Due to wildfires near Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, leading to unforeseen delays, Lockheed Martin is seeking extension of its special temporary authority to support launch and deployment of the WorldView-4 satellite, it said in an FCC Office of Engineering & Technology STA filing Monday. The launch of the earth observation satellite for DigitalGlobe had been expected Sept. 15, but it's unclear the launch will happen before the Oct. 20 expiration of the current STA, the company said, seeking a 30-day extension to Nov. 20.

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam of San Francisco rejected DirecTV's motions for partial summary judgment in two actions brought by the FTC. In an order (in Pacer) Friday, Gilliam said DirecTV's evidence of screenshots of its website doesn't establish the absence of a genuine dispute over allegations it violated the Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act on forms of internet marketing. He said the FTC doesn't have an obligation in its opposition to summary judgment to present evidence in opposition: "While the contents of the website do not appear to be disputed, the inferences to be drawn from those contents are vigorously disputed." The judge also said the court can't conclude that DirecTV's disclosures about premium channel promotion were adequate and sufficiently conspicuous and clear -- which the FTC is challenging in its lawsuit against DirecTV (see 1503110042). The FTC separately is seeking partial summary judgment on some of its claims (see 1609230003). Gilliam also approved an FTC motion for sealing of some exhibits containing sensitive business information. AT&T, which now owns DirecTV, on Monday said it "ensure[s] that all of our customers receive full information, multiple times, to allow them to make informed decisions about DirecTV services" and that it "will continue to vigorously defend against these allegations."

DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket itself isn't the problem, but the league/DirecTV agreements that restrain competition with Sunday Ticket and the telecasts it bundles are problematic, plaintiffs said Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in an opposition (in Pacer) to the NFL defendants' motion to dismiss. The NFL and DirecTV jointly agreed to limit the number of broadcasts Sundays to three games, making consumers buy the Sunday Ticket bundle if they want to watch more/other games, said buyers of Sunday Ticket whose 27 separate class-action lawsuits were consolidated in May (see 1605240012). Defendants made out-of-market telecasts available only through DirecTV, preventing subscribers to other pay-TV services from having any access, the plaintiffs said, saying the result is Sunday Ticket pricing being far higher than any other major sports league subscription service. The NFL is the only major U.S. pro sports league selling its out-of-market package exclusively through a single multichannel video programming distributor, plaintiffs said. Such exclusivity also limits the competition NFL telecasts would face otherwise, letting broadcasters get higher advertising profits and distribution fees, said the plaintiffs, who are alleging DirecTV and the NFL broke antitrust laws (see 1512300027). There was similar class-action litigation against Major League Baseball and the NHL (see 1601210032). Sunday Ticket was first offered in the 1990s, and has had legal and regulatory challenges every few years, one lawyer who has done work for the NFL told us. DirecTV in a motion (in Pacer) to compel arbitration and stay proceedings last month argued the plaintiffs committed via their customer agreements to arbitrate disputes with DirecTV and should be ordered to do so. Far from being "supra-competitive" in its pricing, DirecTV has a distribution agreement that's exactly the type of competition via exclusive contracts that antitrust laws encourage, it said. Judge Beverly O'Connell in an order Friday gave the plaintiffs an Oct. 3 deadline for filing a memorandum in opposition. The NFL defendants, in a motion (in Pacer) to dismiss in August, said the plaintiffs show no facts to bolster the claim of anticompetitive effects and to identify any alternative arrangement that would be more competitive.

The Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act mandates material contractual terms be displayed clearly, making the U.S. District Court in San Francisco well within its rights to decide on the clarity and conspicuousness of DirecTV's website disclosures based on a review of the site, the FTC said Thursday in a motion (in Pacer) for partial summary judgment on its claims under ROSCA and on DirecTV's affirmative defenses. The agency is suing the direct broadcast satellite company for allegedly not properly communicating early cancellation fee terms to subscribers (see 1503110042). The FTC motion said it's clear DirecTV failed to disclose the material terms of its premium channel negative option in a conspicuous fashion. It also said the claim behind DirecTV's affirmative defense claims is that the company invited the FTC to resolve its investigation by joining a settlement negotiation with several states also pursuing similar claims against it, but the agency opted not to and then years later "sprung to sue DirecTV for that very same conduct covered in those multistate settlement terms." But the FTC said DirecTV's only basis for those claims is "unsupported conjecture and conclusory opinions" and it was never earnestly invited into the multistate settlement negotiations. It said there's no evidence of affirmative misconduct or unreasonable delay on the agency's part that would then be the basis of the affirmative defenses. AT&T, which now owns DirecTV, didn't comment Friday.

The global satellite broadband communication in public safety market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of more than 9 percent through 2020, Technavio said in a news release Friday. Technavio said public health use of public safety-based satellite broadband communications was a $280 million market in 2015 and should reach $520.6 million by 2020, emergency relief center use was a $109.9 million market expected to hit $174.4 million by 2020, and law enforcement use was an $830.1 million market expected to reach $1.19 billion by 2020.

HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel and Great American Country will be on AT&T's DirecTV Now streaming service when it launches later this year (see 1609210048), Scripps Networks said in a news release Thursday, announcing multiyear renewal of the carriage agreement.

Intelsat wants to drift its Intelsat 5 satellite from 157 degrees east to 59.9 degrees east and operate it there temporarily in the C- and Ku-bands. In an FCC International Bureau application filed Wednesday, the company said the relocation -- needed to meet a potential service demand -- will start on or after Dec. 1, and will be at its new home by March.

Microsoft continues to air its Xbox interference concerns about Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) with the FCC, with an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 13-213 recapping a meeting involving company officials including Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. The company said it discussed its interference test results (see 1609140038) and demonstrated how game play using an Xbox 360S wireless controller is disrupted by a TLPS signal. Globalstar didn't comment.

Any approval of OneWeb's petition seeking market access for its non-geostationary constellation operating in the 28.6-29.1 GHz band should include a condition that OneWeb coordinate on a co-primary basis with existing and future U.S. licensed geostationary fixed satellite service operations in the same band, EchoStar said in a filing Wednesday. That condition would put U.S.-licensed and non-U.S. licensed GSO operations on equal footing on interference protection and is consistent with the co-primary allocations for the band internationally, it said. EchoStar said it has been having coordination discussions with OneWeb and anticipates it will go along with the condition. EchoStar also said OneWeb should be required to submit more information showing its Ku-band plans will have enough interference protection for direct broadcast satellite and broadcast satellite service operations in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band, where OneWeb also will operate some downlinks. OneWeb didn't comment Thursday.

Nintendo and the Wi-Fi Alliance are continuing their lobbying against Globalstar's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service, said ex parte filings (see here and here) posted Wednesday in FCC docket 13-213. Nintendo said that at a meeting at its Redmond, Washington, offices with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., it echoed its concerns about TLPS' possible interference with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi use in the 2.4 GHz band (see 1609160070). It said that instead of moving on a draft order, the FCC should do "comprehensive, transparent, real-world testing" and separate assessments of the potential effects of opportunistic use of Wi-Fi channel 14 by third parties. Nintendo representatives at the meeting included Executive Vice President-Operations Don James. Wi-Fi Alliance's filing recapped a phone call with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in which it repeated its charge that using 2473-2495 MHz for TLPS will interfere with Wi-Fi channel 11 and that Globalstar hasn't done industry-standard testing or analysis to demonstrate the contrary (see 1505290019). Wi-Fi Alliance also said the FCC should look at whether the entire upper segment of the 2.4 GHz band should be opened up for unlicensed use. Globalstar has said TLPS would serve the public interest by adding 22 megahertz to the nation’s broadband spectrum inventory and alleviating congestion in the 2.4 GHz ISM band.