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LONDON - Record companies’ revenue from digital music sales rose 40 percent to $2.9 billion over the past year, but the growth is still failing to cover losses from collapse of international CD sales, the music industry’s global trade body said Thursday.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, said the increase in legitimate music sales did not come close to offsetting the billions of dollars being lost to music piracy, with illegal downloads outnumbering the number of tracks sold by a factor of 20-to-1.

But the trade group said it welcomed efforts by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who has proposed a clampdown on those who violate copyright laws.

Sarkozy called in November for Internet service providers in France to automatically disconnect customers involved in piracy.

IFPI chief John Kennedy said the plan is “the most significant milestone yet in the task of curbing piracy on the Internet.”

The industry body said CD sales fell 11 percent between 2005 and 2006 and were likely to drop further in 2007. Digital music revenue has so far failed to make up for the decline — and is also showing signs of slowing, the IFPI said.

From $380 million in 2004, digital revenue roughly tripled in 2005 and nearly doubled in 2006, but brought only a modest 40 percent increase in 2007, the IFPI said.

But it said digital downloads have grown in five years to account for 15 percent of the world’s music sales, with more than 500 legally licensed music sites selling around 6 million tracks of music.

Japan is continuing to drive the digital market, the report said, particularly as a result of consumers using cell phones to download music.

Utada Hikaru, a Japanese singer, sold more than 7 million units in various digital formats of his single “Flavor of Life” — originally released as a ringtone.

However, young Japanese mobile Internet users are also likely to be abusing pirated music, with a Recording Industry Association of Japan report showing nearly two-thirds frequently obtained illegal music through their phone.

In a research laboratory in Japan, the country’s public broadcaster is working on a successor to the familiar high-definition broadcast system.

NHK doesn’t expect its Super Hi-Vision video format to make it to actual broadcast until 2025.

But with screens getting ever bigger and people demanding better quality pictures, it does believe it can have a future.

That future might not be the living room though.

TOKYO(AFP) - Nintendo Co. said Thursday its net profit nearly doubled in the nine months to December and it lifted its full-year revenue forecast on strong global sales of its game consoles including the Wii.

Analysts said the latest strong performance showed that Nintendo would likely remain resilient at a time that many companies are fretting about the impact of a slowing US economy.

Nintendo said it posted 96.3 percent growth in net profit to 258.93 billion yen (2.4 billion dollars) in the first three quarters of the financial year.

Its operating profit surged 135.1 percent to 394.04 billion yen and sales jumped 84.7 percent to 1.316 trillion yen, a statement said.

Nintendo raised its sales forecast for the full year to March to 1.63 trillion yen from an earlier estimate of 1.55 trillion yen and its operating profit forecast to 460 billion yen from 420 billion yen.

But the company, based in the western city of Kyoto, left its net-profit forecast unchanged at 275 billion yen, citing the adverse impact of the appreciation of the yen.

During the nine months, the handheld Nintendo DS continued to enjoy robust sales worldwide, selling a total of 24.5 million units, the statement said, adding software titles also drew strong demand.

The Wii console, which is known for its innovative motion-sensitive controller and is aimed at customers who normally would not play video games, had total sales of 14.29 million in the same period.

Its cumulative sales have exceeded 20 million since its launch in December 2006, it said, noting the “Wii Fit” software, which enables players to do a workout with a game console, was faring well.

“The Wii will likely continue to perform strongly,” Mizuho Investors analyst Etsuko Tamura said, arguing the success of new software titles such as Wii Fit was bringing money to Nintendo as hardware had slimmer profit margins.

Nintendo is to rack up more profits as Wii Fit, currently available only in Japan, makes its overseas debut, she said.

“There are concerns over an economic slowdown in the United States but Nintendo is likely to be spared trouble,” she said.

The Wii outsold rival Sony's PlayStation 3 three-fold in Japan last year, according to magazine publisher Enterbrain.

The Wii achieved cumulative sales of five million in Japan in the 60th week since its launch, Enterbrain said.

It was the fastest-ever rise to the five-million mark for a non-portable console, exceeding the previous record of the 66th week set by rival Sony's PlayStation 2.

The Nintendo consoles' success helped the US and Japanese video game market, the world's two largest, to best-ever sales last year.

Japan's video game market, including software sales, was worth a record 687.7 billion yen (6.37 billion dollars) in 2007, while US video game industry sales rose to 17.9 billion dollars in 2007, according to industry studies.

SAN FRANCISCO - YouTube is expanding its mobile service to include virtually all of the videos available on its Web site, hoping to widen its sway on pop culture.

Beginning Thursday, most people equipped with the latest generation of mobile phones will be able to peruse tens of millions of YouTube videos. YouTube first began showing videos on phones in 2006, but only a few thousand clips had been available until now.

Besides opening up its vast video library available on so-called “smart” phones, YouTube also is providing mobile access to many of the same features that have become staples of its Web site. The additional mobile features include the ability to rate videos and share clips with friends.

More than 100 million devices worldwide should be able to access the expanded mobile service, YouTube estimated. The handsets must have streaming capability and have a 3G operator.

YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc., is trying to make it easier for people to upload videos from their phones with a new application that can be installed on some handsets. The “YouTube for Mobile” program initially will work on limited list of devices that include some Sony Ericsson and Nokia models.

San Bruno-based YouTube has no immediate plans to make money off the mobile service but eventually may show ads to viewers, said Hunter Walk, YouTube’s product manager. For now, YouTube just wants its audience to become more accustomed to watching video on their phones, Walker said.

Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion 14 months ago as part of an effort to build a channel for video advertising.

YouTube’s mobile service, reachable at http://m.youtube.com, is being offered in 16 other countries besides the United States and 10 other languages besides English. The other languages are: Japanese, Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Chinese, German and Russian.

YouTube’s Web site already serves up more than 200 million video clips today, ranging from kids goofing off in their bedrooms to presidential candidates on the campaign trail.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Popular video Web site YouTube.com is opening up its service to run on millions more phones which are capable of using high-speed wireless links, the company said on Thursday.

YouTube, a unit of Google Inc, says it is extending its service from a handful of phones to a broader range of devices used by 100 million consumers worldwide that rely on high-speed links to stream videos to mobile screens.

“It's basically the full YouTube experience you can get on the desktop — on the phone,” said Dwipal Desia, YouTube's mobile product manager. “We expect it to get fairly popular from our past experiences.”

The Web video sensation now only provides a full mobile video service to users of Apple Inc's iPhone and to devices sold by Helio, a small U.S. wireless provider that targets young, tech-savvy consumers. Helio is a unit of SK Telecom Co Ltd and EarthLink Inc

A scaled-down version of YouTube with selected clips is also available to subscribers of the No. 2 U.S. mobile service, Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.

Desai said in an interview that most of the phones sold by Verizon Wireless would not support the full-fledged streaming service and that it was not yet clear when this might change.

The company is also testing software that will make it easier for mobile phone users to upload videos from phones onto YouTube.com, potentially allowing for far greater use of video to document people's everyday lives.

Desai did not say how YouTube plans to make money. Typically, YouTube and other Google services wait until they have found a large audience before the company seeks to introduce advertising to help pay for the service.

“Right now we are focused on building a user base on alternative screens and we'll look at monetization in the future,” he said. Monetization is a code word among Internet companies for running advertising alongside Web content.

The service will run on select devices from U.S.-based Motorola Inc, South Korea's LG Electronics, Finland's Nokia and Sony Ericsson, jointly owned by Japan's Sony Corp and Sweden's Ericsson.

YouTube for Mobile will be available in 17 countries and 11 languages. More details can be found on the YouTube for Mobile site at http://m.youtube.com/.

(Editing by Eric Auchard and Braden Reddall)

HELSINKI, Finland - Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in an interview published Thursday that the company will not change its decision to shut a mobile phone manufacturing plant in Bochum, Germany, despite widespread protests and possible damage to Nokia’s image.

“Despite several efforts we have not found a sustainable solution for the Bochum factory,” Kallasvuo was quoted as saying in an interview with Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat. “It’s difficult to imagine that in talks with personnel we would find something new which can change our decision.”

Last week, politicians, employees and local residents voiced anger at Nokia’s decision to shut down the Bochum plant in the industrial Ruhr region with the likely loss of 2,300 jobs. On Tuesday, some 15,000 people in the town demonstrated against the company’s plans, and surveys showed that many Germans would boycott products of the world’s largest mobile phone maker.

In the interview, Kallasvuo said that the fate of the plant, which produces 6 percent of all Nokia’s handsets, had been under company scrutiny for several years. He said production costs had become too high in Germany.

“This kind of solution is never cheap, especially not in Germany,” Kallasvuo said, but declined to say how much the move will cost Nokia.

Kallasvuo said he was surprised by the German reaction to the decision.

“We didn’t get our message through well enough in the beginning,” he told the newspaper. “Because the reaction was this strong, we could have done something better.”

The average selling price of handsets — a keenly watched indicator by markets — has fallen about 35 percent in five years, according to Nokia which plans to move the operations of the Bochum plant to Romania or Hungary.

“Securing the competitiveness and profitability of Nokia will ensure the future of our investments,” Kallasvuo said, adding that he expects competition in mobile markets to grow even fiercer.

The Finnish company was to release fourth-quarter and 2007 earnings later Thursday.

Nokia has sales in 130 countries. It employs some 130,000 people worldwide.

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TOKYO - Nintendo’s profit for the first nine months of the fiscal year nearly doubled from the previous year, propelled by booming sales of its hit Wii game machine, the company said Thursday.

Group net profit at Nintendo Co., which also makes Super Mario and Pokemon games, totaled 258.93 billion yen ($2.43 billion) for the nine months ended Dec. 31, up 96.3 percent from 131.92 billion yen for the same period in fiscal 2006. Nintendo didn’t give a quarterly breakdown.

The Wii, with its wandlike remote-controller, is winning over novices — including the elderly and women — to video games.

The machines, which first went on sale in late 2006, have been snatched up as soon as they arrive at stores, outstripping the competing PlayStation 3 from Sony Corp. and Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.

Nintendo said it has now sold more than 20 million Wii machines worldwide, 14.29 million of them during the latest three quarters.

New Wii games, including “Wii Fit,” “Super Mario Galaxy” and “Wii Sports,” have been a hit.

Sales during the nine months jumped rose 84.7 percent from a year ago to 1.316 trillion yen ($12.35 billion) from 712.59 billion.

The Kyoto-based company kept its profit forecast at 275 billion yen ($2.58 billion), for the full fiscal year through March 31, but raised its sales forecast to 1.63 trillion yen ($15.29 billion), up from an earlier estimate of 1.55 trillion yen.

Nintendo said its DS portable machine, which comes with a touch panel, has also been very popular, marking 24.5 million units in sales during the nine months through December 2007, adding to cumulative sales of 64.79 million.

The DS has also introduced new kinds of gaming, including brain teasers, virtual pets and cooking recipes.

Nintendo said it expects to sell 18.5 million Wiis and 29.5 million DS machines for the fiscal year through March 31.

Nintendo shares slipped 2.4 percent in Tokyo to $499 shortly before earnings were released.

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (AFP) - Amid rousing applause and cheers, seniors in a retirement complex in the Washington suburbs have hopped onto the videogame craze, belatedly but with a vengeance, swinging their arms in a virtual game of bowling.

While video games are aimed more usually at younger audiences, Nintendo's Wii, the mega-popular, new generation home console, has become all the rage in 3,000-resident Riderwood, one of the largest retirement communities in the United States, located in a Washington suburb.

Its popularity is largely due to a wireless handheld controller that requires players to replicate athletic movement, albeit minimal, but easily within the capabilities of more elderly players.

Erickson Retirement Communities, which runs the complex, has installed 25 Wii machines around Riderwood to encourage social interaction and exercising among the seniors.

“I love it,” said Elaine Fowler, 82, a fiercely competitive player who gets around in a motorized wheelchair. “I'm here since day one. I feel really good when I get a strike and a spare.”

Every week, some 20 retirees gather to play one of Wii's sports games, in which players holding a wireless controller swing their arms to simulate a volleyball return, a virtual boxing punch, or a baseball bat swing.

At a recent battle for bowling supremacy, opposing teams gathered around two screens set up side by side as team members took turns “rolling” the bowling ball down a virtual lane to knock down as many pins as possible.

While bowling is the most popular virtual sport among Riderwood residents, golf and baseball are also strong, as are fishing and boxing competitions .

“We had a group of ladies who did a boxing session, and a 90-year-old lady got a knock out!” said Earl Davis, 73, a complex resident who comes out to cheer on competitors.

Even Nintendo seems amused.

“It's the first time older people are embracing video games,” Nintendo spokeswoman Eileen Tanner told AFP. “It's pretty big.”

She said players over the age of 30 make up about 27 percent of the buyers of what has become the worlds best-selling “next-generation” games console — outselling rival Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) three-fold in Japan and North America last year, according to a survey by magazine publisher Enterbrain and games analyst Hiroshi Kamide at KBC Security, both in Tokyo.

A recent study in the British Medical Journal found that although those hoping to get fit and lose weight should probably try more strenuous activities, the consoles design did prompt the use of basic motor control and fundamental movement skills.

“It's an exercise but minimal exercise, the type of exercise those people need, because they are not used to it,” said Earl Davis, a retired navy officer who teaches Wii movements to novices at Riderwood.

Octogenarian Flo Lawrence, an avid fan, agreed. “It's physical but without the effort, and you get satisfaction out of it,” she said. It “gets you out of your apartment and you are with people.”

Wheelchair-bound Marie Tsucalas, 93, is a newcomer to the games.

“I like to do something new,” she said, as she aligned the keys on the motion sensitive hand controller. “I'm pretty busy with my cooking shows on the residence's TV network and my cards game, poker included.”

Among the 20 or so participants at the bowling match, the five on wheelchairs were the most enthusiastic and noisiest players.

The video game system “is good for a variety of things,” said Davis. “It brings a social setting. People who don't know each other are laughing, teasing each other. It brings back a competitive spirit too.”

“It's so easy everybody can do it.”

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - New research from MindShare concludes that the writers strike, which began in November, is beginning to take a serious toll on TV viewing behavior.

Almost half of those surveyed said they were spending more time online as a result of the repeat programming they have encountered because of the strike. More than 60 percent of viewers said their favorite shows were now in repeat mode.

“Most people believe the strike will continue for another three weeks or a month, so I think they realize this is a somewhat long-term proposition,” said Tata Sato, director of consumer insights at MindShare. Sato added that while close to half of those polled are “frustrated” that their favorite programs are affected, “they still support the idea of the writers getting a fair deal.”

MindShare surveyed 1,000 adults via an online poll conducted January 11-14. The survey is a follow-up to one the WPP Group-owned media consultancy conducted November 9-12, 2007, shortly after the strike began.

There is now near universal awareness of the strike, with 92 percent of those polled indicating that they know about the job action. By comparison, only about two-thirds of respondents in the November study were aware of the strike.

About half of those surveyed in January said the strike would “really impact/change their TV viewing habits.” By comparison, only 24 percent of respondents in the earlier survey believed the strike would significantly change their viewing habits.

Going online topped the list of alternatives to watching their favorite TV shows, while reading and watching prerecorded DVDs tied as the second-most-cited alternative to watching strike-affected programming.

So far, most viewers said they aren't prepared to abandon the medium because of the strike. About 70 percent said they would return to watching their favorite show after the strike ends, while 28 percent said they might not or definitely would not return.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

SAN FRANCISCO - Meg Whitman will soon step down as chief executive of eBay Inc., the online auction company that went from wobbly startup to multibillion-dollar household name in her 10-year tenure.

Whitman, 51, had been reported to be plotting the move and handing the job to John Donahoe, 47, who has been heading eBay’s core auction and e-commerce businesses. She confirmed her March 31 departure as eBay reported fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday.

Whitman will remain on eBay’s board of directors.

“With humor, smarts and unflappable determination, Meg took a small, barely known online auction site and helped it become an integral part of our lives,” Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s founder and chairman, said in a statement. “We’re all enormously grateful that Meg dedicated herself to stewarding eBay through its 10 most formative years.”

Whitman reminded analysts in a conference call that she has often said that 10 years is about as long as any CEO should serve. She said coming to eBay was a “remarkable opportunity” that has “exceeded all my expectations.” The experience also has made Whitman, eBay’s third-largest individual shareholder, a billionaire.

“It’s time for eBay to have new leadership, a new perspective and a new vision,” she said. “It’s tough to stay fresh after ten years, no matter who you are.”

EBay shares rose $1.81, 6.7 percent, to close at $28.94 in advance of the earnings report and before Whitman’s announcement. In extended trading, the stock initially rose but then retreated to $27.55.

The announcement of Whitman’s departure came as eBay reported a 53 percent gain in fourth-quarter profits due to a strong holiday season. It beat Wall Street’s expectations, though its future guidance was tepid.

The San Jose-based company said that in the last three months of 2007, it earned $530.9 million, or 39 cents per share. In the same period a year earlier, eBay earned $346.5 million, 25 cents per share.

Revenue in the quarter rose 27 percent to $2.18 billion.

Excluding stock-option expenses and other charges, eBay said it would have earned $611 million, or 45 cents per share.

By that measure, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had been expecting eBay to earn 41 cents per share. EBay also exceeded Wall Street’s revenue projection of $2.14 billion.

Whitman said she was pleased with the results, which ended “a remarkably strong year.”

Most of eBay’s years have been that way since Whitman took over in 1998, when the auction site was still crippled by server outages and mainly home to hobbyists selling collectibles like Beanie Babies. Before long, though, it rose to become an incredibly diverse shopping zone, with nearly $60 billion worth of merchandise trading hands last year.

Donahoe pledged to upgrade the site and to revamp its fee structure. Though details are to come later, he indicated that eBay would lower the fees that people pay to list something for sale but raise eBay’s commission on successful sales.

That’s a move analyst Derek Brown of Cantor Fitzgerald said will be eBay’s “wild card” going forward, placing pressure on the site to turn any increase in listings into actual sales transactions.

“(The fee structure change) in itself has the potential to change the face of eBay,” Brown said.

Donahoe plans on upgrading the site’s search function so that if there is an influx of listings, users can still easily find what they are looking for.

Brown said Donahoe’s openness about some of eBay’s problems is encouraging, but “it feels as if they are pulling a lot of levers at once and that can create its own challenges.”

The earnings report highlights that Donahoe — who came to eBay in 2005 from Bain & Co., the consulting firm where he had previously worked with Whitman — takes over a company that remains very profitable, but is finding it hard to keep growing.

In the fourth quarter, the company made little progress on its count of active users, people who have bought or listed an item for sale in the past year. Active users rose 2 percent to 83.2 million.

The number of items listed on eBay’s various sites rose 4 percent, reversing two straight quarters of declines.

And eBay’s guidance for 2008 may disappoint some investors. The company expects earnings after charges to be 37 to 39 cents per share in the current first quarter. Analysts had been forecasting 40 cents per share.

EBay’s projection for the full year — $1.63 to $1.67 per share — was in line with analysts’ existing forecast of $1.66.

Donahoe pledged to aggressively change eBay’s shopping sites to make them “easier and safer to use.”

“While we’ve made strides in these areas, I am clear that we need to do much more,” Donahoe said on the conference call. “I truly believe that eBay’s best days lay ahead.”

For all of 2007, eBay earned $348 million, 25 cents per share, on revenue of $7.67 billion. That included a $1.4 billion write-down in October to account for the disappointing performance of Skype, the online telephone service eBay bought in 2005. In 2006 eBay’s profit was $1.13 billion, 79 cents per share, on revenue of $5.97 billion.

EBay further reshuffled the executive ranks Wednesday by disclosing that Rajiv Dutta, its former chief financial officer and current head of its PayPal unit, is being named executive vice president, reporting to Donahoe. Dutta will also join eBay’s board of directors.

Scott Thompson, PayPal’s current chief technology officer, will take over as head of the division. EBay also said longtime executive Bill Cobb will retire at the end of the year.

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AP Technology Writer Brian Bergstein contributed to this report.