Eutelsat is owed $72.5 million in "a simple and straightforward breach of guaranty case" in its lawsuit against Bras Trading, the satellite company said in a motion (in Pacer) for summary judgment Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami. Eutelsat sued Bras in 2015, alleging it broke its promise to guarantee its subsidiary J C P Melo Telecomunicacoes' payments to Eutelsat for satellite broadband capacity. Bras argued in court documents that Eutelsat provided only some of the services for which it billed JCP, breaching the contract first by overbilling. In its motion, Eutelsat said Bras' "numerous, meritless affirmative defenses" are unsupported by evidence or legally insufficient and don't preclude summary judgment.

Iridium received an FCC green light for its Next constellation, with the International Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology Monday approving the company's 2013 application to modify its nongeostationary mobile satellite service license to allow the new constellation. In the order issued Monday, the FCC said the new constellation will operate in the same orbital parameters and transmit on the same frequency bands, and will be equipped to track ships and aircraft through an automatic dependent surveillance broadcast receiver and a receiver for maritime automatic identification system messages. Inmarsat, SES and ViaSat voiced concern about Iridium sharing the 29.25-29.3 GHz band with co-primary geostationary fixed satellite service operations, but the FCC said sharing demonstrations weren't necessary since Next will operate with the same feeder-link stations authorized for its current satellites. The Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory objected to the protection levels and coordination plan Iridium submitted for its use of 1617.775-1626.5 MHz, but Iridium came up "with good proposal and a good way forward," one FCC official told us Tuesday. The company now plans to shift traffic from satellites in view of radio astronomy service sites to adjacent satellites -- which should protect radio astronomy observations from interference, the FCC said in its order. Iridium said last month the first Next launch will be Sept. 19, with the entire constellation to be in orbit by the end of 2017 (see 1607280006).

As part of Lionsgate's planned $4.4 billion buy of Starz (see 1606300069), the acquirer is asking for FCC approval of transfer control of Starz's Starz Entertainment subsidiary, which holds its transmit/receive earth station authorizations to Orion Arm Holding, a Lionsgate subsidiary. In an FCC International Bureau filing Friday, the company said Orion Arm Holding will merge with Starz as part of the deal, with Starz continuing as the surviving entity, thus making Starz and Starz Entertainment indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. Lionsgate said it expects to close the deal by year's end.

Globalstar consultant and ex-FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth met with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly to push for "a timely resolution" to Globalstar's terrestrial low-power broadband system plans before the agency, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 13-213. O'Rielly and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn remain question marks on the Globalstar draft order that had seen "no" votes by Commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1607140049).

Gogo wants to tie as many as 200 earth stations aboard aircraft (ESAA) to the Astra 4A satellite. In an FCC International Bureau filing Friday, Gogo asked for special temporary authority (STA) to let it start service to a new fleet customer by using Astra 4A. The company said it's working on an application to modify its ESAA license to add new satellites. It also said it would use Astra 4A capacity to provide coverage in Europe.

Space Systems Loral will build the SXM-7 and SXM-8 satellites for Sirius XM, SSL said in a news release Thursday. The S-band satellites will replace Sirius XM's XM-3 and XM-4 satellites in 2019 and 2020, SSL said, noting it has built seven satellites for Sirius XM.

The FCC Media Bureau signed off on Dish Network's request that the agency drop its retransmission complaint against Sinclair Broadcast, said a Media Bureau filing Friday in docket 12-1. The two late last year ended a retransmission dispute and signed a retrans consent agreement that had Dish dropping the retrans complaint it brought in August against Sinclair (see 1512030018).

Dish Network subscribers with Hopper 3 and 4K Joey boxes will be able to watch NBC’s coverage of the Rio Olympics in 4K on a new “dedicated linear channel” and via Dish’s “on-demand catalog,” albeit on a somewhat limited and delayed basis, Dish said in a Thursday announcement. The 4K coverage will be available on one-day delay and will include content from the swimming, track and field, basketball and judo competitions, it said. The men’s soccer final also will be available, as will the Aug. 21 closing ceremony and Rio “scenics,” it said. One event from the previous day’s competition will be shown daily and looped on channel 146 in three-hour intervals beginning Aug. 7, Dish said.

The inaugural launch of satellites in Iridium's Next constellation will be Sept. 19, a week later than anticipated due to delays with getting the launch rocket, said Iridium CEO Matthew Desch during the company's Q2 earnings call Thursday. Launch company SpaceX has assured that the brief delay "is a short-term issue; there shouldn't be issues for the second or subsequent launches," Desch said. SpaceX didn't comment. The second launch of the low earth orbit constellation is to be in late December, with five more launches expected about every 60 days afterward, he said, saying satellite manufacturer Orbital ATK ramped up its Next manufacturing "from low rate to high rate" in June. Two of the company's existing satellites ceased operations during the quarter, but that didn't affect the constellation's performance and availability, Desch said. "Our network is aging -- that's expected to happen," he said. "We're sending reinforcements very soon." Desch also said Iridium is lining up distributors for the Certus broadband service it expects to launch in Q2 2017 (see 1606070018). The satellite broadband service will compete with other L-band broadband offerings, with some Ku- and Ka-band broadband providers looking at using Certus as a complement to those services, Desch said. Revenue for the quarter was $109.2 million, up 7 percent, driven largely by government service and equipment sales, and net income was $26.9 million or 22 cents per share, Chief Financial Officer Tom Fitzpatrick said. Iridium stock closed Thursday at $8.99 down 2.6 percent.

A price war in wide-beam satellite services won't end anytime soon, Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said Wednesday during the company's Q2 earnings call. "There is still a lot of traditional wide-beam capacity coming into the marketplace and that is where the business is most competitive," Spengler said. "That is where there is less ability to differentiate services. Until supply and demand gets balanced in that area, it's going to be challenging." Spengler said the company's first Epic satellite is in service and its next, 33e, is scheduled for an August launch, and "wide-beam services will continue to be part of our infrastructure, will continue to be part of our solutions that we provide customers." He also said the company doesn't see a problem with its Epic platform cannibalizing its traditional wide-beam service, with only one customer moving from a wide-beam satellite to less capacity on 29e. In most transitions, Spengler said, "customers have opted for more overall volume of capacity, leading to an uptick in overall revenue." And 33e will have some transition services, but also a "significant amount of new business," he said. For the quarter, Intelsat revenue was $542 million, down 9 percent, due largely to pricing pressures and reductions in point-to-point applications such as trunking, Spengler said. Incremental capacity from the company's four 2016 satellite launches "is essential to offset the revenue pressures that we expect to shadow" the rest of the year, he said. Intelsat stock closed Wednesday at $2.36, down 5.2 percent.