Cablevision S.A. of Buenos Aires joined CableLabs, while Buford Media Group of Tyler, Texas, has withdrawn, said a Justice Department notice published in the Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1bBspE9). CableLabs disclosed the changes to the FTC and attorney general under provisions of the 1993 National Cooperative Research and Production Act, it said. CableLabs said in recent weeks (http://bit.ly/1a4jg3N) that membership is expanding to more than a dozen Asian and European cable operators (CD Sept 4 p13).

Apple expects revenue for Q4 that started June 30 will come in “near the high end” of its previously estimated range of $34 billion to $37 billion, it said Monday in a filing at the SEC. It also expects Q4 gross margin will be “near the high end” of its estimated range of 36-37 percent, it said. The company sold a “record-breaking” 9 million new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models since they went on sale Friday, it said in a news release. Demand for the iPhone 5s “exceeded the initial supply, and many online orders are scheduled to be shipped in the coming weeks,” it said. Although Apple was “sold out of our initial supply” of the 5s, stores “continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly,” said CEO Tim Cook. Apple is “working hard to build enough new iPhones” to satisfy demand, he said. More than 200 million iOS devices are now running the redesigned iOS 7 operating system, making it the “fastest software upgrade in history,” it also said. Apple shares closed 5 percent higher Monday at $490.64.

Nielsen agreed to divest and license assets and intellectual property needed for syndicated U.S. cross-platform audience measurement services as part of a deal to get the FTC OK to buy Arbitron, said the agency and the acquirer Friday night. The companies, developing such services to let audiences be measured on TV and online, would have eliminated future competition and likely caused advertisers, ad agencies and programmers to pay more for such measurement, said an agency news release (http://1.usa.gov/18lll9N). A settlement was approved by FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Commissioner Julie Brill, and opposed by Commissioner Joshua Wright. Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen was recused. The order required the companies to divest the link meter technology to an acquirer approved by the commission and to license to that buyer “on a non-exclusive basis” all “know-how related” to the technology. Encoding and some other technology must be licensed by the combining companies for eight years to whichever firm buys such measurement technology, said the order (http://1.usa.gov/19tG5wf). In dissenting against the conditions, Wright said there’s insufficient evidence to show the deal would have substantially cut competition for cross-platform audience measurement services (http://1.usa.gov/1bBINoa). No conditions were called for in a deal challenged by the agency “based upon what must be acknowledged as a novel theory” that it “will substantially lessen competition in a market that does not today exist,” wrote Wright. “Although there is no commercially available national syndicated cross-platform audience measurement service today, demand for such a service by advertisers and media companies is increasing,” said the FTC complaint (http://1.usa.gov/19tIPK6). It said “Nielsen and Arbitron are the best-positioned firms to develop (or partner with others to develop)” such a service, because only those companies “maintain large, representative panels capable of measuring television with the required individual-level demographics, the data source preferred by advertisers and media companies.” The deal was disclosed Dec. 17 for Nielsen to pay $1.3 billion for Arbitron, and the agreement with the FTC “is intended to preserve the competitive landscape in place” before the deal was unveiled, said the acquirer in a news release (http://bit.ly/1dDWHEo). It said the order doesn’t affect Nielsen assets nor the benefits to the company from the acquisition, and “effectively enables the continuation of a cross-platform project measuring TV, radio, PC, mobile and tablet engagement which was announced by Arbitron in concert with ESPN and comScore, Inc. in September 2012.” The transaction “will enable broader measurement of what consumers are watching and listening to” and expand radio ad effectiveness, Nielsen said. The deal is expected to be completed Sept. 30.

The Society of Professional Journalists wants an end to the phone metadata surveillance by the National Security Agency. It joined an amicus brief from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press asking the Supreme Court to grant a preliminary injunction to the American Civil Liberties Union in the ACLU v. Clapper case, said a Friday press release (http://bit.ly/18kWkNJ). The brief made a point of “emphasizing the deleterious effect that the NSA’s program has on the media’s ability to report on highly sensitive issues that are of great interest to the public,” it said, saying “the most meaningful stories in journalism -- particularly those related to national security -- have relied on confidential sources, and that constant government surveillance makes those confidential sources increasingly hesitant to provide information to journalists knowing that their identities could easily be discovered.”

Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp. (MBC) is expanding its network with connections in Washington and Richmond, said MBC in a news release Monday (http://yhoo.it/1ai4K7U). MBC is adding new points-of-presence locations at the CoreSite data center in Washington and the QTS data center in Richmond, enabling MBC to provide wholesale transport services to its carrier customers and enable additional connectivity options, said the company. MBC now has 32 on-net locations for interconnection and it will continue to add more locations, said the company.

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved transfer of control from Pac-West Telecomm, Tex-Link Communications and nWire to the TNCI Operating Co., the bureau said in a public notice Friday (http://bit.ly/1fboNet). The transfer “serves the public interest,” the bureau said.

The state of Hawaii supports comments filed by Hawaiian Telcom encouraging the FCC to modify the Connect America Cost Model to accurately reflect the increased costs of deploying broadband in that state. “Construction in challenging volcanic terrain, the substantial undergrounding of telecommunication plant required due to tourism in the state, the substantial cost of shipping and storage of construction materials, and the necessity of extensive use of undersea cables” all require increased funding, Hawaii said (http://bit.ly/1fbnBb7). The state said it’s “concerned” that the “substantial record of need” has so far proven unsuccessful in getting additional USF money directed to its remote rural areas.

An allocation of cable landing station costs to multiple cables is “inappropriate” in the U.S. Virgin Islands because the Connect America Cost Model already incorporates cable station cost allocations into its methodology, the Virgin Islands Telephone told the FCC Wireline Bureau in comments posted Friday (http://bit.ly/1fblp3t). The cost model’s “Undersea” spreadsheet assumes a “very small” landing station; other commenters’ recommendations for use by “multiple cables” would require larger cable station facilities and increase costs overall, said the telco, which does business as Innovative Telephone.

Journal Broadcast Group reached a new long-term retransmission consent agreement for TV carriage of its stations for Time Warner Cable subscribers in the Milwaukee, Green Bay/Appleton, Omaha, Nashville and Palm Springs designated market areas. It was essential “for us to receive fair market value for our products and services so that we can continue to invest in the high-quality local and network programming our viewers deserve,” Journal Broadcast said in a news release (http://bit.ly/18H5Ixe).

There’s “significance” to CEA agreeing with the American Foundation for the Blind and American Council of the Blind on what comprises the “complete array” of built-in apparatus functions that a manufacturer of consumer electronics must make accessible if that can be achieved, said the association. An executive there said she and an executive from Samsung were among those meeting with an aide to acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and with a Media Bureau official about areas where the advocacy groups and association agree and disagree. “CEA also urged the Commission to adopt a uniform three-year phase-in period for all devices covered by Sections 204 and 205” of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 12-108 (http://bit.ly/19l8SmB). The sides had reached partial consensus on proposed user interface and program guide accessibility rules (CD Aug 20 p16).