing audience and advertising.

In a sign that Google's negotiations with the Associated Press over a new licensing contract may have reached a standstill, new AP articles are no longer being hosted in Google (NSDQ: GOOG) News; Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan, who first reported the development, says that new AP articles haven't been hosted on the site since Dec. 24. Google isn't providing an explanation. 

Advertising is expected to play a larger role as a revenue source for iPhone application developers as users become less willing to pay for the applications themselves.

"FCC officials commissioned a study from Yochai Benkler at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. They wanted to know more about how people in other countries connect to the Internet. Benkler says broadband in other developed countries is generally faster and cheaper than it is in the U.S. "You're looking at prices in the leading countries that are a third or a fifth of the prices that we're paying - and they're getting better speeds for it. So the differences are not subtle based on what we found," Benkler says."

COO John Schappert says digital revenue will still be tied to shiny discs for years to come, expresses regret that Modern Warfare 2 developers will be spending time making court cases instead of games.

"The Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan, announced last week, is aimed at providing nearly universal, affordable broadband service by 2020. And while it takes many admirable steps - including very important efforts toward opening space in the broadcast spectrum - it does not address the source of the access problem: without a major policy shift to increase competition, broadband service in the United States will continue to lag far behind the rest of the developed world."

This blog post situates the ambitious Google Fiber project against recently announced FCC plans to spur faster broadband development. The article also discusses issues of media regulation, specifically pricing and competition.

PC Magazine reports on the FCC's proposal to auction off airwaves freed up by the digital conversion in an effort to increase spectrum for mobile phone application development.