Comcast has closed on its purchase of the Irish vendor Blueface, which uses the cloud as the basis of its telecommunications solutions, for an undisclosed amount. Blueface will become part of Comcast Business, but will continue operations as its own brand.

ViacomCBS is taking a step toward coordinating programming from its channels by airing reruns of "The Late Late Show with James Corden," which appear first on CBS, as part of a morning Comedy Central block. The show will air at 7:30 AM on weekdays, and will follow "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" broadcasts, also repeats from that show's live nightly airings.

Verizon will help establish the first 5G esports training facility in the US under a joint venture with Dignitas, a pro esports league, at the telecom's 5G Lab in Los Angeles. The partners will unite on leveraging Verizon's 5G network to improve esports players' performance and their connections with fans.

Billie Eilish's performance and numerous awards and various artist tributes to the recently deceased NBA star Kobe Bryant carried this year's Grammy Awards show, while allegations of unfair voting practices and sexual misconduct at the Recording Academy went unmentioned. The show featured performances by host Alicia Keys, as well as Camila Cabello and Demi Lovato, among others.

Broadcasters in southern California are planning 1:08 minutes of silence at noon Pacific Time today in honor of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, who was killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash. Local law enforcement officials have criticized gossip site TMZ for reporting the accident before they could notify all the victims' family members.

Most Apple TV+ customers are receiving the streaming service at no charge, Ampere Analysis says about its rough estimate of 33.6 million subscribers for the platform. The research firm notes that many users are receiving the service for free under a 12-month offer for those who buy iPads, Phones, or certain Pods, as well as Macs or Apple TV devices.

The Television Critics Association's winter event highlighted several upcoming trends, Multichannel News says. The analysis points to the increasing number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer lead characters in original programming, the insistence by some streaming providers that they will carve out unique niches to survive the "streaming wars," and a few services' decisions to eliminate original scripted shows despite the overall rise in new content.

CableLabs will reportedly complete work on the full specifications for DOCSIS 4.0 as the month ends, with an eye on releasing them across the industry before April, although the consortium itself has declined to provide specific dates other than "early 2020." Completion of the specs will enable vendors to begin manufacturing DOCSIS 4.0-based gear with support for multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds, advanced security features and low latency for broadband services.

ESPN says the number of original live shows it runs on such platforms as YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter will top 500 during 2020, more than a hundred shows above its 2019 count. The original digital content differs from the network shows by emphasizing a greater element of "fun," said ESPN's Ryan Spoon.

Cisco Systems and IBM are offering managed private cloud-as-a-service for x86 hardware based on Cisco's Unified Computing System. The companies are providing a standard VMware-based version and a Red Hat OpenShift-based offering.