No amount of economic bailouts will apparently be enough to save Wavexpress' TVTonic portal, as President Michael Sprague announced today that the service is coming down so the company can restructure. If you're currently using it to subscribe to video podcast RSS feeds to their PC / media center, don't worry, thing will continue to function but everyone else can go ahead and punch the uninstall button because it's gone, man. Goodbye TVTonic, we'll always have Beijing.

Another one bites the proverbial dust. Hot on the heels of Tweeter zipping up its distribution centers comes word that the Florida-based Sound Advice will be throwing in the towel as well. Interestingly enough, we just heard hours ago that ripples from the Circuit City / Tweeter closings could affect upscale dealers, and here we are watching 22 boutique shops liquidate their current inventory and call it a done deal. About 50 employees stand to lose their jobs, but of course, those with an outlet around can take advantage of some killer deals right about now. Granted, this probably has quite a bit to do with the fact that Tweeter actually acquired Sound Advice in 2001 for $61 million, and generally speaking, children don't fare too well when their parents hit the skids.

Though we had heard whispers for the past few days, it looks like TiVo is coming clean with its plans to nix the long-standing TiVo Rewards program. For those unaware, said program was used to encourage TiVo owners to coax friends and family (or strangers, for that matter) to pick up a TiVo for themselves, and if they did so, the referrer would earn credits that could be redeemed for all sorts of wares. Additionally, users could accumulate points by charging up their TiVo Platinum MasterCard, but it looks like all that fun will come to an end on May 28th at 11:59PM EST. For more details on the phase out process, be sure and visit the read link.

[Thanks, Aaron]

In a somewhat sudden announcement, DivX has decided to close the door on its Stage6 service. Reportedly, upload functionality has already been halted, but videos will still be available for viewing / downloading until February 28th. According to a DivX employee, the service simply became too unwieldy (and expensive) to manage, and while it did toss out the option of selling the service to someone else, things evidently didn't pan out. Adios, Stage6 -- 'twas a fun ride.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

C'mon folks, everyone and their grandmother will likely be watching the Super Bowl this coming Sunday (even across the pond), and even if you have no interest in the Colts, Bears, or large men in awkward suits, someone in your family probably feels otherwise. Nevertheless, the NFL showcased its mighty power (and terrible decision making) by condemning Fall Creek Baptist Church's "Super Bowl Bash," saying that advertising a fee-based party that utilized "license-protected words" was against regulations. Furthermore, ditching the door charge and the taboo language wasn't good enough to solve the problem, as "the law" limits Super Bowl (wait, can we say that now?) party TVs to a quantity of one, and that single set must not be over 55-inches. Needless to say, we don't doubt that good few of you fine, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens will be catching the big game with a couple of your friends on your 60-inch plasma (or 100-inch projection screen), but we'd highly recommend building an underground bunker between now and Sunday to make sure your plans are safe. Of course, bars and other eateries are somehow exempt from this bogus rule, and as expected, all the grumbling stems from Nielsen's obvious inability to estimate just how many folks are watching a single tube on this advertisers' dream night, but ratings drops or not, we wouldn't mess with Touchdown Jesus.