Sinclair completed the purchase of Fisher Communications in a deal worth about $373.3 million, less acquired working capital, said the acquirer in a news release Thursday. Fisher investors recently approved the deal (CD Aug 7 p18).

T-Mobile US’s 1.1 million-subscriber gain during Q2 “is not a one-time blip,” said T-Mobile CEO John Legere Thursday during a conference call with investors. The carrier lost a net 205,000 subscribers during the same period last year. About 688,000 of T-Mobile’s subscriber adds were on postpaid contract subscriptions. T-Mobile added the iPhone line to its smartphone offerings in early April and has attempted to distinguish itself as the “Un-carrier” by dispensing with contract plans in favor of services like the no-contract “Simple Choice Plan” (CD March 27 p2) . The No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier has set its sights on taking customers from No. 2 carrier AT&T, but has no interest in counterbidding against AT&T for Leap, Legere said. Although T-Mobile saw its Q2 revenue rise to $6.2 billion -- up from $4.89 billion a year ago -- the carrier had a net loss of $16 million. T-Mobile attributed the net loss to costs related to its merger with MetroPCS and marketing for the iPhone. The carrier sold 4.3 million total mobile devices during Q2; 86 percent of those devices were smartphones, T-Mobile said (http://t-mo.co/15QxSV8).

Representatives of CTIA and the Association of Public Television Stations discussed channel sharing in light of the incentive auction, at meetings Tuesday with FCC officials, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/15SfFX9). “Specifically, we discussed issues related to channel sharing, including legal, technical, policy, and consumer issues to facilitate the development of channel sharing as an alternative for broadcast television stations that may want to participate in the auction,” the filing said. “We discussed the potential benefits of channel sharing for participating broadcast stations and consumers, the role that channel sharing may play in conducting a successful incentive auction, and issues to be considered in developing a channel sharing framework."

The FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force said the FCC plans a webinar to provide additional information about commission proposals for software to chart repacking for the auction of broadcast TV spectrum (http://fcc.us/179qyR6). The auction team is to offer commissioners an update on auction progress on Friday at the commission meeting. The FCC released basic information on the software July 22 (http://bit.ly/1evw7Mw). Industry officials said Thursday there’s still widespread confusion about the software and many questions remain. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel (CD June 28 p6) and Ajit Pai (CD July 26 p1) have both said the FCC should do all it can, including more outreach, to move toward an incentive auction next year. “T-Mobile appreciates the FCC moving forward on the broadcast incentive auction by providing important information related to repacking broadcast stations -- a key component for maximizing the amount of spectrum available and making the 600 MHz incentive auction a robust opportunity for wireless broadband,” said T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham. “We're pleased the FCC is being deliberative to ensure the software necessary to support the auction and the repacking process is fully developed and understood by engaging all interested parties."

AMC Networks took a $7 million writeoff against Q2 earnings, largely for Sundance Channel reality series, as it prepares to shift Sundance to a traditional ad-supported business in Q4, said AMC Chief Financial Officer Sean Sullivan on an earnings call. AMC isn’t disclosing the Sundance series that were part of the writeoff, an AMC spokeswoman said. But the writeoff covers more than one Sundance reality series, the spokeswoman said. AMC introduced a batch of reality series in May 2012, including Dead & Found, Dream School, The Trouble With Love and Sex, Kenya & Carl and Wino. The reality series Dream School, created by Jamie Oliver, who executive produces it with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, recently got approval from Sundance for six hourlong episodes that will air starting in the fall. Dream School focuses on troubled teenagers trying to turn their lives around. An AMC Channel series also was included in the writeoff, Sullivan said. AMC Networks’ Q2 net income more than tripled to $135.7 million from $41.5 million a year earlier, benefitting from $132.9 million it received from Dish Network as part of a legal settlement in April. Dish agreed to pay $700 million to Cablevision and AMC Networks to settle a breach-of-contract lawsuit stemming from the satellite operator’s decision to drop Voom HD four years ago. AMC, which was to receive $310 million from the $700 million settlement, also was paid $175 million in Q1. AMC Networks, once part of Cablevision, spun off from the cable operator in 2011. AMC Q2 revenue rose 16 percent to $379.3 million from the year-ago quarter as the programmer benefitted from the latest installment of Mad Men. AMC’s National Networks’ revenue, with video streaming deals including one with Netflix, grew to $353.5 million from $305.1 million. AMC’s international and other sales rose to $29.9 million from $26.2 million. AMC’s Q2 operating expenses increased 22.3 percent to about $208 million as it geared up for the final season of Breaking Bad and the premiere of Low Winter Sun, both of which will be shown on Sunday. Another series, Hell on Wheels, starts its third season on Saturday. AMC’s WE tv also is entering the scripted series business in 2014 with the morality drama Divide. The Independent Film Channel is readying the Will Ferrell spoof The Spoils of Babylon, along with The Birthday Boys, which is being executive produced by Ben Stiller. AMC CEO Josh Sapan also hinted at potential “disruption” of its programming by “a couple” of smaller pay-TV operators as the network seeks to renew carriage deals at higher rates. Sapan didn’t identify the cable operators, but said any programming disruption wouldn’t have a major financial impact on the company because the operators are a “very small percentage” of its affiliate base. AMC has renewed carriage agreements with a “significant portion” of its affiliates during the past 18 months on lengths ranging from three to seven years, Sapan said. AMC shares closed 6 percent lower Thursday at $66.90.

Free Press’s criticisms of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council’s media cross-ownership impact study (CD Aug 8 p3) were “littered with gutter speculation and invective,” said MMTC President David Honig via email. Free Press’s assertions about possible undisclosed prior business relationships between MMTC and study respondents “are beneath the dignity of that organization,” he said. “They should be withdrawn or the commission should strike them from the record.” On Free Press’s other allegation, that some respondents described in the study as minority or female owned aren’t, MMTC will respond within two weeks, Honig said.

Google said it’s expanding its Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge to include an additional 79 patents. The company made the OPN Pledge in March, committing to not sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software related to 10 of its patents “unless first attacked,” said Duane Valz, Google’s senior patent counsel, in a Thursday blog post. The additional 79 patents Google added to its OPN Pledge cover software used to operate data centers, including middleware, distributed storage management, distributed database management and alarm monitoring. Google bought the 79 patents from IBM and CA Technologies, Valz said. The patents Google has chosen to include in its OPN Pledge have generally involved “back-end” technologies, but Google is considering adding patents in areas where “open-source software is also transforming the development of consumer products that people use every day,” Valz said (http://bit.ly/133zv19).

Worldwide consumer Wi-Fi customer premises equipment shipments totaled 43.3 million units during Q1 -- a 17 percent increase from the previous quarter, said ABI Research on Thursday. Although 802.11n device shipments still comprise more than two-thirds of all device shipments, “802.11ac access point adoption is starting to gain traction” in the consumer access point (AP) marketplace, said Jake Saunders, ABI practice director-forecasting. Devices using the 802.11ac standard began entering the market late last year, and 200,000 802.11ac Wi-Fi consumer APs shipped in Q1, said the industry research firm. A total of 1 million 802.11ac consumer APs will be shipped through the end of 2013, while products using the 802.11ac (WiGig) standard will likely enter the market by the end of the year, it said (http://bit.ly/13JC6fo).

Telecom companies that give access to the U.K.’s spy agency face legal action for unlawful mass surveillance, said Privacy International on Thursday. Previous reports said Britain’s spy system, Tempora, tapped directly into undersea fiber cables to collect Internet traffic. The identity of the companies involved wasn’t known until a German newspaper Aug. 2 published the names, PI said. The telcos are BT, Verizon Business, Vodafone Cable, Level 3, Level 3’s Global Crossing, Viatel and Interoute, it said. The privacy group sent a “pre-action” letter to the cable providers seeking information on their relationship with the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Details PI wants include: (1) Company policies for assessing the lawfulness of government surveillance requests. (2) Any interception requests they have received from authorities. (3) Any steps taken to oppose or resist such orders. (4) Any money they've received for cooperating with governments. Tempora wouldn’t have been possible without the complicity of the undersea cable providers, said PI Head of Research Eric King. They are “the last line of defence for customers against the government’s intrusion into our private lives,” he said in a news release. Telecom providers have an obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights to take reasonable steps to safeguard customers’ privacy, PI said. It filed a claim in July in the U.K. Investigatory Powers Tribunal challenging Tempora and GCHQ’s access to the U.S. surveillance program called Prism. Unless the companies come up with a satisfactory response, PI will add them to its claim, it said. “Questions relating to national security are for governments, not telecommunications providers,” a BT spokeswoman said. “Having said that, we can reassure customers that we comply with the law wherever we operate and do not disclose customer data in any jurisdiction unless legally required to do so."

The FCC should investigate whether video programmers are using “anticompetitive sourcing practices” for closed captioning, said Media Captioning Services in a comment in docket 12-203 (http://bit.ly/1cNMXrX) responding to the commission’s 15th annual Video Competition Report. Video programmers have made low prices for captioning services “the pre-eminent factor” in their choice of captioning provider, said MCS. This has caused captioning prices to decline “to a level close to the actual production levels of even the largest captioning company,” MCS said. Smaller captioning companies “are being shut out of the captioning business, and their ability to hire new and experienced captioners is being significantly and negatively impacted,” MCS said. The FCC should conduct a notice of inquiry within 90 days on how captioning services are sourced, MCS said.