DirecTV and MasTec Advanced Technologies, one of its contractors, were out of bounds firing a group of employees who griped to a Florida TV news station about pay policies, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday, upholding a 2011 National Labor Relations Board ruling. DirecTV and MasTec said the workers' comments weren't protected concerted activity because of malicious untruths and flagrant disloyalty. Judges Judith Rogers and Sri Srinivasan -- who wrote the majority opinion (in Pacer) -- said the court's interest isn't where that line between protected and unprotected activity sits but on the correctness of NLRB's finding that the workers' appeal is on the protected side of that line. Judge Janice Brown dissented. The pay policy required MasTec installers to hook up DirecTV set-top boxes to customer phone lines, with MasTec setting up financial incentives and punishments for hook-up quotas, the D.C. Circuit ruling said. MasTec fired nearly all technicians who were part of a TV news broadcast about the policy, the court said. An NLRB administrative law judge said going public is protected activity, but their statements were so disloyal and disparaging that they weren't protected. The full NLRB disagreed that the comments to the TV news crew reached that level. Judges' decision Friday said MasTec workers' on-air comments "were neither so disloyal and incommensurate with their labor grievances nor so maliciously untrue as to fall outside" of National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protections. They also dismissed DirecTV arguments that because the direct broadcast satellite company is the fired workers' employer's customer, the workers had no protected rights to criticize it, ruling DirecTV clearly committed an unfair labor practice in causing MasTec to do the firings. In her dissent, Brown said the workers crossed the line from labor dispute to public disparagement aimed at eroding the companies' reputations. "This is not a close case," Brown said, pointing to the workers' telling the station that MasTec was requiring them to lie to customers when it had not done so, and was trying to have them scare customers into accepting the service: "By soberly repeating that joke to a public audience without its context and as though it were a serious instruction, these technicians left the NLRA and its protections behind." DirecTV in a statement said it agreed with the dissent and is "considering [its] options.” MasTec didn't comment.

Between 2006 and 2015, 163 earth observation satellites larger than 50 kilograms launched worldwide for civil and commercial Earth observation, with another 419 such launches expected over the next decade, Euroconsult said in a news release Thursday. Canada Managing Director Adam Keith said those numbers don't include satellites smaller than 50 kilograms, such as Planet and Spire constellations. He also said there will be downward price pressure as supply increases faster than demand for commercial data and services. Euroconsult said defense will drive growth in the short term given regional unrest "and the limited ability of countries to operate capable image intelligence systems being the main driving factors," but longer-term growth will come from such applications as maritime, infrastructure and resources monitoring.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division is bringing new Wi-Fi service plans to the 174-mile Piedmont line between Raleigh and Charlotte through a deal with ViaSat, ViaSat said in a news release Thursday. The service has three levels: a 30-minute bronze plan included in the ticket purchase, and more robust silver and gold plans with higher speeds and more streaming media options.

With four Terra Bella Technologies commercial remote-sensing satellites scheduled for launch Thursday, the company received FCC International Bureau OK for short-term modification of the telemetry downlink frequencies to be used while they're brought into service after launch. The bureau Wednesday approved the request to use 8374.5, 8374.75, 8375.25 and 8375.5 MHz for telemetry transmissions until routine communications links with SkySat-4, SkySat-5, SkySat-6 and SkySat-7 are established -- a period of perhaps two weeks, Terra Bella said. The bureau in August approved the former Skybox Imaging's application for authorization to operate a non-geostationary orbit earth exploration satellite service system with the launch of 13 additional satellites atop SkySat-1 and SkySat-2, already in orbit.

Revised Part 25 rules for satellite services take effect Monday, the FCC International Bureau said in a public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The overhaul was adopted in December (see 1512170036). It comes with some changes in filing procedures, including use of the web-based Schedule S form becoming mandatory Monday, pro forma assignments or transfers of control of licenses held by telco carriers no longer requiring prior approval, and pro forma assignments or transfers of control by entities that aren't telco carriers being deemed granted one business day after filing as long as the applicant fills out the proper certifications. Notifications of pro forma transfer of control of a receive-only earth station are no longer required, and the bureau will begin accepting applications under the optional two-part licensing process for first-step applications and applications of "non-routine" transmissions starting at 2 p.m. Monday.

Comcast's NBCUniversal reached a long-term carriage pact with AT&T and the telco-TV provider's DirecTV, extending and expanding an existing deal, the companies said Tuesday. "DIRECTV and U-Verse customers will continue to have access to NBCUniversal broadcast and cable networks live and on-demand through linear TV, online, and TV Everywhere apps." The DBS provider also can pick major sporting events in 4K Ultra HD, under the deal, which includes streaming service DirecTV Now, which AT&T plans to launch in Q4.

A National Advertising Review Board (NARB) panel wants AT&T's DirecTV to “better disclose” to consumers that only limited programming on its service is available in 4K, the Council of Better Business Bureaus-affiliated group said in a Tuesday announcement. NARB also wants DirecTV to modify its claim the service is wireless, and to discontinue claims that a “free upgrade” to Genie HD DVRs is available, the announcement said. The council’s National Advertising Division (NAD) ruled in December that DirecTV should change or end advertising claims challenged by Charter Communications about prices and wireless offerings and what Charter termed the misleading suggestion that all DirecTV programming is available in 4K resolution. DirecTV appealed the decision to NARB (see 1512100053), whose panel sided with NAD that DirecTV’s claims on the amount of 4K content on the service “reasonably communicated messages that were not supported by the evidence in the record.” But the panel disagreed with NAD that DirecTV must modify its claims by addressing “the developing nature of 4K technology and indicate that currently only a small amount of programming is available in 4K.” The panel said “reasonable consumers” will understand “the nature of developing technologies and the fact that 4K is a relatively new technology,” and “it would be sufficient for DirecTV to clearly and conspicuously disclose the limited programming available in 4K.” DirecTV representatives didn’t comment Tuesday. The council quoted the satellite operator as saying it will “comply with NARB's recommendations in future advertising,” though it disagrees with NARB’s findings that it modify its claims that the service is wireless, and will discontinue claims that a “free upgrade” to Genie HD DVRs was available.

British telco Arqiva extended its agreement with Intelsat for multiple years for Intelsat 20 and Intelsat 34 to distribute sports content to the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific region, Intelsat said in a news release Friday.

SES is using the IBC show in Amsterdam to broadcast three demos of Ultra HD with high dynamic range, it said in a Friday announcement. One demo will showcase an Ultra HD test channel with HDR content produced by LG Electronics, SES said. The content will be encoded in the BBC-NHK hybrid-log-gamma (HLG) format and beamed to a 65-inch LG OLED TV, it said. A second demo will showcase two sets of Ultra HD content in HDR -- produced by Samsung and SES and also encoded in HLG -- displayed on a 75-inch Samsung SUHD TV, it said. The third demo will showcase the Technicolor/Philips HDR format technology on a 65-inch LG OLED TV connected to a Technicolor set-top, it said: “Working with major industry players is crucial to continue refining new TV developments and bringing a higher level of viewing experience to consumer homes.” IBC's exhibition floor opened Friday for five days.

Ligado is discussing with the Federal Aviation Administration how it anticipates individually assessing each proposed base station before deployment to determine the power limits needed to ensure it meets FAA requirements for protecting certified aviation GPS receivers, the company said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 11-109. It recapped a meeting between Ligado board member/ex-FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and Wireless and International bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff to update the FCC on the talks with the FAA. The company pledged its operations always will defer to FAA requirements for protecting aviation receivers, and said it proposed in its FAA discussions using a "standoff cylinder" for base station assessment of a 250-foot horizontal radius from the base station and extending to 30 feet above the station's antenna, and that it would use an FAA-approved model for calculating power limits needed to ensure all received power at or beyond that standoff cylinder is below the agency's interference threshold. That model also would include procedures for assessing aggregate effects of the base station and other Ligado base stations nearby, it said. Ligado said the base station power limit would be set by "worst-case performance" calculated under the model. The company said it also discussed with the FCC its proposed business plan, which would focus on connectivity for mission-critical IoT applications and 5G rather than the 4G coverage plans its predecessor company, LightSquared, had. Ligado said it expects its ground-based network could include 10,000 to 20,000 base stations, fewer than half anticipated by LightSquared, with many of them being micro sites operating at reduced power.