DirecTV is seeking more time to argue for partial summary judgment in a legal fight with the FTC. A joint stipulation and proposed order filed Tuesday by the company and the FTC in U.S. District Court in San Francisco said that due to additional discovery that will take place, both sides have agreed DirecTV should have roughly an additional month to file a reply brief, with the new deadline being Jan. 25. A hearing on DirecTV's motion for partial summary judgment would then happen on Feb. 25. The FTC sued DirecTV in March, alleging it wasn't properly conveying to prospective customers they faced early cancellation fees if they sign up and then quit the service before two years (see 1503110042).

ViaSat seeks FCC International Bureau approval to operate as many as 100,000 mobile earth terminals mounted on vehicle rooftops to communicate via L-band with the SkyTerra-1 satellite. In an IB filing submitted Thursday, ViaSat said its MT2220/Explore 122 terminal is a variation of its previously licensed AT2220 aviation terminal and would operate in the 1525-1559 MHz and 1625.5-1660.5 MHz bands, excluding 1544-1545 and 1645.5-1646.5, which are used for safety and distress communications. Possible applications for Explore 122 include fleet management, emergency first responders, disaster aid and high-value asset tracking, ViaSat said.

Both DirecTV and the FTC saw motions on discovery upheld in a legal clash over early cancellation fees charged subscribers. U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James of San Francisco on Thursday granted a DirecTV motion to compel further responses from the FTC on research, surveys or tests the agency did on DirecTV advertising, its computation of claim for restitution, and the methods used by and results of investigations of the FTC into the rationale behind consumer complaints aimed at DirecTV ads. James also granted an FTC request for draft ads that DirecTV had objected to. And James denied without prejudice a DirecTV motion seeking discovery of communications between the FTC and all the various state attorneys general on a previous multistate agreement between the states and DirecTV, saying a pending decision by U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam of San Francisco on a motion to strike six of DirecTV's affirmative defenses could render that line of exploration moot. The FTC sued DirecTV in March, alleging the direct broadcast satellite company wasn't properly conveying to prospective customers they faced early cancellation fees if they sign up and then quit the service before two years (see 1503110042).

SiriusXM “won’t stand still” on connected vehicles, Chief Financial Officer David Frear told the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Leveraged Finance Conference webcast Wednesday from Boca Raton, Florida. SiriusXM believes there's a “content offensive that we can do with connected vehicle,” Frear said. “There is also a direct marketing offensive that we can do with connected car,” which the company thinks is “a great upside for the business,” he said. Frear sidestepped mention of the company’s SXM17 connected-car initiative, which in the past has been described as a multiyear project to bring two-way connectivity to the vehicle using satellite delivery and streaming (see 1504280044). SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer has said the company would have more to say about SXM17 at CES (see 1509170042).

Intelsat hopes to launch its C/Ku-band Horizons 3e satellite in Q3 2018, it said in an FCC International Bureau filing Wednesday. The filing, seeking authority to launch and operate Horizons 3e at 169 degrees east, said it will replace Intelsat 805 and Intelsat 8, both operating there now. Intelsat also asked for a waiver to allow it to provide fixed satellite service in the 12200-12750 MHz band, saying it previously received a waiver for Intelsat 8 to provide service in the 12250-12750 MHz bands. Along with using some frequencies currently employed by Intelsat 8 and 805, Horizons 3e will operate at 10850-11700 MHz, 12200-12250 MHz, 12920-13250 MHz and 13750-13997 MHz, it said.

Dish and Sinclair ended their retransmission dispute and signed a retrans consent agreement, ending a complaint Dish filed against Sinclair in August, Dish said in an FCC filing Nov. 25 in docket 12-1. Dish and Sinclair were at loggerheads in negotiations and Dish customers were facing blackouts of 152 local channels in 79 markets (see 1508170031).

Insurer Anthem is seeking FCC International Bureau authorization for a fixed-satellite service very small aperture terminal (VSAT) network to provide two-way broadband data communications among its business units and affiliated service and support organizations. In an IB filing Tuesday, Anthem said the VSAT network will use geostationary Ku-band satellites with earth station uplinks in the 14-14.5 GHz band and downlinks in the 11.7-12.2 band.

Arianespace will launch Azercosmos' and Intelsat's Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38 telecom satellite in 2017 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, Arianespace said in a news release Wednesday. The satellite will orbit at 45 degrees east and provide direct-to-home services for Azercosmos customers in Europe, Central and South Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, and continuity of service for Intelsat 12, plus connectivity to Intelsat for corporate network and government applications in Africa, Arianespace said. The satellite is to be designed and built by Space Systems/Loral, the launch company said.

Intelsat is seeking 30 additional days to drift its Intelsat 16 satellite from 76.2 degrees west to 58.1 degrees west. In an FCC International Bureau filing Monday, Intelsat said an unspecified "unexpected delay" caused a late start to drift, which previously had been expected to begin Nov. 4 (see 1509280024), so it needed an extension through Jan. 2 in its special temporary authority.

Space Systems Loral (SSL) will build Telstar 19 Vantage, a high-throughput communications satellite, for Telesat, SSL said in a news release. Telstar 19 Vantage will have two high throughput payloads, one each in Ka- and Ku-band, to serve the Caribbean, Latin American, North Atlantic and Northern Canadian markets, it said. The satellite will operate at 63 west degrees, SSL said Wednesday.