Along with luring cord cutters and cord nevers, AT&T's DirecTV Now over-the-top service also is helping it snag customers from rival MVPDs, which make up about half its customer base, Chief Financial Officer John Stephens told investors Tuesday. AT&T said DirecTV Now subscribers surpassed 1 million. The company is beta testing its second-generation platform that will include a cloud DVR and 4K capabilities, pay-per-view events and movies, digital advertising inserts and data insight capabilities, Stephens said. He said DirecTV Now profitability "will get up into very acceptable levels," and though it isn't the same fat profit margin opportunity the traditional linear TV business was, it requires much lower capital expenditures. On FirstNet, any states that don't make a choice automatically will be opted in when the opt-in window closes this month, and many states may go that route, he said. He said the work orders to build the FirstNet network over the next five years will start to be issued in January, with the engineering work already complete. He said FirstNet is "a very good revenue opportunity for us," with the potential of new products and services targeting markets like first responders and smart city initiatives, targeting perhaps 10 million users. Stephens said the company expects to finish this year with 7 million homes passed with fiber, and instead of an earlier prediction of 12.5 million by mid-2019, it's on track to pass more than 14 million homes with fiber by then. Stephens said customers should see "no change" from a rollback of Communications Act Title II regulation of ISPs, with the company continuing its policies of no blocking or advantaging some websites over others. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Chairman Ajit Pai were at odds Tuesday about the likely ramifications of Pai's net neutrality proposal (see 1712050057). Clarity on net neutrality "will bring back an opportunity for more investment," Stephens said. He said the company "look[s] forward to trial" and prevailing in the DOJ lawsuit seeking to block its buy of Time Warner (see 1711200064).
The Entertainment Software Association's petition for extension of a waiver of FCC rules requiring advanced communication services (ACS) access by people with disabilities (see 1711010056) should be its last, disability advocacy groups said in docket 10-213 filings posted Friday, the deadline for replies. The National Federation of the Blind said the pattern of waiver extensions and delays in access to ACS features in videogames for people with disabilities "is a distressing trend" that hopefully ends with this last request. An array of groups support ESA on condition it be the final extension, to be followed by "large-scale compliance." Those groups said the FCC should make clear it will "skeptically" scrutinize claims that making ACS components of future videogames accessible isn't achievable. Signers include Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf, the Hearing Loss Association of America, the American Foundation for the Blind, the American Council of the Blind, the National Association of State Agencies of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Networks. The Arc of the United States said in a filing posted Monday the petition is "problematic" in not showing usability and accessibility steps for people with cognitive disabilities, so approval should be conditioned on ESA submitting a progress report next year detailing steps members have taken to include people with cognitive disabilities in user research, product design and testing and online community curation. Arc said the report should cover insights ESA members generate about such needs and any changes the members make. The requested extension would go until Jan. 1, 2019.
The Commercial Smallsat Spectrum Management Association will focus foremost on spectrum, and CSSMA anticipates involving itself increasingly in an array of regulatory issues that affect smallsats. Some question whether it's on a trajectory to be in conflict with or redundant to the Satellite Industry Association. There could be conflicts and overlaps with SIA, but a bigger smallsat industry concern is startups moving forward to get into space without a good understanding of the licensing and regulatory compliance necessary, where CSSMA can play a role, said Christopher Stott, CEO of orbital frequencies and regulatory services company ManSat.
The Trump White House, like the Obama White House, seems particularly focused on enabling commercial space operations, and the resurrected National Space Council (see 1710050042) could provide a route for getting regulatory agency consensus on tackling such issues as orbital debris, said Moon Express Vice President-Government Affairs Ben Roberts in a Policy Studies Organization talk Friday. In most administrations, the president is making only the toughest decisions, and the key to space policy thus comes in choosing the staffers and advisers who formulate most of the policy, said Roberts, who most recently was in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Obama administration. But Planetary Society Space Policy Adviser Jason Callahan said those staffing decisions aren't enough because of the competing interests, like Congress, requiring that the president have ongoing engagement. Callahan said that has been a space policy failure in the U.S. for years, with presidents setting a space policy goal and then moving on to other issues and that policy going nowhere. The burgeoning commercial space industry is changing that dynamic, making the transition from one presidential administration to another less dramatic, said Commercial Spaceflight Federation Director Tommy Sanford: "The Elons and the Jeffs ... they're continuing to do their thing regardless of who is in office," referring to Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, and Jeff Bezos, founder of spaceflight company Blue Origin. The most dramatic space activity in coming years will be among commercial operators, and the Trump administration has shown an inclination to partner with them, Sanford said. Added Roberts, the Trump White House seems likely to approach civil space efforts in a coalition with the private sector. The space industry's best resource currently "is a bunch of nerdy billionaires," he said. Commercial space companies have the biggest incentives to deal with orbital debris, Sanford said, saying the federal government is a huge generator of debris and often breaks its own 25-year deorbiting rule. A big challenge to addressing orbital debris is having the federal government follow its own rules, he said. Added Callahan, governments likely will look for -- and use -- effective commercial solutions to debris when they emerge.
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation doesn't see huge red flags raised by the FCC's proposed ACHP program comment about antenna collocation not needing National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 review, which could bring long-discussed collocation on twilight towers closer to reality. The agency's draft public notice (PN), on this month's meeting agenda (see 1711220026), "seems to be a reasonable first start," ACHP Office of Federal Agency Programs Director Reid Nelson told us. The FCC has a wide array of other broadband infrastructure deployment issues it could tee up next, experts said.
Cable allies predict little pushback on the FCC's draft NPRM that would expand the number of notifications cable operators can email subscribers rather than mail out as hard copies. Broadcasters and MVPDs likely will back the agency's idea for ditching certified mail as the sole means of communicating carriage election choices, broadcast lawyer Jack Goodman said.
AT&T is ready to make concessions to get DOJ approval of buying Time Warner, but not selling assets, CEO Randall Stephenson said at the Economic Club of New York Wednesday. Experts told us AT&T's proposed conditions in its reply Tuesday to Justice's lawsuit (see 1711280063) aren't aimed at DOJ but at U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of the District of Columbia, who has the case.
Warren Havens -- once subject of an administrative law judge order asking the FCC to determine whether he was qualified to hold licenses -- is scheduled to begin a five-day jail sentence Wednesday in Alameda County, California, on a contempt charge for interference with the receivership appointed to hold onto licenses in which he had a stake. In a docket 17-cv-6772 order (in Pacer) denying stay of sentence issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of Oakland said Havens' contentions the contempt of court finding was unlawful are "too general and insufficient to warrant such an extraordinary remedy" as a stay. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Friedman, in the 2016 contempt of court order, said it sprung from ALJ Richard Sippel's 2015 order inviting the FCC to issue a hearing designation order on whether Havens and his companies qualify to hold licenses, and a business partner of Havens' subsequently moving to appoint a receiver for the licenses they jointly held. Havens filed a petition for involuntary bankruptcy of that receivership, which violated court orders restraining him from interfering with the receivership, said the contempt of court order. Sippel's 2015 order said Havens had a "history of disruptive disregard of orders and otherwise contemptuous behavior" that barred Havens and his companies from future participation in a proceeding due to "their contemptuous and disruptive conduct," including harassing emails, "dumping" more than 444 unscreened exhibits of 17,000-plus pages on the Office of the ALJ, the Enforcement Bureau and other parties and multiple instances of taking conflicting positions in successive pleadings. Havens couldn't be reached for comment.
Time Warner is offering MVPDs seven-year licensing terms aimed at assuaging DOJ concerns about its pending takeover by AT&T, with those terms contingent on AT&T/TW closing, the telco said its docket 1:17-cv-02511 reply (in Pacer) filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It responded to Justice's lawsuit earlier this month seeking to block the deal (see 1711210005). The department didn't comment.
It's unclear how much demand there will be for the growing number space launch facilities that are being established in the U.S., driven in part by the expected low earth orbit (LEO) satellite boom. "I characterize the next decade as the Roaring '20s," with capital markets supporting numerous launch businesses, showing optimism launch demand will be big, said Southwest Research Institute Chairman-Commercial Spaceflight Federation Alan Stern. Within a decade, there might be a modest increase in the number of launches per year, "but not dramatic growth," the one exception being expected sizable growth suborbital space activity like commercial manned spaceflight, countered Bryce Space and Technology analyst Phil Smith.