AT&T will add 4K high dynamic range support to DirecTV Now starting in 2018 as part of a “next-generation video platform” that will begin rolling out this fall, it announced. Beta-testing will begin this summer among “invited” DirecTV Now customers, among the first to try out the platform’s cloud DVR functionality and other features, the company said Thursday.

Sling TV added WeatherNation and Showtime Family Zone to some packages, it blogged Tuesday.

New International Maritime Organization (IMO) performance standards for global maritime distress safety system equipment and approved amendments to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Treaty are opening the door to Iridium becoming a GMDSS service provider, it said in a news release Tuesday. It said it's awaiting an IMO resolution recognizing Iridium as a certified GMDSS mobile satellite service provider, with that resolution expected to come in 2018 and Iridium to begin offering service in 2020. Iridium said it began the process to become a recognized GMDSS provider in April 2013. It said the SOLAS amendments allow GMDSS mobile satellite services to be provided by companies other than Inmarsat.

Brazil-based Arycom is opening an office in Atlanta, having received Communications Act Section 214 international authorization to provide satcom services to and from the U.S. earlier this month, the company said in a news release Tuesday. It said it provides satellite voice and broadband services in South America and sells equipment and software from its U.S. operational base in Miami. It said the FCC authorization will let it sell fixed and mobile services from its Miami and Atlanta offices, with immediate focus on in-flight data connectivity.

DirecTV and Dish Network objections to a proposed hike in direct broadcast satellite regulatory fees lack merit since consumers won't be harmed, the American Cable Association said in an FCC docket 17-134 filing posted Monday. ACA said the Media Bureau's MVPD activities involve DBS providers and cable and IPTV providers equally, and all see equivalent benefits. That justifies the proposed hike and supports full parity among MVPD payers, it said. Dish and DirecTV didn't comment Monday. CTIA, meanwhile, said non-high cost USF full-time equivalent employees who get reallocated should be reallocated as indirect FTEs, and there's no reason for reclassifying FTEs from the Wireline Bureau who work on high-cost USF or other agency-wide issues. It urged rejection of combining commercial mobile radio service and interstate telecommunications service provider regulatory fee categories and of a flat per-license fee on Communications Act international Section 214 authorizations. Level 3 backed AT&T's call for regulatory fees on both common carrier and non-common carrier terrestrial international bearer circuits, saying the FCC should seek further comment on eliminating the IBC fee category in favor of an assessment on each international 214 authorization or each holder of an international 214 authorization.

Space Systems Loral (SSL) will build an earth-imaging satellite constellation for DigitalGlobe, it said in a news release Thursday. SSL said the WorldView Legion low earth orbit constellation will add high-resolution capacity for DigitalGlobe in some areas. SSL said the satellites will be built at its Palo Alto, California, manufacturing facility. It said Legion, combined with DigitalGlobe's existing WorldView satellites and its forthcoming Scout constellation, will be able to image some areas of the planet as frequently as every 20 to 30 minutes. It said the first Legion satellite is expected to launch in 2020, and the constellation will replace the WorldView-1, WorldView-2 and GeoEye-1 satellites. SSL parent MacDonald Dettwiler is buying DigitalGlobe.

The Intelsat 35e satellite, the fourth in Intelsat's EpicNG high-throughput constellation, launched Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, the company said. It said the satellite will provide C- and Ku-band service for broadband, mobility, wireless infrastructure, government and media customers in the Americas, Europe and Africa. Intelsat said the customer list for the satellite includes eProcess, Etecsa, Inwi, Marlink, Orange, Sonatel, Speedcast and Tele Greenland, with it also including a tailored payload for Canal+'s Caribbean direct-to-home TV service. It said Intelsat 35e will orbit at 325.5 degrees east, replacing Intelsat 903, which will move to another orbital slot by year's end.

Globalstar "understands ... and confirms" it's subject to and will meet the emissions restrictions for the 1559-1610 MHz band that it previously agreed to with NTIA, the company said in an FCC International Bureau filing Monday. The Globalstar filing was in response to GPS Innovation Alliance saying the company should recommit to those ancillary terrestrial component base and user stations emissions agreements (see 1706260022). Globalstar said it will meet the limits and its terrestrial broadband operations won't affect GPS and Global Navigation Satellite System operations.

The numerous sports bars and individual DirecTV subscribers suing the MVPD and NFL over DirecTV's Sunday Ticket programming haven't shown the existence of a market where the defendants have the power to restrain trade or artificially inflate prices, U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O'Connell of Los Angeles said in an order (in Pacer) Friday throwing out 27 consolidated lawsuits. She said the plaintiffs failed to show how DirecTV and the NFL restrained trade or have sufficient market power to artificially drive prices up, especially since the NFL offers free game broadcasts on CBS and Fox. DirecTV might be charging inflated prices for Sunday Ticket, but that by itself doesn't constitute harm to competition, she said. DirecTV's exclusive rights to the NFL programming also has pro-competitive aspects, the judge said, citing DirecTV packaging and promoting products "that result in greater fan access and NFL game exposure." The judge also rejected plaintiffs' arguments that NFL teams’ pooling of their broadcast rights violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act. She said rights to games are owned by multiple entities, including the NFL and whatever teams are taking part in a given game, so the multiple entities have to act collectively to broadcast the games. And she said the plaintiffs don't have standing to challenge the horizontal rights agreement between the NFL and the individual teams since they buy games from DirecTV and thus have standing to sue for damages only from the vertical agreement between DirecTV and the NFL. Defendants in the case were the individual NFL teams, the NFL, DirecTV, CBS, Fox, NBCUniversal and ESPN. In a statement, DirecTV owner AT&T said it "agree[s] with the court’s analysis and [is] pleased with the ruling." Plaintiffs' counsel didn't comment Monday.

SES is asking for FCC International Bureau approval to relocate AMC-6 as part of its long-term plan for restoring services disrupted by the AMC-9 anomaly -- a plan that also involves relocating AMC-4 (see 1706260002). In a bureau application Wednesday, SES asked for an OK to drift the satellite from 85 degrees west to 83 degrees west, where it would then operate in the C-, Ku- and extended Ku-bands. SES said much of the traffic that was carried by AMC-9 was transitioned to AMC-6. It also said that beyond supporting customers affected by the AMC-9 anomaly, the relocating will add extended Ku-band capacity at 83 degrees west.