Now it’s Verizon’s turn in the government spotlight. The U.S. Department of Justice plans to look into the recent deals that the wireless company has cut with several cable companies in order to obtain wireless spectrum, according to a report.

Last week, Verizon announced a $3.6 billion deal to buy wireless spectrum from cable operators and resell their pay-TV services. This week, Lowell McAdam, Verizon’s CEO, started to lay out how that deal will impact other services operated and sold by the carrier: it looks like it will not continue…

A big move for Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) today, and something of a seismic shift for the cable industry as it moves away from its fixation on offering its own wireless services to complement their broadband, TV and phone offerings: Verizon has agreed on a deal to pay $3.6 billion…

The latest installment of the Twilight movies, Breaking Dawn, enjoyed one of the top-grossing opening weekends of all time (for some inexplicable reason) following its Friday debut. The movie also shared another distinction: it generated the highest percentage of mobile ticketing purchases in Fandango’s history, paidContent has learned.

It’s a wild world these days at the intersection of traditional television business models and all the new ways that people are consuming content online and across different devices. Panelists at paidContent Entertainment 2011 grappled with the implications of that shift by emphasizing the need for quality: quality metrics, quality…

Bloomberg may still be battling with Comcast over better placement on its cable systems, but the financial news and information company is looking to claim to another screen for its live television broadcasts: the iPad. The company launched its latest free, ad-supported app in the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iTunes Store…

Indie documentary video streaming service SnagFilms making good on some of the changes it proposed earlier this year, when it raised $10 million in funding: it’s officially expanding its 2,300 non-fiction film library to include dramatic, fictional independent features. The second change can be called the “Snag Everywhere” plan, which…

Another day, another patent suit is hitting the courts. Today the Canada-based patent holder WiLAN has filed a suit in a U.S. court against a host of big-name tech companies, including Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and HTC, alleging patent infringements related to WiLAN patents in WiFi, LTE, CDMA and HSPA technologies.…

Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) needs a helping hand, there’s no doubt about that. And it sounds like a familiar friend may be riding to the rescue backed by some unfamiliar allies.

—Everything Everywhere: Mark Horrobin is the director of transformation for Everything Everywhere, the merged JV between T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, to oversee further integration of the operators into a single business. He comes from Tesco Telecom, where he had been COO until earlier this year.

Online movie ticketer Fandango says that 20 percent of its virtual box office this summer was generated by its iPhone, iPad and Android apps and its redesigned wap site. But some of the thanks goes to a fictional wizard, alien robots and some guys who’ve been drinking too much (again).

A look at some of the big stories in mobile today: Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) settle their patent dispute; two more companies—the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) and OpinionLab—file suits against Lodsys; Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) buys Telcordia; Skype signs a deal with Comcast; (NSDQ: CMCSA) and the…

Our look at some of the big stories today in mobile: reports of RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) looking at investing in India; Best Buy starts up its WiMax service with Clearwire; (NSDQ: CLWR) and another advance in MasterCard’s NFC initiative.

The launches are still months away but CNN Digital has a pair of announcements from SXSW tonight that mark significant advancements for the network’s online and mobile video offerings. In early summer, CNN plans to flip the switch on its version of Time (NYSE: TWX) Warner’s CEO Jeff Bewkes’ TV…

Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) has finally brought its TV Everywhere concept to the iPad with the release of the Xfinity app, which will allow its subscribers access to a limited number of “hit shows” and movies from its “premium networks” next month. The free Xfinity app will gradually offer more content…

Naysayers continue expressing suspicion Spotify will launch in the U.S.. But Spotify’s not alone in discovering the challenge of an overseas launch. Here’s a newsflash for the sceptics: the list of U.S. services which haven’t found their way out of America is also long…

Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) and its partners have announced commercial roll-out plans in three of the country’s largest cities—New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The race is on to beat Verizon Wireless, which has non-specific plans to launch in those cities and 35 others by the end of the…

Sprint (NYSE: S) unveiled a new service today at CTIA called “Sprint ID,” which bundles packs of applications together around a theme, so that first-time smartphone users don’t have to search tirelessly through the Android Market. But Sprint’s real interest is not only about increasing smartphone adoption, but also about…

Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) has hired mobile gaming veteran Greg Ballard to lead its digital games business, as the company continues to double-down on the effort. Ballard is joining Warner Bros. only four months after he was hired by mobile video ad network Transpera as CEO; he had previously spent…