TPG Capital's RCN/Grande closed on its buy of Wave Broadband, it said Thursday. The parties said Wave will continue to operate under the Wave brand and keep its Kirkland, Washington, headquarters. RCN/Grande CEO Jim Holanda said the addition helps create a national-scale cable ISP "with significant growth potential." RCN/Grande said the deal gives it a broader footprint in seven of the top 10 designated market areas and nearly 950,000 customers. The $2.37 billion deal was announced last year (see 1705220058).

Cable ISP Atlantic Broadband said it hopes to close by late July on purchase of FiberLight's south Florida fiber network. Atlantic said the deal would add 350 route miles to its existing south Florida footprint. Financial details weren't disclosed.

Starz has received more than 3,000 voicemails from subscribers unhappy about the Altice USA blackout, it said in an FCC docket 18-9 filing posted Wednesday. It also submitted more than 200 pages of what it said were compiled tweets and emails from affected Altice viewers upset about the contretemps. Starz separately in an ex parte filing recapped a meeting Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Hirsch had with commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn at which it pushed for expedited FCC action on its emergency injunctive relief petition; it has made similar arguments with the Media Bureau (see 1801190042). Starz separately in an ex parte filing recapped a meeting Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Hirsch had with Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn during which it pushed for expedited FCC action on its emergency injunctive relief petition; it made similar arguments with the Media Bureau (see 1801190042). Altice, which didn't comment Wednesday, is fighting the injunctive relief request (see 1801230054).

Comcast's mobile service, Xfinity Mobile, ended 2017 with more than 380,000 subscribers signed up in its first seven months, 187,000 alone in Q4, executives said on an earnings call Wednesday. Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said the company is about to start packaging Xfinity Mobile with other offerings, such as broadband. NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said virtual MVPDs remain niche areas for NBCU: "We're talking about tenths of a percentage point." Burke said Google and Facebook dominate the growing digital ad sphere, but TV advertising "is roughly flat." He said Comcast's goal is more targetable TV ads, which accounts for the company's investments in BuzzFeed, Snap and Vox. Asked about deal prospects, company CEO Brian Roberts said there's "nothing we feel we have to acquire." Comcast said Q4 revenue rose 4.2 percent to $21.9 billion. It finished 2017 with 21.3 million residential video customers, down 185,000 year over year; 23.9 residential broadband customers, up 1 million; and 10.3 million residential voice customers, down 230,000.

U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) preliminary findings that Fox's proposed buy of Sky may be against the public interest regarding media plurality issues is disappointing, but the provisional findings move the deal to the next regulatory review step, Fox said in a statement Tuesday. Fox expects final regulatory OK by June 30 now that CMA is taking an eight-week extension, moving the deadline for its final decision to May 1. In a note to investors Tuesday, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said the findings don't close the door on the deal since CMA provided potential remedies. She said a spinoff or divestiture of Sky News is possible, as are behavioral remedies to insulate Sky from the Murdoch family trust. She said Disney's buying Fox would remove the roadblocks to the deal since it would weaken the Sky News/Murdoch family trust ties, but that timing becomes a problem since Disney/Fox is expected to happen after June 30. The CMA said Tuesday its inquiry group provisionally concluded that while Fox/Sky may not be in the public interest regarding media plurality, it's not against the public interest regarding broadcasting standards. It said the deal makes it more likely Sky News and News Corp.-owned newspapers "could take a similar approach on specific topics or issues, push certain stories, or downplay others" and that Murdoch family trust control over Sky News alongside those newspapers would give it oversized control over public opinion and political agendas.

With AT&T seeking third-party pricing information from DOJ as part of the agency's court fight to block AT&T's buy of Time Warner, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington on Monday ordered Justice to get consent from nine third parties to produce the pricing data for AT&T. The docket 17-2511 order (in Pacer) said the data was given to DOJ during prior deal investigations. The third parties are Altice, Comcast, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Disney, Fox, Viacom, Discovery and Scripps; the last two companies also are combining. In a note Tuesday, Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar said investor optimism about regulatory approval and smooth execution of the deal might be oversized, since New Disney's scale in sports could be subject to close scrutiny. The integration "is likely to be quite complicated" because of different company cultures and recent and expected Disney losses of some key management personnel, Venkateshwar said, adding the integration will be happening simultaneously with the launch of high-profile over-the-top products.

Multiple district courts have found that a section of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act contains a content-based speech restriction, so plaintiffs suing Charter -- as well as the DOJ as intervenor -- are wrong in trying to trying to justify those restrictions, the MVPD said in a docket 17-1361 reply (in Pacer) posted Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The company said previous unsuccessful First Amendment challenges to TCPA didn't address content-based preferences Charter is challenging and aren't relevant. Charter also rejected Justice claims the company lacks standing to challenge the section of TCPA in question. Charter argued TCPA creates a content-based distinction between exempt calls for collection of private, government-guaranteed debts or government-owed debts like student loans and all other private calls, such as the telemarketing call to named plaintiff Steve Gallion. The department and counsel for Gallion didn't comment Tuesday.

Wave's carriage and streaming complaint against NBCUniversal and three Comcast regional sports networks (see 1712190041) is procedurally flawed, time barred and without merit, the networks said in a docket 17-361 opposition posted Tuesday. They said Wave is essentially making an untimely program access complaint, and gives no authority as to why the FCC should waive the one-year limitation to allow a formal program access complaint. They said Wave indicated it will invoke arbitration for the RSNs under the Comcast/NBCU consent decree order, which is incompatible with the company simultaneously seeking the FCC involvement. The networks said Wave complaints are about to become moot given the pending takeover by TPG Capital (see 1705220058), since NBCU and TPG's RCN Telecom Services recently signed a multiyear carriage agreement, meaning Wave systems within days or weeks will carry the RSNs under the terms RCN negotiated. Wave outside counsel didn't comment.

Since Starz content couldn't get it carriage on Altice USA, the programmer now is trying to manipulate the regulatory process to that end, the MVPD said in an FCC docket 18-9 opposition posted Tuesday. It responded to Starz's petition last week for emergency injunctive relief (see 1801190042). Altice said Starz isn't being carried not because of a rules violation, but because Starz "sought a price that makes no economic sense," and the petition came nearly three weeks after the Jan. 1 blackout's start shows it's not an emergency. It said rules require cable operators give 30-day notice to subscribers of a programming change if that change is within control of the MVPD, but Starz didn't know a blackout was coming unit Dec. 31. The cable operator said Starz hasn't shown the alleged violation of the service change notice rule caused irreparable harm, since any harm to the content provider by subscribers not having 30 days notice to plan ahead to keep receiving Starz was offset by Altice's steps to inform subscribers on how they could get Starz via other means. The programmer didn't comment.

The expiration Saturday of the FCC's conditions on Comcast's buy of NBCUniversal was criticized by the American Cable Association and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. ACA in a statement Monday said the FCC "should examine and then address" harms Comcast/NBCU might cause by strengthening program access rules, such as deciding whether an arbitration remedy and standstill condition should be codified. It said the agency should amend program access rules so the National Cable Television Cooperative qualifies as a buying group. Clyburn's Friday tweet said with the DOJ opposing AT&T's proposed buy of Time Warner on the same grounds that prompted the FCC to put conditions on Comcast/NBCU, "has anything really changed?" Comcast didn't comment on the tweet or ACA's comments, but in a statement said it "met or exceeded all of the commitments and obligations," and none of its six annual compliance reports was challenged by the FCC, members of Congress or third parties. It said all markets in which it operates "are more robust and more competitive now than they were” before the deal. Comcast said it doesn't anticipate any operational changes due to the conditions' expiration. It disputed conditions in AT&T/TW are analogous to Comcast/NBCU, since it doesn't have a national distribution network like AT&T's DirecTV or its wireless network, and it doesn't operate cable or broadband services in the nation's two biggest markets, New York City and Los Angeles. Experts said it's unlikely regulators would extend the Comcast/NBCU conditions or that DOJ would revisit the issue (see 1712210018).