This "is the year of spectrum monetization," which should be good news for Dish Network, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors Monday. That monetization movement likely will start with Dish selling a wireless network, building one or partnering on one, or perhaps all three, Ryvicker said, saying the big four wireless companies likely won't combine. The spectrum-related big events for Dish this year include the end of the broadcast incentive auction, which also will end the quiet period and solidify wireless operators' spectrum portfolios, Ryvicker said. She said the AWS-3 designated entity issue should be resolved this year, and if Dish loses, as is generally expected, a re-auction should happen quickly. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project band plan "appears to be as favorable as we could have hoped," with Dish's AWS-4 spectrum in handsets, she said, saying Dish CEO Charlie Ergen "doesn't seem to be waiting for any other 'must-have' assets -- meaning his war chest is finally complete." In a separate note Monday, Ryvicker said this year likely will bring increased activity with streaming bundles, and the first provider to get stations nationwide will become the market leader. She said once the FCC incentive auction wraps up, 2017 "could be the Year of M&A," with broadcast and publishing being particularly likely focuses and with Dish and perhaps Disney also being involved. A cable/wireless merger acquisition is unlikely as cable companies focus their wireless plans on the Verizon mobile virtual network operator agreements. Dish didn't comment Tuesday.

Dish bowed its long-promised Dish Music service Tuesday, bringing Play-Fi multiroom audio capability to consumers with Hopper 2 and 3 DVRs and Joey clients, it announced. Play-Fi adds whole-home streaming of services including iHeartRadio, Pandora, Deezer, Napster, Tidal and Amazon Music, turning the Hopper into a household’s entertainment hub for music and video, said Dish. Hopper and Joey boxes deliver music to zones controllable by Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, plus apps on set-top boxes. Music can stream through TVs and can pair to speakers and components in the Play-Fi ecosystem from Aerix, Anthem, Arcam, Definitive Technology, Klipsch, MartinLogan, McIntosh, Paradigm, Phorus, Polk Audio, Rotel, Sonus Faber and Wren. Play-Fi products from Elite, Integra, Pioneer, Onkyo, SVS and Thiel are on the road map. DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)-compatible, Dish Music will play music files from media servers and personal libraries on mobile devices. Dish Music is rolling out to customers, and the app will be available on all Hopper 2 and Hopper 3 DVRs next month, Dish said.

Former DirecTV workers at five call centers voted to ratify three existing labor agreements between Communication Workers of America and DirecTV's owner, AT&T, the company said in a news release Thursday. The call centers are in Alabama, Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and West Virginia, and the agreements cover about 2,000 employees, the company said. AT&T said unionized former DirecTV workers now have ratified nine labor agreements this year.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. District Court ruling that overturned a jury verdict in favor of direct broadcast satellite marketing firm Exclaim Marketing and granted a DirecTV counterclaim for trademark infringement. In an unpublished per curiam opinion (in Pacer) Thursday, Judges Dennis Shedd, Steven Agee and James Wynn said they agreed with the lower court's ruling that, contrary to the jury's finding, DirecTV hadn't violated the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (UDTPA), and that DirecTV was due more on its counterclaim than the jury awarded. The judges also upheld the District Court's decision denying DirecTV's motion seeking statutory attorney's fees. The Circuit Court said DirecTV's actions -- calling Exclaim call centers on average two to three times a month over the course of six years -- don't rise to the level of egregiously or aggravatingly unfair, as would be the standard under UDTPA. The 4th Circuit also said the lower court didn't abuse its discretion granting DirecTV's counterclaim motion since many of Exclaim's arguments ignore the rationale for prohibiting trademark infringement and Lanham Act language letting plaintiffs recover both actual damages and a share of defendants' profits from infringement. The panel, in affirming the lower court's ruling denying statutory attorney's fees, noted DirecTV doesn't take issue with the court's findings or otherwise engage with its analysis but instead argues it should have used a different analysis. Exclaim didn't comment. The 4th Circuit earlier this year denied a push by Exclaim for a stay of enforcement on the damages owed DirecTV while it appealed the lower court's ruling (see 1606060011). Exclaim sued DirecTV in 2015 alleging multiple UDTPA violations in connection with the DBS company allegedly telling its third-party retailers not to work with Exclaim, and DirecTV countersued for use of the DirecTV name with some of the inbound call center services Exclaim provides.

To bolster its case that its proposed non-geostationary orbit constellation won't exceed equivalent power flux density (EPFD) limits laid out in ITU regulations, Karousel filed a series of technical analyses Tuesday with the FCC International Bureau detailing the EPFD modeling it used to demonstrate compliance in the Ka- and Ku-bands. Karousel is one of several satellite operators that submitted plans in October in a processing round triggered by OneWeb's plans for its own 720-satellite Ka- and Ku-band constellation (see 1611160010).

"Additional briefs will change nothing," the DOJ and FTC said in a response (in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Illinois, to Dish Network's motion for leave to file and its motion to strike. The government plaintiffs in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act suit against Dish said in Dish's motion to strike filed last week (see 1612220007) that the company gave no procedural or legal support for why the court should strike proposed findings of fact that the government is suggesting the court consider when rendering a decision. DOJ/FTC also said Dish's response to their offer of proof on consumer testimony "function[s] as admissions" the company has substantial undisclosed, relevant evidence it has kept from the court and plaintiffs. If the court opts to consider additional Dish filings, DOJ/FTC said, "the Court will discover that, like the rest of Dish's case, these filings do not stand up to any reasonable scrutiny nor do they provide any defense to Dish's liability." Dish, meanwhile, in its replies (in Pacer) filed Friday to the DOJ/FTC proposed conclusions of law and state plaintiffs' closing statement for the second phase of trial (see 1612140021), said it isn't trying to offer direct evidence of monetary damages and specifically quantifying a future harm but is trying to describe the general impact a telemarketing ban would have. That type of testimony "isn't reserved for experts," Dish said. It also argued the court should disregard state plaintiff arguments lacking any evidentiary support in the trial record and in separate filing (in Pacer) responding to the plaintiffs' offer of proof, Dish synopsized what its witnesses would have said in response to eight excluded consumer witnesses. Infinity Sales Group said in its reply (in Pacer) Friday supporting its opposition to the government's cross-motion to strike (see 1612120033) government arguments ignore Infinity's showing a court can't enter an injunction that destroys a nonparty's business in violation of its due process rights.

The Space Systems Loral-built JCSAT-15 and Star One D1 satellites were launched Wednesday from the European Spaceport in French Guiana, the company said in news releases Thursday (see here and here). JCSAT-15, built for Sky Perfect JSAT, will provide broadcasting and communications services for Japan, Oceania and the Indian Ocean region from its orbit at 110 degrees east, SSL said. Star One D1, built for Embratel Star One, will provide broadcast and communications services in Latin America, it said.

U.S. District Judge Maria-Elena James of San Francisco rejected an FTC push for sanctions against DirecTV (see 1610280027) but is ordering the company to produce one of its experts, Jerry Wind, for a limited deposition. In an order (in Pacer) Wednesday, the judge said DirecTV could have been more proactive in preserving website analytics data, but the FTC also could have been more proactive in getting discovery for that data and consumer testing the company did. The FTC might have preferred a different format for the DirecTV data, but the company did preserve and produce information to allow a comparison of different versions of DirecTV's website through documents, screenshots and source data, James said. She also said the court can't sanction DirecTV for not preserving information "solely because the FTC asserts potentially relevant other tests may have existed." But she ordered that Wind be made available for a four-hour deposition since the FTC did demonstrate prejudice in the form of DirecTV's failing to preserve electronically stored information, thus preventing the agency from confirming the information Wind relied on for an analysis done for the company. The agency is suing DirecTV under the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act for allegedly not properly communicating early cancellation fee terms to subscribers (see 1503110042). The second phase of the trial is to begin Jan. 30.

Two post-trial briefings by the state plaintiffs suing Dish Network over Telephone Consumer Protection Act allegations (see 0903260144) shouldn't be admitted into evidence given the lack of description of the methodology and Dish's inability to replicate the results, Dish said in a motion (in Pacer) to strike filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Illinois. The analyses tally the matches between area codes and addresses in the call records of Dish dealer Satellite Systems Network, Dish said, saying numerous state plaintiff analyses in the past have been "error-riddled." It also said even if the states -- California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio -- disclosed their methodology, "it would be too late" given the close of evidence. Counsel for the states didn't comment Thursday.

The satellite dish for Ligado's proposed content delivery network to distribute National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite-delivered data is operational in Reston, Virginia, and the CDN is operating, the company said in an FCC filing Wednesday in RM-11681. The next step is for George Mason University to start comparing NOAA data delivered via CDN with weather data from existing NOAA satellite systems, the satellite company said. It and GMU announced last week they would jointly test the CDN (see 1612150060), about which some weather interests have expressed skepticism (see 1611250033). Also posted Wednesday in the docket was a Ligado letter to NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan and NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling, saying its planned use of the 1675-1680 MHz band doesn't overlap with thousands of terrestrial weather sensors. Ligado also said NOAA never argued the company's proposed protection zones around government-owned earth stations receiving NOAA satellite data "are anything other than entirely satisfactory." And it suggested the FCC issue a Further NPRM about requiring a licensee of the spectrum or NOAA to provide an alternate route to the satellite weather data, such as an alternate CDN. NOAA didn't comment Wednesday.