Expect an even more-heated battle over spectrum between satellite and wireless interests at next year's World Radiocommunication Conference than at past WRCs, said former Global VSAT Forum (GVF) Secretary General David Hartshorn Tuesday at the VSAT Congress. Now head of Geeks Without Frontiers, Hartshorn said 4G has been a successful technology, but satellite services are starting to complain about 4G interference in the C-band, raising questions about what effects might come from 5G. He said the C-band is interesting to wireless, but so too is the Ka-band "and watch Q and V." GVF Secretary General David Meltzer said it remains to be seen at WRC-19 what kind of ripple effect the C-band proceeding before the FCC has on other countries.
Consolidation is a satellite industry must, particularly in the earth station segment, said experts Monday at the VSAT Congress. Many urged pursuing convergence between satellite connectivity and terrestrial networks so there's a bigger audience for the huge amounts of bandwidth going into orbit in coming years. "We don't have five years" for that convergence, iDirect CEO Kevin Steen said, noting satellite data capacity is expected to grow fourteenfold by 2027. "We have to start now."
Though C-band the number of earth stations being registered with the FCC is accelerating as the window heads toward Wednesday closure, consensus among experts we talked to is that results won't dissuade the agency from freeing up some of the band for terrestrial wireless service. The FCC is starting to see that the 3.7-4.2 GHz band is more populated than the agency might have thought but now it will have a good cross-section to ensure there's needed engineering for terrestrial and satellite users "so they can play in the same sandbox," said Society of Broadcast Engineers President Jim Leifer.
A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel challenged counsel for Comcast and Entertainment Studios Networks/National Association of African American Owned Media in oral argument Tuesday (see here, docket 16-56479). ESN and NAAAOM are appealing a lower court's 2016 dismissal of a racial discrimination claim against Comcast (see 1704170017). Judge Milan Smith is "struggling" with the difficulties the lower court had in finding the ESN claims plausible. He said there's a seeming lack of proof that white-owned companies were treated differently by Comcast in its programming decisions. ESN outside counsel Erwin Chemerinsky said Comcast not contracting with almost any black-owned programmers is evidence of a plausible claim. Judges also questioned Comcast outside counsel Miguel Estrada of Gibson Dunn about what ESN would have to show to have a valid pleading. Estrada said ESN is "finding shreds that are arguably actual in a complaint that is brimming with conspiracy theory." He said the complaint is implausible because it affirms Comcast gave carriage to other majority black-owned networks Aspire and Revolt and Africa Channel and ESN arguments involve a contrived category of 100 percent African-American owned.
The potential of thousands of non-geostationary orbit satellites going up in coming years is outpacing U.S. space policy and law, especially when it comes to space situational awareness, said experts at a Center for Strategic & International Studies panel Wednesday. A major SSA challenge is the way proposed NGSO mega constellations are shifting the space domain from being government-dominated to being led by commercial actors, said Victoria Samson, Secure World Foundation Washington office director. Another is figuring out data sharing and transparency issues, and while DOD wants to be more transparent with its SSA data relied on globally, it "has some work to do" on better coordinating with the space community, she said.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is taking its failed FCC fight over conditions on Charter Communications buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Those conditions, and the agency's order last month rejecting CEI's petition for reconsideration of those conditions (see 1809100048), are contrary to longstanding policy, said a notice of appeal to be filed with the D.C. Circuit. The FCC didn't comment. Chairman Ajit Pai dissented on the conditions in 2016 (see 1605100050), saying they put the agency ever closer to banning usage-based pricing and "micromanaging where, when and how ISPs deploy infrastructure." That likely won't affect the agency's position in court since it won't want to encourage other parities to come in and challenge conditions on other mergers, a longtime media lawyer said. Common Cause Director-Media and Democracy Program Yosef Getachew said the agency denying under Pai the recon petition points to it defending those conditions despite the chairman's previous criticisms. He said CEI could face a challenge in its appeal since the reasons for the petition denial -- all on procedural grounds -- appear solid. The commission under Pai in 2017 rolled back some of the broadband overbuild conditions on New Charter (see 1704030039).
Cable industry support for the cable basic tier regulation Further NPRM and order on October's FCC agenda (see 1810010027) doesn't appear to have coalesced, while localities are tied up responding to and fighting other FCC matters, officials on both sides told us. The import of the eventual rules may be limited by the relative lack of local cable regulation, too.
Since the original estimate of the broadcast station 600 MHz repacking price tag was off, there's no reason to think the predicted time frame for completion is any more accurate, said NAB Associate General Counsel Patrick McFadden Wednesday at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference. There was also a clash over the 6 GHz proceeding on October's FCC member-meeting agenda. "This is a big step forward," said 6 GHz Coalition counsel Paul Margie of Harris Wiltshire.
With one Missouri community attempting to levy fees on Netflix and Hulu like it does cable TV, other states and localities are likely to try to head down the same road, experts told us. “I don't know that anybody is jumping on the bandwagon per se but I think [other communities] are interested in seeing how [the city's litigation] plays out," said Creve Coeur, Missouri, Mayor Barry Glantz.
Disney/Fox will likely shed its Sky stake, but Hulu's fate is unclear, said analysts after Comcast's $40 billion auction bid over the weekend that was accepted by Sky's independent committee (see here). Comcast will likely follow up with deal that has it buying the rest of Sky from Disney/Fox "for the same stupendous price," and possibly as part of a swap where Disney takes Comcast's stake in Hulu, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote Monday. He downgraded Comcast stock to neutral. He said Sky could be "an albatross" for Comcast given its satellite TV business and that satellite video distribution "is increasingly becoming obsolete." He said expanding Sky's nascent over-the-top business will be a challenge, with a variety of programmers going direct to consumer, meaning Comcast will have to ramp up creation of its own video content. BTIG's Richard Greenfield wrote investors Monday that given cord-cutting and cord-shaving trends, Disney/Fox and Comcast/Sky are "actually depressing" examples of legacy media staying locked in a comfort zone. He said Disney/Fox will likely tender its Sky stake as part of Comcast's offer to Sky shareholders since there's not an obvious strategic benefit to Disney/Fox remaining an investor in Sky. The analyst said Disney wants Comcast's Hulu stake, but Comcast isn't likely to sell since it can thus prevent Hulu from becoming a Disney-branded OTT service. He said with the Sky deal, Comcast is signaling that a deal for Charter Communications seems unlikely and that U.S. expansion isn't a priority. Instead, Discovery could be the next acquisition target for Comcast given Discovery's investments in Europe in recent years, Greenfield said. Comcast plans to keep its stake in Hulu, an informed person said. U.K. M&A rules are such that it couldn't make a side deal with Disney to sell its portion, the person noted. Comcast didn't comment. The company closed down 6 percent at $35.63.