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.”

Pandora’s "path to sustainable profitability remains clouded,” Dougherty & Co.'s Steven Frankel wrote investors before Pandora’s Q3 earnings call. The 20 percent investment from SiriusXM (see 1709220042) led to a “wholesale housecleaning” of management, a shift away from the premium on-demand offering and renewed focus on the legacy advertising-supported business, the analyst wrote. His questions include what tactics Pandora will use to re-engage listeners and drive up listener hours for the ad-supported business; how the company will bring in new users; whether new, nontraditional content -- This American Life and Serial -- are finding an audience; and whether the company will renegotiate deals with labels after "slower-than-anticipated ramp of its subscription business.”

A dual-mission EchoStar 105 and SES-11 satellite was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center, EchoStar said in a Thursday news release. The satellite will provide EchoStar with 24 Ku-band transponders of 36 MHz and SES with a C-band payload of 24 transponders, EchoStar said. The satellite will serve EchoStar enterprise, media, broadcast and U.S. government service provider customers across the country, the company said.