McDonald’s Channel comes to California restaurants


McDonald’s Corp will roll out a high-definition television channel to nearly 800 restaurants in southern and central California by March. The world’s biggest hamburger chain is doing this as part of a test, and one day hopes to take it across the United States.Businesses from gas stations and grocery stores to coffee maker Starbucks Corp are beaming more entertainment directly to customers, trying to address a captive audience in a world crawling with entertainment options.McDonald’s Channel content partners include Walt Disney Co’s ABC, BBC America and reality television producer Mark Burnett, who is known for such hits as “Survivor” and “The Apprentice.”Test markets have include Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Manhattan, Seattle and some communities in Oklahoma.As it evolves, the McDonald’s Channel will add more local programing such as high school sports news.”We think that’s a major part of the community that the channel can really bring to life,” said Leland Edmondson, founder of ChannelPort Communications, which is overseeing the project. “We’re talking to a number of sports properties.”The programing will include exclusive content and be made up of short spots ranging in length from 90 seconds to 20 minutes. Diners who want to see longer versions of some spots will have the option access them via mobile devices or home computers.”There’s no remote on the table, but there is Wi-Fi in the restaurant,” Edmondson said.Programs include “The McDonald’s Achievers,” profiles of local high school and college athletes; “Mighty Moms,” about local mothers balancing families and careers in sports; and “Vimby” (Video In My Backyard), which has partnered with Burnett to cover local lifestyle news including fashion, art, music, action sports and nightlife.The channel will show less than eight minutes of advertising per hour. McDonald’s will take a fraction of that time, which will be shared with other brands, he said.Eventually, every McDonald’s in southern California will carry the channel, which will be seen by about 18 million McDonald’s customers in the area each month, Edmondson said.

Scotiabank CEO concerned about Basel implementaion


* Wants to take advantage of opportunitiesTORONTO, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia Chief Executive Rick Waugh says he welcomes tighter bank regulations, but harbors concerns about whether new Basel III rules will be applied evenly.”My major concern is a level playing field,” Waugh said in an investor presentation by the bank in Toronto on Monday. Scotiabank is Canada’s third-largest lender.The new global rules for tighter capital and liquidity restraints have drawn criticism from some CEOs - most famously JP Morgan Chase head Jamie Dimon, who called the rules “anti-American” - but have generally been well received by Canadian banks.”I’m all for supervision, regulation, high capital levels, better liquidity, better funding,” Waugh said.He said the new rules have not forced the bank to alter its business model in any “fundamental” way, but said the uncertainty around how the rules will be implemented globally is troubling.”Are the Americans going to go to Basel III? Are the trading rules that are being implemented, are they going to be executed in the same time frame in the United States and Europe?” he said.The new rules - agreed on by global regulators but to be applied by national bodies - will place restrictions on lending and trading that will likely reduce banks’ profitability.Scotiabank, like Canada’s other lenders, did not require a bailout during the financial crisis, and the bank has continued making acquisitions as struggling institutions in the United States and Europe sell subsidiaries to bolster their capital positions.Waugh suggested that could continue.”We’ve demonstrated we’ve been able to do a reasonable job of coming through this. I want to take advantage in a prudent disciplined way of the opportunities, so I want a level playing field,” he said.Scotiabank’s shares were down 40 Canadian cents, oe 0.8 percent, at C$51.84 on the Toronto Stock Exchange amid a broad-based selloff.

European shares notch up a third week of gains


* G20 meet in focus; ratings action weighs on sentimentBy Simon JessopLONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Friday to register three straight weeks of gains, buoyed by earnings news and strong U.S. retail sales data, with chartists seeing major resistance levels coming into view for testing next week.Cyclicals such as autos led gainers at the expense of more defensive sectors, although banks lagged again after fresh negative credit ratings agency action weighed on sentiment as G20 finance ministers met for fresh debt crisis talks.By the close, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares was up 1 percent at 975.52 points, reversing Thursday’s fall to resume the October rally that has added 5.6 percent, so far.TECHNICALSThe index stopped just short of major resistance at 983.38, the 50 percent retracement of its late July to late September fall, while the blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 hovered near an important gap level, at around 2,400 points.”A failure to close above the gap this week could suggest a pause in the trend or a pull down to 2,250 at the beginning of next week,” Dmytro Bondar, technical analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland, said.”But once the price sustains above the 50-day moving average, I see a potential to recover above the 2,400 area to 2,441,”, he added, the 76.4 percent retracement of the Aug. to Nov. 2008 impulse wave, a longer-term trend guide.U.S. RETAIL SALESTech sector stocks were among the outperforming cyclical sectors, buoyed by overnight results from U.S. bellwether Google and similarly bullish numbers from German software firm SAP , up 2.1 percent.Data showing U.S. retail sales grew at the fastest pace in seven months in September also helped underpin the gains, becoming the latest data point to ease fears of a return to recession in the world’s biggest economy.BANKS WOEBanks proved the sectoral laggard, with the STOXX Europe 600 sector index down 0.5 percent, weighed on by sovereign and corporate credit downgrades, bearish broker comment and bond-market pressure as G20 finance ministers met in Paris.An overnight downgrade of UBS by Fitch, and the placing of peers including BNP Paribas on credit watch negative, was followed by a downgrade of the Spanish sovereign rating by Standard & Poor’s on its growth outlook.The latter cut weighed on Spanish stocks , up just 0.4 percent, and pushed yields on its debt higher, as concern about contagion in the event of a default in Greece still a primary concern.While Italian stocks rebounded from yesterday’s lows as Italian yields pulled back slightly, they also remain at highly elevated levels, adding to pressure for a firm and speedy political market-placating answer to the debt crisis.A Franco-German plan is expected to be announced at a meeting of European leaders starting Oct. 23, and could cover recapitalising the banking sector, increasing private sector losses on Greek debt and boosting the size of the region’s bailout fund for a second time.”Once investors can do the math they can make proper investment decisions,” said Antonin Jullier, global head of equity trading strategy at Citi.”They need to know how much pain is going to be taken by equity investors, debt investors and how much fresh capital will come from the private sector versus governments. Once they have all that, then they can start making investment decisions.”

New iPhone goes on sale, fans say tribute to Jobs


Hundreds of fans queued around city blocks in Sydney and Tokyo to be the first to get their hands on the iPhone 4S, which looks similar to the previous iPhone 4 but has a better camera, faster processor and well-received voice activated software.”I am a fan, a big fan. I want something to remember Steve Jobs by,” said Haruko Shiraishi, waiting patiently with her yorkshire terrier Miu Miu at the very end of an eight block queue in Tokyo’s smart Ginza shopping district.Australian Tom Mosca, the first to buy the new phone in Sydney, said the first thing he would do was ask his new white iPhone: “Where’s Steve?” Many Apple fans believe the phone was called iPhone 4S meaning “for Steve.”Apple CEO Tim Cook and his executive team hope the first device launched without the firm’s former visionary leader at the helm will safeguard their global market share against a growing challenge from the likes of Samsung.The South Korean firm, Apple’s arch-rival with smartphones powered by Google’s Android software, expects to overtake it as the world’s biggest smartphone vendor in terms of units sold in the third quarter.The iPhone 4S — introduced to the world just a day before Jobs died — was dubbed a disappointment because it fell short of being a revolution in design, but glowing reviews centered around its “Siri” voice-activated software have since helped it set a record pace in initial, online sales orders.Apple’s Asian fans showed no disappointment with their new phones, ahead of sales in Germany, France, Britain and North America. In Tokyo, 24-year-old Ryosuke Ishinabe said: “I just wanted the newest iPhone. I want to try out iCloud.”But despite all the enthusiasm at Apple stores, the launch was marred somewhat by widespread complaints on the Internet about problems downloading iOS 5 — the latest version of Apple’s mobile software.JOBS SHADOW OVER iPHONE LAUNCHThe vast majority of iPhone 4S buyers at the Sydney store appeared to be existing Apple customers, many having bought the original iPhone and upgrades each time. Only one out of 10 people surveyed by Reuters in Sydney was a new Apple customer.”I have been waiting for the iPhone 5 for a long time. But since Jobs died, I wanted to make sure I had a new iPhone with some advantages over the old,” said iPhone devotee Mark Du, concerned over future Apple gadgets without Jobs at the helm.Apple fans in Sydney and Tokyo made sure Jobs was part of the iPhone 4S launch, with flower, candle and photo shrines to the late Apple boss erected outside the stores.Apple said it did not release sales figures on launch day, so gauging the initial sales may be difficult. Apple said it had taken more than 1 million online orders in the first 24 hours after its release, exceeding the 600,000 for the iPhone 4, though that model was sold in fewer countries initially.Some analysts expect fourth-quarter iPhone shipments of as much as 30 million or more, almost double from a year ago.Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone uses chips from Qualcomm Inc, Toshiba and a host of smaller semiconductor companies, according to repair firm iFixit, which cracked the device open on Thursday.APPLE SOFTWARE CRITICISMApple’s iOS 5 software became available this week and is intended to upgrade older phones and enable new features such as a messages and better Twitter integration.Twitter users raged over “Error 3200,” dredging up comparisons to the obscure numbered error messages supposedly prevalent in Windows software and complained of inordinately slow download times.”This would be a great time for like, Samsung or something, to take out a sponsored ad,” user Ryan James Kirk tweeted.The iPhone — seen as the market’s gold standard — is Apple’s highest-margin product and accounts for 40 percent of its annual revenue. It is the world’s biggest selling smartphone, with a slim market-share lead over Samsung.Analysts point to several factors in Apple’s favor: a $199 price that matches up well with rival devices such as Amazon.com Inc’s “Fire” tablet; availability promised on more than 100 carriers by the end of 2011, far more than its predecessors; and glowing reviews.In a sign of how tough the competition is, two doors along from the Sydney Apple store, Samsung has been selling its new Galaxy SII for only A$2 to its first 10 customers each day, prompting Samsung fans to also camp out on the footpath.