The Senate Commerce Committee postponed a planned Thursday vote on FCC nominee Michael O'Rielly, the Republican expected to be paired with Tom Wheeler, nominee for FCC chairman, in an eventual Senate floor vote. The agenda for the committee’s Thursday executive session, scheduled before this week’s government shutdown, had included votes on O'Rielly and FTC nominee Terrell McSweeny, a Democrat. But the office of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., announced the session’s postponement Wednesday morning, without including any details on when it would be rescheduled. Industry lobbyists told us Tuesday the shutdown may add uncertainty to the Wheeler-O'Rielly confirmation timing but indicated Senate votes and advancement of the nominees may still be possible (CD Oct 2 p1). A longtime carrier lobbyist and former Senate staffer had posited that the committee could still advance the nominees through a rolling count in the Senate cloakroom. A call to Rockefeller’s office prompted a message that the office is closed due to the shutdown and unable to respond to emails, phone calls or letters. The Senate Commerce Committee press secretary is also unable to comment during the shutdown.

Zhone Technologies is joining the Open Networking Foundation, said Zhone in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/18Q0YSp). Zhone, a provider of IP multiservice access solutions, will work with more than 90 companies in the ONF to accelerate the adoption of open Software-Defined Networking, said the company.

While the ramifications of the government shutdown are far larger than any retransmission dispute, “the similarity of circumstances is striking,” said a broadcast lawyer who has represented clients in retrans negotiations. Despite the early warning, high stakes and impending loss of service to the public, “Congress failed to reach agreement and the government shut down,” said Pillsbury lawyer Scott Flick in a blog post (http://bit.ly/14GnEmy). One of the inherent characteristics of “arm’s length” negotiations, is that “a disruption is sometimes necessary to jolt the parties into moving off of their original positions and on to a negotiated result,” he said. While those against the current retrans process argue that merely policing the negotiation process isn’t enough, it seems like the good faith rule might be fairly useful in the current congressional conundrum, he said. “Where such intractable disputes arise, we should all be thrilled if all that is needed to solve the problem is a pair of rabbit ears.”

Members of the Competitive Carriers Association are in Washington, D.C., this week for a series of meetings, mostly on Capitol Hill, with the FCC shuttered, CCA President Steve Berry told us. A key focus of the meetings will be CCA’s push for license sizes smaller than economic area (EA) licenses for the TV incentive auction, Berry said. That issue has emerged as one of the biggest for small carriers interested in bidding in that auction (CD Sept 23 p1). “We've got a lot of carriers, vendors, suppliers, coming in to talk to people on the Hill about the incredible need to have smaller geographic-sized licenses if you want to continue to have competitors in every market,” he said. “This is a huge issue for us as we move forward.”

The Data Alliance and FourthWall Media are collaborating to create cross-channel advertising campaigns, said the companies in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/19ZkHiH). The Data Alliance is owned by the WPP Group, a multinational advertising and public relations company, and data management accounts for $4 billion of WPP’s revenue of $16.5 billion, said the companies. The Data Alliance will facilitate FourthWall’s MassiveData division to work with WPP companies Kantar Media and KBM’s groups i-Behavior on next-generation products that are currently used by WPP agencies GroupM and Xaxis, said the companies. FourthWall is an independent source of cable set-top box viewing data and the companies said they're “harnessing U.S. television viewership data” to plan and deliver cross-channel advertising campaigns and extend the reach of their clients’ campaigns.

American Tower said it completed its buy of MIP Tower Holdings, parent company of Global Tower Partners. The $4.8 billion deal, announced in early September, bought out the company’s ownership from majority owner Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, the company’s management and Dutch pension fund manager PGGM (http://bit.ly/19hRAea). The purchase gives American Tower ownership of Global Tower’s 5,400 U.S. tower sites, 500 sites in Costa Rica, management rights at 9,000 additional U.S. sites and “domestic property interests” at 800 third-party sites (CD Sept 9 p12). American Tower said it financed the $3.3 billion cash portion of the purchase using $500 million in cash on hand and $2.8 billion in credit.

The shutdown of the federal government will delay important government IT projects in cloud computing, mobility and big data, said TechVoice, a partnership of the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), Technology Councils of North America and participating regional tech associations, in a Tuesday blog post (http://bit.ly/15LFdRq). The shutdown will also result in late payments and furloughed contractors, including in the IT sectors, said Elizabeth Hyman, CompTIA vice president of public advocacy, in the post. Important work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, including the cybersecurity framework, is now on hold, she said. “Today’s events are a setback -- one that we sincerely hope will not persist for long,” she said.

More TV markets have been blacked out to date this year than in all of 2012, said the American Television Alliance in a news release (http://bit.ly/19YwwWf). ATA is a coalition of multichannel video program distributors, programmers and public interest groups. “Television broadcasters have already surpassed last year’s record-breaking year for blackouts,” said the ATA release. “With two months to go, TV consumers have already been subjected to 101 blackouts in 2013, versus 91 in 2012 and 51 in 2011.” ATA said 2013’s numbers have already surpassed 2012’s, after Media General pulled its programming from Dish Network subscribers in 17 markets. The blackout affects stations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Ohio and Virginia, the release said.

Twitter added a new company, Adaptly, to its advertising application program interface (API) partner network, said a Wednesday release (http://bit.ly/154rlVf). Twitter Ads API partner network helps the social media site’s advertisers develop cross-network ad strategies. Adaptly, which focuses on social advertising technology, will soon roll out a new platform “Go,” the release said. Go is tailored to work on myriad campaigns across different devices, shift the advertiser’s budget to the most effective ad campaigns, and display metrics via a new dashboard. “The fragmented device and platform world creates an even greater need for advanced cross-platform solutions,” said Nikhil Sethi, Adaptly’s chief executive officer and co-founder, in the release.

MTN Communications renewed its agreement with Pullmantur Cruises to deliver communications services for passengers and crew. The agreement increases the breadth of services and support that MTN will provide to Pullmantur’s fleet, “including an enhanced onboard suite of connectivity options for passengers and crew along with an expansion of its broadband satellite services,” MTN said in a news release (http://bit.ly/16ZbHHi). Pullmantur also plans to update the Wi-Fi infrastructure on its fleet, MTN said. That enhancement “will enable more existing and new MTN communication offerings ranging from specialized apps, enhanced Internet and social media access and calling solutions,” it said.