U.S. Agency for Global Media names Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz to succeed VOA acting Director John Lippman this summer … Zayo Group, network infrastructure provider, taps former Vodafone executive Colman Deegan as CEO-Zayo Europe .... SheerID, identity verification company, promotes Dave Miller to chief financial officer ... Silicon Labs hires Radhika Chennakeshavula, ex-Western Digital, as chief information officer, effective Wednesday.

Meta names Javier Olivan chief operating officer, replacing Sheryl Sandberg, who remains with company through Sept. 30, then continues as a board member (see this section, June 2) … Xperi hires Keith Jones from Rambus as chief financial officer of Adeia, its intellectual property business, effective Aug. 8, and he will remain in that role after Adeia is spun off this fall; Rambus promotes Desmond Lynch to replace Jones as CFO-senior vice president ... Cybersecurity company ShiftLeft taps board member Stuart McClure, ex-Cylance, as CEO, replacing Manish Gupta, who will continue as adviser to ShiftLeft and its board; McClure also joins NetRise board ... Digital media quality platform Integral Ad Science hires Thomas Joseph from SiriusXM and Pandora as chief technology officer, effective Aug. 8.

Cartoon Network debuted a micro-network specifically designed for the small screen. The network, Cartoon Network Anything, contains content exclusively created for portable mobile platforms, Time Warner said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1wch5F7). Content includes games, trivia and video, “each lasting an average of 10 to 15 seconds,” it said. After each piece of content, viewers can advance to the next piece by swiping their screens, it said. The “perpetually-updated” content stream is delivered randomly, “providing entertainment that feels both immediate and infinite,” it said. The app is free and available for download on the App Store and Google Play, said Time Warner.

Nearly four in every 10 U.S. broadband equipped homes “regularly use transactional services," such as online video rentals and downloads, for over-the-top video, Parks Associates said Thursday (http://bit.ly/1EzsXHt). “The vast majority of consumers making these a la carte purchases also have a streaming video subscription, emphasizing the potential role of transactional services to supplement subscription OTT,” it said. For example, about two-thirds of Amazon Instant Video subscribers also rent or buy titles through the service, and “their average expenditures are increasing,” it said. “By contrast, expenditure on downloads among Netflix subscribers is decreasing.” Though subscription services “are the most popular form” of OTT video, transactional services that offer a wide selection of titles and are easy to use “can score with consumers and create new revenues,” the company said. “However, the lack of content can be the death knell for a service.” For example, Redbox Instant by Verizon “failed in large part because only a limited number of titles were available to rent through its streaming library,” it said. “What the service needed was a large selection of online titles, with easy access for streaming."

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The American Cable Association further urged the FCC to close a loophole in its program access rules that denies nearly all small and medium-sized multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) from having the full legal protections and rights that Congress intended. ACA expressed these views in an ex parte filing Tuesday in dockets 12-68, 14-28 and 14-90 (http://bit.ly/1yNbRoX) in response to reports the FCC is considering whether to extend MVPD obligations to online video distributors (CD Oct 1 p8). Hundreds of small and mid-sized MVPDs that rely on the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) to negotiate their programming agreements are effectively left unprotected due to the FCC’s exclusion of NCTC as a “buying group,” ACA said. Before the commission spends time and resources expanding the scope of the program access rules in an unprecedented manner, “it should take action to ensure that entities Congress explicitly intended to use the rules are in fact able to do so,” it said. ACA reiterated that imposing the conditions from the Comcast/NBCUniversal deal onto the pending Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal isn’t enough because those conditions “had design flaws that left smaller MVPDs and their bargaining agents underprotected.” ACA also said the open Internet won’t be protected or promoted if the commission subjects only broadband ISPs to “no blocking” and “commercial reasonableness” rules while leaving edge providers free to block or discriminate in ways equally or more harmful to the openness.” The filing was on a discussion between ACA President Matthew Polka and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at the Comptel meeting in Texas.

Acxiom, a U.K. enterprise data and analytics company, partnered with U.K.-based Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG) to help it develop more targeted branding, retention and acquisition strategies, it said. SMG will use Acxiom’s advanced customer recognition technology to centralize and connect campaigns and data across all the channels and platforms it uses to deliver results for its advertisers, Acxiom said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1oRHXpP). The deal also will let SMG get a head start in creating “true one-to-one marketing at scale, execute more targeted campaigns across all channels and devices” and transform customer experiences, it said.

Beginning with the Wednesday, Oct. 15, issue, we will unveil several new features in your daily delivery of Communications Daily that will allow for quicker, easier navigation to articles of interest. We also are launching a brand-new Communications Daily website connected to your daily email and PDF delivery. Going forward, your daily PDF will allow for one-click navigation from the table of contents or bookmarks to articles of interest. If you prefer, you also will be able to click on headlines in the daily cover email, then read the full article online. Look for more information on these improvements in the days ahead.

Verizon and Viacom renewed their FiOS carriage agreement, the companies said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1E5tCA0). Under the deal, FiOS will carry 25 of Viacom’s networks, including BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1, and Viacom’s joint venture services Aapka Colors and Epix, the release said. The deal also grants Verizon national rights to distribute Viacom content to Verizon Wireless customers, the release said. The deal will also allow FiOS customers to access all of Viacom’s networks on-demand and live, both at home and on mobile devices, using the FiOS Mobile app, it said. Verizon FiOS will also enable “dynamic ad insertion in all Viacom TV Everywhere and VOD content,” they said.

AOL and Publicis Groupe expanded a partnership in video programming and linear TV by syncing Publicis Groupe’s VivaKi with AOL Platforms. The deal gives VivaKi, which specializes in digital advertising, more access to premium reserved and non-reserved video environments through AOL Platforms, Publicis said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1qNFRXA). VivaKi anticipates a significant increase in programming spend for 2015, it said.