> Sezmi, a Belmont, Calif.-based developer of a hybrid television platforms that the company calls an alterative to satellite and cable, has raised $17.3 million in a new round of private equity funding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Two investors participated in the round. Story.
> David Grimaldi has been tapped to serve as chief of staff and media legal advisor to FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Grimaldi had been senior counsel to house majority whip James E. Clyburn (Mignon's father), specializing in telecom and technology, among other things. Grimaldi is also former legislative counsel to Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY). Story.
> A small group at CableLabs is said to be weighing long-term technical options that could allow operators to beef up the industry's meager upstream capacity and enable sustainable speeds far greater than 100 Mbits. Options include letting MSOs insert a much wider upstream pipe above 1 GHz and while it may sound radical, it could end up being the economically plausible long term. For now, it appears that cable's available spectrum could have enough juice to hit 100-Mbits bursts in the upstream, or somewhere close to it. Story.
> It would appear that Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) are at loggerheads again. The two firms locked horns in 2009 when they couldn't come to terms on carriage terms for Versus, finally reaching a deal was finally reached in March. At issue this time around is G4, the Comcast-owned channel that caters to young men with shows about video games, gaming culture and, of course, pretty girls. G4's current deal with DirecTV expires at the end of this month. Story and related information.
And finally... Deluxe Digital Cinema Inc. and EchoStar Satellite Services have joined forces to create a joint venture to build an advanced digital cinema satellite distribution network delivering movie content to digitally equipped theaters in the U.S. and Canada. The Deluxe/EchoStar Network can deliver 2D and 3D feature films, live events and other programming developed specifically for digitally equipped theaters, according to the companies. News release.