Bama starts with bang at BCS championship game

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — No. 2 Alabama was halfway to stamping itself a dynasty, scoring touchdowns on its first three drives and taking a 28-0 lead at halftime of a BCS championship game that wasn't living up to the hype Monday night.
In a matchup of programs tied for the most AP national championships with eight, Alabama was rolling toward becoming the first team to win consecutive BCS titles — and its third title in four seasons under coach Nick Saban.
The Crimson Tide (12-1) marched with ease on the opening drive, going 82 yards on five plays to take a 7-0 lead on Eddie Lacy's 20-yard touchdown run up the middle with 12:03 left in the first quarter.
Notre Dame (12-0) had allowed only two rushing touchdowns in its surprising run to the championship game. The Fighting Irish were the first team to reach the BCS championship game after starting the season unranked. They were trying to become the first team to go from unranked to national champion since BYU in 1984.
Alabama quickly made the Fighting Irish look as if they were in over their heads.
Notre Dame did nothing to respond to Alabama's opening march, and on its punt back, the Crimson Tide might have caught a break. Returner Christion Jones muffed the kick, but Notre Dame was flagged for interfering with the catch, though it was one of Jones' teammates that made contact with him.
Lacy and the Crimson Tide went right back to work, hammering away at Notre Dame's vaunted defense. The Irish struggled to bring down the 220-pound tailback, who even ran through Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te'o on a screen pass.
In the second quarter, it was freshman T.J. Yeldon slipping through Te'o's arms in the backfield on a third-down run and getting a first down.
Lacy set up Alabama's second touchdown with another 20-yard run, this time to the Irish 2. Instead of running into a Notre Dame goal-line defense that has become known for goal-line stands, AJ McCarron faked a handoff and found tight end Michael Williams all alone for the score and a 14-0 lead.
Alabama made it 3 for 3 on the next drive when Yeldon scored from a yard out on the first play of the second quarter.
The Alabama fans seemed outnumbered at Sun Life Stadium by Fighting Irish followers, pumped to see their team try to win its first national title in 24 years. But the folks in Crimson and houndstooth were making all the noise as the Tide rolled.
Lacy landed one more blow with 31 seconds left in the half. McCarron dumped off to Lacy, who spun off two tacklers, and went 11 yards to make it 28-0.
The Southeastern Conference, winners of the last six BCS championships, was storming toward seven in a row. Those familiar "S-E-C!" chants were ringing through yet another stadium.
Notre Dame had only five first downs in the half and allowed 309 yards. The Irish defense came in allowing 286 per game.
Lacy had 96 yards on 12 carries and McCarron, the MVP of last year's 21-0 title game victory against LSU, was 12 for 18 for 156 yards.
Everett Golson, the redshirt freshman quarterback who coach Brian Kelly had nurtured through the season, was 8 for 16 for 83 yards.
Alabama was trying to become only the third team to win three national titles in four seasons since polls started being used to crown champions in 1936. The last was Nebraska from 1994-97, and the Cornhuskers had to share the '97 championship with Michigan, which was voted No. 1 in the AP media poll. Nebraska was No. 1 in the coaches' poll.
Another national championship would also give Saban four, his first coming with LSU in 2003. Only Alabama's Paul "Bear" Bryant with six would have more.

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Bama bashing Notre Dame 35-7 at BCS title game

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — No. 2 Alabama was a quarter away from stamping itself a dynasty.
The Crimson Tide scored touchdowns on its first three drives against No. 1 Notre Dame and rolled to a 35-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter of a BCS championship game that wasn't living up to the hype Monday night.
In a matchup of programs tied for the most AP national championships with eight, Alabama was on its way toward becoming the first team to win consecutive BCS titles — and its third title in four seasons under coach Nick Saban.
The Crimson Tide (12-1) marched with ease on the opening drive, going 82 yards on five plays to take a 7-0 lead on Eddie Lacy's 20-yard touchdown run up the middle with 12:03 left in the first quarter.
Notre Dame (12-0) had allowed only two rushing touchdowns in its surprising run to the championship game. The Fighting Irish were the first team to reach the BCS championship game after starting the season unranked. They were trying to become the first team to go from unranked to national champion since BYU in 1984.
Alabama quickly made the Fighting Irish look as if they were in over their heads.
Notre Dame did nothing to respond to Alabama's opening march, and on its punt back, the Crimson Tide might have caught a break. Returner Christion Jones muffed the kick, but Notre Dame was flagged for interfering with the catch, though it was one of Jones' teammates that made contact with him.
Lacy and the Crimson Tide went right back to work, hammering away at Notre Dame's vaunted defense. The Irish struggled to bring down the 220-pound tailback, who even ran through Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te'o on a screen pass.
In the second quarter, it was freshman T.J. Yeldon slipping through Te'o's arms in the backfield on a third-down run and getting a first down.
Lacy set up Alabama's second touchdown with another 20-yard run, this time to the Irish 2. Instead of running into a Notre Dame goal-line defense that has become known for goal-line stands, AJ McCarron faked a handoff and found tight end Michael Williams all alone for the score and a 14-0 lead.
Alabama made it 3 for 3 on the next drive when Yeldon scored from a yard out on the first play of the second quarter.
The Alabama fans seemed outnumbered at Sun Life Stadium by Fighting Irish followers, pumped to see their team try to win its first national title in 24 years. But the folks in Crimson and houndstooth were making all the noise as the Tide rolled.
Lacy landed one more blow with 31 seconds left in the half. McCarron dumped off to Lacy, who spun off two tacklers, and went 11 yards to make it 28-0.
The Southeastern Conference, winners of the last six BCS championships, was storming toward seven in a row. Those familiar "S-E-C!" chants started early in this one.
The Fighting Irish started the third quarter with a promising drive that ended with another Alabama highlight.
HaHa Clinton-Dix made a sensational diving interception, grabbing a tipped pass and tapping his toe inches from the sideline. Alabama turned the game's first turnover into another long scoring drive. McCarron capped this one with a 34-yard TD pass to freshman Amari Cooper, the longest TD pass the Irish have given up this season.
With the score 35-0 and some Fighting Irish fans in the stadium record crowd of 80,120, Notre Dame finally got on the board with 4:08 left in the third.
Everett Golson took an option keeper 2 yards for a touchdown to break a streak of 108 minutes, 7 seconds in which Alabama had not allowed a point in a BCS championship game, dating back to the last 6 minutes of the fourth quarter of the 2009 title game against Texas at the Rose Bowl. Alabama had scored 69 straight points in that span.
Alabama had 453 yards through three quarters. The Irish defense came in allowing 286 per game.
Lacy had 130 yards on 18 carries and McCarron, the MVP of last year's 21-0 title game victory against LSU, was 16 for 22 for 225 yards.
Golson, the redshirt freshman quarterback who coach Brian Kelly had nurtured through the season, was 14 for 26 for 196 yards.
Alabama was trying to become only the third team to win three national titles in four seasons since polls started being used to crown champions in 1936. The last was Nebraska from 1994-97, and the Cornhuskers had to share the '97 championship with Michigan, which was voted No. 1 in the AP media poll. Nebraska was No. 1 in the coaches' poll.
Another national championship would also give Saban four, his first coming with LSU in 2003. Only Alabama's Paul "Bear" Bryant with six would have more.

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Dynasty: No. 2 Alabama bashes No. 1 Notre Dame 42-14 to win second straight BCS championship

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - The coach no longer wears houndstooth. The result is the same. Another Alabama dynasty.
Quieting the Irish by the first play of the second quarter, Eddie Lacy, AJ McCarron and the No. 2 Crimson Tide rolled top-ranked Notre Dame 42-14 for the BCS championship Monday night, locking up a second straight national title and third in four years with another laugher of a title game.
The Bear would've been especially proud of this one — Nick Saban and the Tide romping to the second-biggest rout of the BCS era that began in 1999.
Lacy, the game's offensive MVP, ran for one touchdown and caught a pass for another in the final minute of the opening half, spinning away from the vaunted Notre Dame defence not once, but twice, to cap a 28-0 blitz before the bands even got on the field.
Lacy finished with 140 yards on 20 carries, coming up with two of his best performances in the two biggest games of the year. He rushed for a career-high 181 yards in a thrilling victory over Georgia in the SEC title game, and was nearly as dominant against the Irish. McCarron wasn't too shabby, either, completing 20 of 28 passes for four touchdowns and 264 yards, adding another dazzling effort on top of his MVP in last year's title game.
You could almost hear television sets around the country flipping to other channels, a hugely anticipated matchup between two of the nation's most storied programs reduced to nothing more than the second straight BCS blowout for the Crimson Tide.
"We've had a lot of really great football players who've worked really hard," Saban said. "Because we've had a great team, we've been able to have a significant amount of success."
Alabama (13-1) scored 69 straight points against its title game opponents, going back to getting the final 13 against Texas in 2010, followed by a stifling 21-0 victory over LSU for last year's crown, then scoring the first 35 points on Notre Dame. Saban's team made the Irish (12-1) look like a squad that would be hard-pressed to finish in the middle of the pack in the mighty Southeastern Conference, which has now won seven straight national championships.
The Crimson Tide will likely wrap up its ninth Associated Press national title, breaking a tie with Notre Dame for the most by any school and gaining a measure of redemption for a bitter loss to the Irish almost four decades ago: the epic Sugar Bowl in which Ara Parseghian's team edged Bear Bryant's powerhouse 24-23.
Bryant won five AP titles during his brilliant career. The way things are going, Saban might just chase him down.
The diminutive man with the perpetual scowl has guided Alabama to the top spot in the rankings three times since arriving in Tuscaloosa in 2007, and if he's serious about finishing his career with the job he has, there seems no reason he can't win a few more before he's done with "The Process."
Already, Saban is the first coach in the BCS era to win national titles at different schools, capturing his first at LSU during the 2003 season. Now, he's the first coach with back-to-back BCS titles, and given the youthfulness of his team, Alabama figures to go into next season as a heavy favourite.
In an interesting twist, Saban's fourth college title came in the stadium where he had the only stumble of his coaching career, a two-year tenure with the NFL's Miami Dolphins that ended ugly, with the coach insisting he wasn't planning to leave — then bolting for Alabama just two weeks later. His tactics may have been underhanded, but it's hard to argue with the call he made.
Before a record Sun Life Stadium crowd of 80,120 that definitely included more green than crimson, Lacy ran right through the Irish and their Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te'o on a 20-yard touchdown run before the game was 3 minutes old, capping an 82-yard drive that was longest of the season given up by the Fighting Irish.
It would only get worse. Alabama marched right down the field on its second possession, this one a 10-play, 61-yard pounding that finished with McCarron completely faking out the defence and lofting a 3-yard touchdown pass to Michael Williams, standing all alone in the back of the end zone.
On the first play of the second quarter, T.J. Yeldon powered over from the 1 to make it 21-0, the finish to another impressive drive — this one covering 80 yards — that included two long completions by McCarron. First, he went to Kevin Norwood on a 25-yard gain. Then, he hooked up with freshman Amari Cooper for a 27-yard gain to the Notre Dame 6.
By that point, it was clear to everyone that Notre Dame's hopes of winning its first national championship since 1988 were all done. But Alabama just poured it on.
Lacy's 11-yard touchdown reception with 31 seconds left in the half left the Irish fans shaking the heads in disbelief, while the Alabama faithful broke out that familiar "SEC! SEC! SEC!" chant, as if to let Notre Dame know that it may have turned things around under third-year coach Brian Kelly, but isn't yet ready to compete with one of the Southern powerhouses.
Alabama made it 35-0 on McCarron's second TD pass of the night, a 34-yarder to Cooper without a Notre Dame defender in sight.
The Irish finally scored late in the third quarter, a 2-yard run by Everett Golson that served no other purpose except to end Alabama's remarkable scoreless streak in the BCS title games, which stretched to 108 minute and 7 seconds — the equivalent of nearly two full games — before the Notre Dame quarterback fought his way into the end zone.
Good thing a four-team playoff is coming with the 2014 season.
Alabama and the SEC have come to dominate this system. Florida began the unprecedented streak in the 2006 season, and added another crown two years later. LSU and Auburn have also won titles during the run. But Alabama is the top dog these days.
The only BCS title game that was more of a blowout was USC's 55-19 victory over Oklahoma in the 2005 Orange Bowl, a title that was later vacated because of NCAA violations.
About the only time Alabama stumbled was when McCarron had a miscommunication with his All-American centre, Barrett Jones, in the closing seconds. The fiery McCarron shouted at Jones, who just shoved him away. But as the seconds ticked off, they were right on the same page, hugging Saban and celebrating another title.
Notre Dame made tremendous strides under Kelly, going from unranked in the preseason to the top spot in the rankings by the end of the regular season. But that long-awaited championship will have to wait at least one more years. Golson completed his first season as the starter by going 21 of 36 for 270 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. But he got no help from the running game, which was held to 32 yards — 170 below their season average.
Kelly had vowed this was only beginning, insisting the bar has been raised in South Bend no matter what the outcome.
No one sets its higher than the folks in Tuscaloosa.

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French actor Depardieu in Russia to meet Putin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - French film star Gerard Depardieu arrived in Russia on Saturday to meet President Vladimir Putin, who granted him citizenship after a public spat in France over his efforts to avoid a potential 75 percent income tax.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two would meet in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where Putin was spending part of the 10-day New Year and Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday.
He said it was possible Putin would hand Depardieu his Russian passport during the meeting.
"It is a private meeting, we will not be releasing any other details," Peskov said by phone.
Russian media quoted him as saying the meeting would take place on Saturday. Depardieu's spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Thursday, the Kremlin announced that Putin had signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to Depardieu, who objected to Socialist president Francois Hollande's plan to impose a 75 percent tax rate on millionaires.
Depardieu is a popular figure in Russia, where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns, including for ketchup. He also worked there in 2011 on a film about the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.
The star of the movies "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "Green Card" was also among the Western celebrities invited in 2012 to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed strongman leader of Russia's Chechnya province who is accused by rights groups of crushing dissent.
Some of Putin's critics called the passport move a stunt and pointed out that Putin last month announced a campaign to prevent rich Russians keeping their money offshore.
At a press conference on December 20 during which he offered Depardieu a passport, Putin said Russia had a close, special relationship with France and that he had developed warm ties with the actor, even though they had rarely met.
But Moscow suffered a blow in November when it was forced to suspend its bid to build an Orthodox church with five domes in the heart of Paris, whose mayor called the plan "ostentatious".
Russia has a flat-rate income tax of 13 percent compared to the 75 percent rate that French President Francois Hollande wants to introduce on income over 1 million euros ($1.32 million).
Depardieu has already bought a house in Belgium to establish Belgian residency in protest at Hollande's tax plans.
Hollande's original proposal was struck down by France's Constitutional Court in December, but he has pledged to press ahead with a redrafted tax on the wealthy.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called Depardieu's decision to seek Belgian residency "pathetic" and unpatriotic, prompting an angry reply from the actor.
Russia does not require people to hand in their foreign passports once they acquire a Russian one. But it is rare for people from the European Union or the United States to seek Russian citizenship unless they have recent Russian roots.

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Italy's Monti says change property tax as polls improve

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's outgoing prime minister, Mario Monti, said on Sunday he would alter an unpopular property tax imposed by his own government, as a poll showed his centrist bloc gaining in popularity ahead of next month's election.

Monti's new centrist formation was third in a survey published on Sunday ahead of the February 24-25 parliamentary vote, behind a centre-left coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani and the centre-right bloc of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Monti, a 69-year-old former European commissioner, was appointed in November 2011 to lead an unelected right-left government of experts after Berlusconi quit amid a sex scandal and Italy's financial crisis threatened the euro.

To cut the deficit and restore confidence in Italy's ability to manage its 2-trillion-euro debt, Monti introduced a series of austerity measures in late 2011, including a property tax that hurt consumer spending and deepened the recession.

Berlusconi, who supported Monti's government until two weeks ago, has repeatedly said his first act of government, should he win February's vote, would be to abolish the property tax.

"Taxes need to be cut, but no one should be making promises that cannot be kept," Monti told SkyTG24 television. The property tax "should be restructured and modified", he said, with a greater portion set aside for city governments.

Monti repeated he wants to cut income taxes for low earners and said a planned value-added tax increase can be averted if the election winners are "ready to say no to special interests".

Both Berlusconi and Monti have made multiple appearances on TV, in Twitter question-and-answer sessions, and in online video interviews over the past week as they seek to close the gap with the centre-left, and it is paying off.

POLL

The centre-left coalition still has a comfortable lead, but both Monti's and Berlusconi's blocs have gained in recent weeks, according to a poll published on Sunday.

The number of voters who say they will vote for Bersani's bloc is between 38 and 39 percent, and the Democratic Party (PD) is seen getting 32-33 percent, polling institute ISPO said.

Monti's bloc has risen to between 14 and 15 percent from just over 10 percent before he entered the race, and Berlusconi has boosted his own party's share to 17-19 percent from 13-16 percent at the beginning of December, the poll indicated.

The number of undecided voters, or those who plan to abstain, has fallen below 40 percent, down from almost 50 percent a few weeks ago, the poll showed.

The new "With Monti for Italy" formation presented on Friday would itself win 9 percent, the poll said, and is drawing votes mostly from the centre-left and the previously undecided, said Renato Mannheimer, head of ISPO.

"Most analysts see it as improbable that, as things now stand, the coalition led by Monti can win more than 20 percent," he said.

If Berlusconi seals an alliance with the regionalist Northern League, his coalition could pull in 28 percent of the vote, ISPO said. Most of the PDL increase came from the large pool of undecided and disillusioned voters, Mannheimer said.

If Berlusconi and the League run together, complexities of the electoral law might make a post-election alliance with Monti key to a stable Senate majority for Bersani, Mannheimer added.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, led by comic Beppe Grillo, dropped to 13-14 percent from 17-19 percent a month ago.

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Republican Sen. McConnell rules out more taxes in U.S. fiscal fight

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday ruled out raising tax revenues on top of the tax hike on the wealthy in the "fiscal cliff" deal, and said the full focus must now be on spending cuts to curb U.S. deficits.
But Democrats said they would push for a "balanced" approach of more tax revenue from the rich as well as spending reductions as Congress headed toward another fiscal battle in March over raising the federal debt ceiling.
"The tax issue is finished, over, completed," McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos."
"That's behind us. Now the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and our future, and that's our spending addiction."
McConnell used the Sunday morning news shows to lay out his position in the upcoming fight over raising the U.S. debt ceiling and funding the government that is expected to come to a head in March, just three months after the struggle to avert the January 1 fiscal cliff of severe tax hikes and spending cuts that economists said could have brought a recession.
Republicans want big spending cuts in programs including Medicare healthcare for the elderly and the Social Security pension program as a condition for raising the U.S. borrowing limit.
President Barack Obama has said he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling, arguing that Congress must pay the bills for spending it has already approved.
McConnell said the White House should start working with Congress immediately to find savings, before the March deadline to raise the borrowing limit brings another fiscal crisis.
"We could do things very quickly, these are not new issues," he said on ABC.
Asked whether Republicans would threaten a U.S. default in their press for spending cuts, McConnell said, "It's not even necessary to get to that point. Why aren't we trying to settle the problem? Why aren't we trying to do something about reducing spending?"
On CBS's "Face the Nation," he said, "We now have a debt of $16.4 trillion. That's as big as our economy. That alone makes us look a lot like Greece."
'LINE IN THE SAND'
Democrats said they will continue to push for more revenue as well as spending cuts to curb deficits, issues they said should be dealt with separately from the debt ceiling.
"Well, if Mitch McConnell is going to draw the line in the sand, it's going to be a recipe for more gridlock," Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said on "Fox News Sunday."
"As we go forward, we need to adopt the same framework as the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission, meaning, a combination of cuts and revenue," Van Hollen said, referring to the commission that presented a sweeping plan to cut deficits.
"We're talking about looking at the tax code, putting everything on the table from the standpoint of closing loopholes, and we know that we can do that. Special subsidies for big oil, for example, $38 billion right there," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Pelosi, of California, said any savings found in Medicare and Social Security should be plowed back into the programs.
In what could be a replay of last year's standoff over the debt ceiling, House Republicans will put forward a plan "that says: OK, Mr. President, if you want to increase the borrowing authority of this country, here is a menu of options where you can reduce spending of equal or greater amount," said Ohio Republican Representative Jim Jordan.
"Mitch McConnell is exactly right," Jordan said on Fox News. "They just got revenue. We've got to cut spending. We've got $16 trillion debt. The credit card is maxed out."
Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber, said Obama will discuss curbing the debt in his State of the Union address this month, "but it has to be done in a balanced way."
On CNN's "State of the Union," Durbin, of Illinois, said more money should be wrung from taxes, citing various deductions, special treatments and loopholes. "We can do that and use the money to reduce the deficit."
In his several television appearances, McConnell also defended the deal he helped to broker with Vice President Joe Biden to avoid the fiscal cliff.
Most of his fellow Republicans in the House opposed the deal for being focused almost entirely on raising revenue through a tax increase on families making more than $450,000 a year, while postponing significant spending cuts.
"What we did was prevent tax increases on 99 percent of the American public. Nobody in the Senate, not the 90 percent of Senate Republicans who voted for this, voted to raise anybody's taxes," McConnell said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The deal extended lower tax rates for most taxpayers set during the George W. Bush administration that were set to expire on January 1, but let rates rise on the top incomes.

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Google executive chairman and ex-New Mexico Gov. Richardson heading to North Korea

BEIJING, China - The executive chairman of U.S.-based Google, one of the world's largest Internet companies, was travelling Monday to North Korea, a nation with notoriously restrictive online policies.
Eric Schmidt, the most high profile U.S. business executive to visit North Korea since young leader Kim Jong Un took power a year ago, was in Beijing and scheduled to depart for Pyongyang aboard a commercial Air China flight.
Leading the delegation was former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has travelled more than a half-dozen times to North Korea over the past 20 years. Richardson called the trip a private, humanitarian mission.
"This is not a Google trip, but I'm sure he's interested in some of the economic issues there, the social media aspect. So this is why we are teamed up on this," Richardson said without elaborating on what he meant by the "social media aspect."
"We'll meet with North Korean political leaders. We'll meet with North Korean economic leaders, military. We'll visit some universities. We don't control the visit. They will let us know what the schedule is when we get there," he said.
Richardson also said the delegation plans to inquire about a Korean-American U.S. citizen detained in North Korea.
"We're going to try to inquire the status, see if we can see him, possibly lay the groundwork for him coming home," Richardson said. "I heard from his son who lives in Washington state, who asked me to bring him back. I doubt we can do it on this trip."
The four-day trip, which is taking place just weeks after North Korea fired a satellite into space using a long-range rocket, has drawn criticism from U.S. officials. Washington condemned the Dec. 12 launch, which it considers a test of ballistic missile technology, as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring Pyongyang from developing its nuclear and missile programs. The Security Council is deliberating whether to take further action.
"We don't think the timing of the visit is helpful, and they are well aware of our views," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters last week.
The trip was planned well before North Korea announced its plans to send a satellite into space, two people with knowledge of the delegation's plans told The Associated Press. AP first reported the group's plans last Thursday. Schmidt, a staunch proponent of Internet connectivity and openness, is expected to make a donation during the visit, members of the delegation told AP. They asked not to be named, saying the trip was a private visit.

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Analysts see slow adoption for 'ultra-HD' TVs as makers prepare new models

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - "Ultra-HD" TVs are set to be the talk of International CES, the gadget show kicking off this week in Las Vegas. But the televisions aren't likely to account for much of the market even four years down the road.
That is the conclusion of analysts of the show's host, a day before TV makers such as Samsung, LG and Sony attempt to wow conference attendees with their latest models.
Ultra high-definition TVs, with four times as many pixels as HD TVs, are expected to account for only 1.4 million units sold in the U.S. in 2016, or about 5 per cent of the entire market. Sales in the rest of the world are expected to be smaller.
The analysts blamed high prices and low availability for the slow start.
"It's a very, very limited opportunity," said Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis at the Consumer Electronics Association, which officially kicks off the show Tuesday. "The price points here are in the five digits (in U.S. dollars) and very few manufacturers, at least at this stage, have products ready."
The consumer electronics industry is struggling to come back from a weak year in 2012, when an estimated $1.06 trillion worth of goods was sold around the world, down 1 per cent from 2011, hurt by a weak European economy and flat TV sales in China.
The market is seen recovering this year, with global sales rising 4 per cent to $1.11 trillion, pumped up due to renewed growth in the so-called BRIC countries, led by China, Brazil, Russia and India.
All the more reason for gadget makers to energetically tout their latest innovations. TV makers were somewhat chastened last year as enthusiasm for super-thin and vibrant organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs was hampered by production problems and delays. Now they have turned their focus to ultra-HD to drive consumer demand.
Steve Bambridge, business director for boutique research and consumer choices at GfK, said troubles making OLED sets are "not any secret." He added that while some makers planned to sell models this year after introducing them a year ago, he said he "won't be surprised if those go backwards."
Although the show has often unveiled the biggest and best of TV sets, the biggest electronics show in the Americas has increasingly been dominated by computers, tablets and mobile devices.
For good reason: In 2013, CEA and GfK predicted that for the first time, three categories of devices — mobile personal computers, tablets and smartphones — will account for over half of all consumer electronics spending worldwide.
Shawn DuBravac, the CEA's chief economist, said one trend at the show was the increasing number of exhibitors who display technology that uses a smartphone or tablet as their hub. He noted a 25 per cent increase in exhibitors from health and fitness companies, including those that sell heart monitors and blood pressure applications.
He also said the clamshell design of laptop computers, which hasn't changed much in two decades, will face a significant challenge. He expects 30 to 40 different hardware designs for the laptop to be presented on the show floor. Some intriguing computers on display will be giant touch-screen tablets meant for lying flat, and laptops whose screens can swivel around or detach from the keyboard easily.
"The clamshell design is still intact 20 years later. That's starting to change," he said.
More companies are also expected to do more with devices that respond better to a wider range of gestures and more natural speech.

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Clinton scheduled to return to work Monday after hospitalization for blood clot

WASHINGTON - The State Department says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will return to work Monday, a little over a week after she was hospitalized with a blood clot in her head.
The department on Sunday released a schedule which has Clinton meeting with assistant secretaries Monday morning. The most significant items on her agenda are meetings in Washington on Thursday and Friday with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Clinton was admitted to New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Dec. 30 after doctors discovered the blood clot while following up on a concussion she suffered earlier in December. She was released Wednesday.
Clinton is expected to resign from the State Department soon. President Barack Obama has nominated Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to replace her.

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McIlroy says he may skip 2016 Rio Olympics

LONDON (AP) — Rory McIlroy may skip the 2016 Olympics because of a problem over which country to represent.
The No. 1-ranked player from Northern Ireland is eligible to compete for either Britain or Ireland when golf returns to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He said he may miss the games to avoid having to choose between the two.
"I just think being from where we're from, we're placed in a very difficult position," the 23-year-old McIlroy said in a BBC documentary. "I feel Northern Irish and obviously being from Northern Ireland you have a connection to Ireland and a connection to the U.K."
McIlroy stirred controversy last year when he said in a British newspaper interview that he felt "more British than Irish." He then posted a clarification on Twitter saying he grew up "a proud product of Irish golf" and had not made a decision on the Olympics.
"If I could and there was a Northern Irish team I'd play for Northern Ireland," he said in the BBC program. "It's a tough one, whatever decision I make — whether it's play for Ireland, play for Britain or not play at all, maybe, just because I don't want to upset too many people.
"It's definitely an option. I either play for one side or the other or I don't play. Those are the three options that I have and I'm still considering them very carefully."
McIlroy, who has twice represented Ireland at the World Cup, was asked whether he regretted saying last year that he felt more British.
"It was a moment, I don't want to say of weakness, but of frustration with it all," he said. "People tune in to watch me play on TV and feel like they are connected to me in some way. I don't want to repay them for their support by doing something that they wouldn't want me to do.
"When I do make a decision, it's going to be one that I've thought long and hard about, and one I feel comfortable with.

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