AT&T customers can now watch more than 100 live channels on the U-verse app for smartphones and tablets, said the company in a news release Monday (http://yhoo.it/1bCt5dA). It said more than 20 channels are available to watch outside the home, and AT&T will add more live channels on an ongoing basis. The channels are available to U-verse TV customers as part of their U-family or “higher” U-verse TV package, said the telco.

Verizon Communications’ Verizon Cloud service “will enable the company to become a more formidable competitor in the enterprise cloud marketplace,” said Canaccord Genuity analyst Greg Miller Friday in a report to investors. “We believe that a successful launch of Verizon Cloud will help drive the recovery of enterprise revenue growth in 2014 and possibly pressure competitors in the space.” Verizon announced the new service Thursday (CD Oct 4 p15).

Vodafone Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford will retire in March, following the sale of Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless, the British telco said Thursday. Verizon Communications agreed to buy full ownership of Verizon Wireless for $130 billion (CD Sept 2 p1). Halford, who has been CFO for nine years and was previously CFO at Verizon Wireless, said “next year will be the right time for me to move on.” Nick Read, CEO for Vodafone’s Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific region, will become CFO designate in January, Vodafone said.

Sinclair Broadcast Group closed on its $115.35 million buy of four TV stations from Titan, Sinclair said in a press release (http://bit.ly/15afLYK) Thursday. The deal also includes Titan’s sharing agreements with stations KXVO Omaha, Neb., and KMEG Sioux City, Iowa, Sinclair said. The transaction was funded through cash on hand, said the release. The deal involves two Fresno, Calif., stations, and one station each in Omaha and Sioux City, along with KXVO and KMEG, said the release. Alongside pending Sinclair deals for TV stations from Allbritton and New Age Media, the deal will leave Sinclair’s reach at around 38.7 percent of U.S. television households, counting as 24.3 percent for the purposes of the FCC’s 39 percent ownership cap because of the UHF discount, the release said.

House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., will co-sponsor a major surveillance overhaul set for introduction in the House. He joined House Judiciary Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., in seeking co-sponsors for the USA FREEDOM Act, a comprehensive overhaul of surveillance law. It seeks to end the U.S. government’s bulk collection of phone records, among many other changes, according to preliminary outlines. A version of the bill will be introduced in the Senate by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Sensenbrenner’s spokesman told us last week (CD Oct 4 p10). The two House co-sponsors sent a two-page letter to House colleagues Thursday describing the intent of the proposed legislation and asking which members are interested in signing onto it.

A Turner Broadcasting blackout of TBS and other networks for Cable One customers just before the Major League Baseball playoffs is “a vindictive spasm of power,” said the American Cable Association in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/157BzEl). Turner “deauthorized” TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network in retaliation for Cable One’s dropping CNN, CNN Espanol, Headline News, TCM, TruTV and Boomerang during unsuccessful negotiations, said CableOne on its website (http://bit.ly/GDkoBU). Turner said on its website (http://bit.ly/19VrRV6) that it had “worked diligently with Cable One to come to a resolution, even offering an extension” that expired Monday. Turner’s blocking of its three most popular channels is a “brazen example of the withholding of marquee sports programming from consumers as punishment when a cable operator refuses to force its subscribers to pay for expensive, unpopular and low-rated programming,” said ACA in its release, urging Turner to end the blackout. ACA said it’s contacting lawmakers and regulators, using the CableOne/Turner kerfuffle as an example of why “the bundling issue” needs to be addressed. “This situation illustrates yet one more time how programmers refuse to let cable operators develop packages that are tailored to their consumers’ preferences,” said ACA.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman canceled the second round of negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership scheduled for this week in Brussels, due to the government shutdown, the USTR said in a Friday release. “Financial and staffing constraints related to the shutdown make it impossible to send a full team of negotiators.” The USTR said it will work with the European Union Trade Commission to craft an alternative work plan once the shutdown ends.

LIN Media is focused on monetizing spectrum, and using the FCC incentive auction, said Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker in an email to investors. “LIN is the 1st public broadcaster to openly consider the incentive auction as one way to monetize spectrum.” Ryvicker said the company could make “hundreds of millions of dollars” through the auction. LIN is also looking at making money from spectrum using mobile DTV, Ultra HD and leasing, she wrote. “M&A is a ‘when’ rather than an ‘if'” for LIN, said Ryvicker, calling mergers and acquisitions a “priority” for LIN management. The broadcaster will also be renewing a majority of its retransmission consent contracts within the next two years, which could lead to growth in that side of the business, Ryvicker said. LIN could see an estimated 30 percent net retrans growth in 2014, she said. “While net retrans may be down in [2015], the [long-term] trajectory is a positive one.”

The CEO of AT&T blasted any possibility of the U.S. government defaulting on its loans. “It is unthinkable that the United States could default on its financial commitments, and it would be the height of irresponsibility for any public official to consider such a course,” said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson in a statement Friday (http://bit.ly/1gaWfzO). “In fact, even the discussion of default poses great risk to our economy and to our country. It is imperative to our Nation that the overwhelming majority of our public officials who recognize this reality unite their efforts, regardless of party, to bring a responsible solution forward.” Stephenson has personally contributed to largely Republican political causes in recent years, although has also donated to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., disclosures show. If Congress doesn’t raise the debt limit, the U.S. is expected to default on its obligations in mid-October.

Tom Power, who usually spends his time coordinating administration policy on telecom issues, has recently been coordinating cocktails in Washington’s Georgetown section. Gypsy Sally’s, a music venue that opened this year, posted a photo of the furloughed White House deputy chief technology officer on its Instagram page (http://bit.ly/1fOM2eC). Power, clad in a tie-dyed T-shirt, looks amused as he poses with a bottle in one hand and a mixing cup in the other. “This can’t last fur [sic] long,” Power said, as quoted by Gypsy Sally’s on Instagram, “but while it does I intend to keep the beer cold and my barstool warm."