Ad-funded, youth-oriented mobile virtual network operator Blyk has raised a massive $50.4 million (40 million euros) round from its existing investors - one of Europe’s biggest media/tech investments of the year.  The funding is a real boost for the company, both in terms of money as well as belief in its business model, which some advertisers weren’t always convinced of. It also has a new partnership with operators in place, though the brief statement did not go into detail as to what this new strategy entails.

Rather ominously, CEO Pekka Ala-Pietilä also warned that “like everyone else [we] are feeling the impact of the world’s financial situation,” and had “taken decisive steps to cut costs and streamline our organization.” It’s unclear whether this means layoffs. It plans, however, to continue its international expansion.

Since its launch last year in September, Blyk UK has amassed 200,000 members and claims that the average response rate is over 25 percent for the 2000+ campaigns it has run. The company, which was started by ex-Nokia (NYSE: NOK) exec Ala-Pietila, has not disclosed who all of its investors are, but has scored two previous VC rounds - one in 2006 known to include Paris’ Sofinnova Partners (which said at the time it was willing to commit 30 million euros, now $38 million) and another this January known to involve Goldman Sachs and Industrial & Financial Investments Company. More to come…

• Ad-Funded MVNO Blyk To Roll Out In Germany, Spain And Belgium
• Blyk Advertisers, Skeptical On Subscriber Numbers, Just ‘Don’t Get It’
• Blyk Gets New Funding Round, Expanding To Netherlands

Verizon’s just a few steps away from becoming the top dog in the carrier race. The FCC has told the carrier it will have to divest business holdings in a total of 105 markets within 120 days to close the acquisition of Alltel (NYSE: AT), RCR reports. The FCC agreed on the 100 markets Verizon (NYSE: VZ) offered to sell off prior to the FCC’s approval FCC OKs Verizon’s $28 Billion Alltel Acquisition And Sprint-Clearwire Deal”>earlier this month and added five more markets out of 218 that were flagged as potential problems during the FCC’s vetting process. The carrier will now have to sell its various spectrum holdings, network assets and customers in all of the markets to push the acquisition through. The FCC didn’t put any conditions on the divestitures, but recommended the carrier at least consider regional, local and rural providers when making the sale. U.S. Cellular is expected to pick up some new customers and network strength in the process. 

• FCC Votes On Election Day For White Spaces, Clearwire-Sprint Deal And Verizon-Alltel Merger
• FCC OKs Verizon’s $28 Billion Alltel Acquisition And Sprint-Clearwire Deal
• Verizon Will Complete Alltel Deal, Says CEO

Mogees is launching an SDK for Android that will allow developers to charge for applications on the Android Market using its mobile billing platform. In doing so, it’s beating Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to the punch by at least a few months. Currently, Google doesn’t have a system that allows developers to charge for applications, but it plans to fix that by early next year. The Mountain View, Calif.-based startup thinks it hit a unique window of opportunity that prompted it to launch its payments SDK on the Android platform. Handango and MobiHand also sell Android apps, but users must visit their sites to buy them.

CEO and co-founder David Li: “We believe there are many developers who would be interested in getting paid for their applications today, and not wait until next year sometime. Lots of Android phones have been purchased and lots more will be bought through the holiday season. We want to help developers to monetize now.” In response to questions via email, he also pointed out that Google’s Android team hasn’t provided much detail about their billing service other than the fact that developers will get to keep 70 percent and 30 percent will go to the carrier. In contrast, Mogees will charge 10 percent and a 30-cent fee per transaction. As incentive to use the platform, Mogees will give the first thousand developers that sign up free payment processing for the rest of the year, up to $1 million. The company expects to launch additional SDKs for BlackBerry and iPhone by the end of 2009. 

For most of the sports-viewing world, the big news in the deal announced today between ESPN (NYSE: DIS) and the Bowl Championship Series is the price tag—an estimated $500 million—and the apparently inexorable move of major sports from free over-the-air broadcast to subscription-supported cable. But, as we suggested yesterday, it includes some digital news as well: the package of exclusive TV, radio, digital, international and marketing rights from 2011 through 2014 covers broadband and mobile simulcasts. An ESPN spokesman says the network has the same broad digital rights internationally as it does in the U.S. More on the digital component on paidContent.org