Matt Daneman

OneWeb's proposed 720-satellite constellation is a big deal, which is why Chairman Ajit Pai opted to address it at the June 22 commissioners' meeting (see 1706010049) instead of letting the request for U.S. market access be handled by the International Bureau, satellite industry insiders tell us. A lawyer with satellite clients said the item likely will be a noncontroversial, 3-0 vote about bringing broadband to rural areas.

Roll Call reporter John Donnelly said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's apology (see 1706080058) for his manhandling by FCC security at the May 18 commissioners' meeting was appreciated, but "his version of the facts is inaccurate." In an email to us Friday, Donnelly said he "never attempted to enter a restricted area. ... Even if the guards had somehow convinced themselves that I was trying to enter a restricted area, that does not excuse what they did." He said if security guards had inadvertent physical contact with him, they should have said so or apologized then. That security asked him why he hadn't asked his question during the news conference instead of trying to catch Commissioner Mike O'Rielly afterward "tells you they knew I was a reporter and they felt justified in knocking me back," Donnelly said. He disagreed with Pai's denial he was pinned, saying he "could not move for several seconds as they leaned into me." The FCC didn't comment.

Christian programmer The Word Network could find it difficult to prove losing more than half its Comcast viewers in January rises to the level of malfeasance, lawyers with cable and programmer clients told us. Independent programmers naturally are frustrated by MVPD business decisions to drop or reduce carriage. Carriage complaints like TWN's are relatively rare because demonstrating an actual violation of rules or the Communications Act can be very challenging, said a lawyer with MVPD and indie programmer clients.

The FCC has told security officers not to "physically engage" with anyone at open meetings unless they're purposefully disruptive or pose a safety threat to commission employees, Chairman Ajit Pai said in a letter to Sens. Tom Udall, D-M.N., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. Pai said it also instructed security that reporters shouldn't be asked to leave areas of headquarters that are open to the public. The FCC caught heat for manhandling a reporter at its May meeting and other security measures (see 1705190031). Pai said the incident "should not have occurred," but defended building security as "hav[ing] a difficult job to do, particularly in cases where the FCC is facing violent threats." Udall and Hassan -- who wrote Pai expressing concern about the May incident -- said they remain troubled by an apparent pattern of hostility by the Trump administration toward the media. Security was understandably high at the meeting, Udall said, but "I'm extremely concerned that the FCC security wasn't able to better balance the need to ensure access and safety." While applauding the steps the FCC is taking, Udall said he hopes Pai also "ensure[s] that FCC commissioners understand that their job includes answering for their actions and being reasonably responsive to the people and the media." Meanwhile, the National Press Club's Journalism Institute invited the FCC to a summit later this year on media access and security issues, as expected (see 1705250014). In a letter Wednesday to Pai, the NPC said the goal is "to talk about the challenges facing all of us and how we might establish some common ground and rules of the road for security and access in a 21st century democracy." The NPC also said it was skeptical of the recap of the incident that Pai provided to the senators, since it "diverges considerably" from what the reporter described: "The account of the events you have given the Senate simply does not ring true to us." The FCC told us it "continues to review its security procedures and has taken steps the minimize the chance of a similar event occurring in the future."

Deliberate jamming of satellite signals, on the wane in recent years, is picking up again, industry experts said Thursday at the American Bar Association’s annual space law symposium. Eutelsat America General Counsel Stefan Lopatkiewicz said jamming became a material issue in 2010 and peaked in 2013, and that after several years of declines there has been a spike in activity again from Iran, alongside the more sporadic and minor interference from Ethiopia and Sudan. It's not yet as materially significant as it was, he said.

Much of Sky Angel's legal fight with Discovery and its Animal Planet network may involve what Discovery knew about how Sky Angel distributed content and when did it know its signals were being carried online to Sky Angel subscribers. In dueling briefs filed Tuesday in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see here and here, in Pacer), Sky Angel cited emails and other communications with Discovery since 2007 that noted its internet distribution, while Discovery/Animal Planet said that throughout dealings with Sky Angel, it never knowingly allowed distribution of its linear networks over the internet, regardless of the distributor. Sky Angel is appealing a 2016 verdict in favor of Discovery (see 1609120042) after the former over-the-top MVPD's 2013 suit claiming breach of contract after Discovery ended their affiliation agreement (see 1303070045). Sky Angel, which now distributes via Dish Network, in 2010 filed a still-open program access complaint against Discovery. The lower court verdict wrongly focused on Discovery's view of the contract rather than on agreed-upon language, as well as whether the programmer was dissatisfied, Sky Angel said in its opening appellant brief. Thus the lower court ruling focused on Discovery internal policy "rather than on any information of which Sky Angel would have been aware," it said. It said U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, erred when it found the phrase "high-speed data connection" in the affiliation agreement to be ambiguous. Such a connection "need not be the public Internet, [but] that is an obvious possibility," Sky Angel said in a reply brief (in Pacer) also filed Tuesday. It said Discovery doesn't explain how such a term "can be interpreted to exclude 'the public Internet.'" The lower court's finding "is only reviewable for clear error, and Sky Angel's appeal never comes close to -- or could come close to -- the clear error standard," Discovery/Animal Planet said in an appellee brief. It said Sky Angel, faced with sizable evidence the termination right was exercised in good faith, "takes the Court through a maze of detours and dead-end turns" by arguing for de novo review that gives no deference to the lower court's previous ruling, instead of clear error review. Discovery/Animal Planet said it hadn't allowed any distributor at that time to distribute via IPTV in part because it didn't have internet distribution rights for some licensed content, and due to security and signal quality concerns, and that letting any distributor do so could trigger most-favored nation obligations to other distributors.

The record $280 million decision against Dish Network for Do Not Call violations could prompt similarly situated companies to pay much closer attention to the practices of third-party marketers they hire, Telephone Consumer Protection Act compliance lawyer Christine Reilly of Manatt Phelps told us Tuesday. Dish said it plans to appeal, while government enforcers said the penalty should cause other lawbreakers to take notice. The litigation brought by the FTC and several states and now the "catastrophic" amount of penalties and damages signal to companies using third-party agents to make telemarketing calls that they "need to be careful about what it is they're doing," Reilly said.

The Federal Aviation Administration hasn't decided whether it will employ satellite-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast alongside its terrestrial radar and ADS-B systems for monitoring aircraft positions, and it's not clear when, or whether, it will do so, experts told us. "It's -- no pun intended -- up in the air," said Brattle Group consultant Kevin Neels, who co-wrote a white paper earlier this year about the economic case for space-based ADS-B.

Direct broadcast satellite operators likely will return to familiar arguments -- that they don't require as much oversight or impose as big a regulatory burden as other MVPDs -- in opposition to the FCC's proposed DBS regulatory fee hike, lawyers with satellite experience told us Monday. Comments on the NPRM are due June 22, replies July 7, said a notice to in Tuesday's Federal Register.

Cable TV "as a business is failing" on rocketing costs of sports and broadcast programming, said American Cable Association President Matt Polka in an interview with C-SPAN's The Communicators. Mediacom Group Senior Vice President-Legal and Public Affairs Tom Larsen hopes programmers will become more sensible about pricing: "It has been a great ride for all of us for a lot of years; let's not end it now. Let's try to make this work." NCTA didn't comment Thursday.