Citing hurricane damage wrought this year by Harvey, Irma and Maria, the Satellite Industry Association put together a compendium of information about satellite use in forecasting, rescue and recovery after such an event. Posted Wednesday in docket 17-183, the SIA filing also notes specific satellite company initiatives after those storms, including Hughes' support of Federal Emergency Management Agency shelters in Texas, Inmarsat terminals providing Internet and communications services across Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and SES providing C-band services to relief workers in Puerto Rico.

“Capacity constraints inherent” to SiriusXM’s satellite system “will fall away” with deployment of the 360L connected-car platform with “a major automaker" to be announced at January's CES, CEO Jim Meyer said on a Wednesday earnings call. “With a better, more adaptable user interface, we will drive new functionality, such as time-shifting content on demand, personalizing music stations, and improving the display and accessibility of our sports content.” Embedded two-way connectivity of future cars "will enable us to understand user behavior in 360L cars and, over time, develop sophisticated recommendation engines to aid discovery across our deep line of content," he said. The company’s biggest challenge in contacting would-be paid subscribers is “breaking through the clutter, highlighting our exceptional content and easy-to-use service, and speaking directly to our trial customers," and improved “data analytics” through 360L deployment “will greatly benefit these marketing efforts," Meyer said. SiriusXM soon will begin beta-testing a new version of its Android and iOS apps and it “will be rolled out fully in 2018,” offering subscribers “a new way to personalize our music stations,” he said. Having recently closed on the final phase of its $480 million “strategic investment” buy of 19 percent of Pandora (see 1709210035), “eventually, there will be areas where it makes sense for SiriusXM and Pandora to work together,” he said. “We will take our time getting to know their business and thoughtfully considering these options.” Meyer and Chief Financial Officer David Frear “are spending a prudent amount of time understanding how things work” at Pandora, mostly on the streaming service’s “advertising side,” just “understanding how their model works and what the various levers are,” Meyer said in Q&A.

Intelsat wants an extra seven years for Intelsat 907. In an FCC International Bureau filing Monday, it asked for a license term extension through March 30, 2025, for the satellite; its current license term expires March 25, which the company said is "well before" 907's expected service life end.

SlingStudio, Sling Media’s portable, wireless multicamera production system, added 4K video support, live production enhancements and custom real-time messaging protocol (RTMP) for live broadcasting, the company announced Monday. The features will be available for download to new and existing SlingStudio units, it said. The updates will allow users to livestream a production in HD and convert to a camera’s native 4K resolution in postproduction, while retaining effects, transitions and cuts from the app automatically, it said. Custom graphic insertion will let users insert, resize and change the transparency of JPG and PNG graphics and overlay them on a live program feed, it said. Users also will be able to expand live-switched program output beyond Facebook and YouTube to custom sites supporting RTMP, such as Twitch, Twitter/Periscope, Livestream and Ustream, it said.

DirecTV made only one unilateral proposal of terms for carrying KFVE Honolulu -- that it would carry it only under must-carry rules -- and hasn't given any justification for its refusal to consider alternative terms, licensee HITV said in a good faith negotiations complaint Friday in docket 12-1. It said KFVE hasn't been carried on DirecTV since Oct. 19. It said FCC rules establish it's bad faith for a negotiating entity to offer only a single, unilateral proposal and to not give reasons for its rejection of HITV's offer. DirecTV owner AT&T said it wants "to get KFVE back into our Honolulu customers’ local lineups as soon as possible. Doing so requires permission from its owner, HITV, since FCC rules grant KFVE exclusive control over whether that station remains available on DIRECTV.”

Satellite operators that pushed for FCC rules changes on population coverage limits in the 28 and 39 GHz bands (see 1706120006 and 1705050056) are now tweaking those proposals. In a docket 14-177 filing posted Friday, Boeing, EchoStar, Inmarsat, Intelsat, O3b, OneWeb, SES and Telesat Canada suggested modifications to its proposed Earth station siting tiers in the two bands, with the latest versions striking what it called "a fair and spectrally efficient balance" between fixed satellite services (FSS) and upper microwave flexible use systems. They said the proposed modifications also could be a model for sharing in the 47 and 50 GHz bands and obviate a need for a cap of only three FSS earth stations per county or partial economic area. Meanwhile, Boeing is siding with ViaSat in a disagreement over protection distances for V-band satellite earth station deployments. In a separate docket 14-177 filing Friday, Boeing said both ViaSat (see here) and ITU analyses (see here) were appropriate, but some of the assumptions in the ITU study submitted by Inmarsat and SES/O3b "were unnecessarily conservative." It said separation distances "less than half" of the 1,100 meters specified in the ITU paper would be enough to protect earth stations while allowing coexistence with upper microwave flexible use systems. It said separation distances could be even narrower with use of earth station shielding. Boeing urged the FCC to drop its limit on three earth stations per partial economic area in the 37.5-40 GHz band.

Satellite industry CEOs urged spectrum frontiers rules changes, in eighth-floor meetings, showed a docket 14-177 ex parte filing posted Wednesday. EchoStar's Pradman Kaul, Intelsat's Steve Spengler, OneWeb Chairman Greg Wyler, SES' Karim Sabbagh, Telesat's Daniel Goldberg and Boeing Commercial Satellite Services Vice President Chris Johnson suggested changes including different population coverage limits for fixed satellite service Earth stations in the 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands; clarification of transient population limits; axing some limits on FSS Earth station numbers in counties or partial economic areas; allowing FSS individually licensed Earth stations and end user terminals in the 42-42.5 GHz band; and applying the 70/80/90 GHz band database approach to upper microwave flexible use systems. The satellite interests urged: keeping FSS uplinks as primary designation in the 48.2-50.2 GHz band; greater FSS access to the 47.2-48.2, 50.4-51.4 and 51.4-52.4 GHz bands for individually licensed Earth stations; and letting FSS networks operate Earth stations in the 37.5-40 GHz band. The meetings were with Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O'Rielly.

Pointing to thousands of unregistered receive-only earth stations operating in the C-band in unknown locations, SES President Gerry Oberst said the FCC could encourage registration by reducing or waving fees and streamlining the registration requirements, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-183 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai.

To respond to Hurricane Maria damage in Puerto Rico, Intelsat wants to move its Intelsat 16 satellite from 58.1 degrees west to 76.2 degrees west. In FCC special temporary authority applications (see here and here) Monday, the company said drift would take about two weeks, and DirecTV -- licensed to operate in the Ku-band at 76.2 degrees west -- supports this.

Representatives of SES and subsidiary O3b flagged problems for fixed satellite service operations posed by FCC proposals for various bands in the spectrum frontiers Further NPRM, in meetings with aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. SES raised concerns about the 42, 47 and 50 GHz bands. “SES discussed the Commission’s proposals … and how to revise those proposals to better accommodate FSS interests,” the company said in docket 14-177. “Portions of the 47 GHz band are identified for High-Density FSS use and that the propagation characteristics of the 42, 47 and 50 GHz bands can facilitate more permissive FSS access to these bands, consistent with the Commission’s goals for 5G.”