The global satellite pay-TV industry has had strong growth in the past five years, a Euroconsult report said. Subscriptions reached 196 million homes last year and revenue topped $97 billion, Euroconsult said Thursday in a news release. While key performance indicators of the sector continued to grow, there was a slight slowdown “largely attributable to the lack of dynamism in mature markets,” it said. Emerging markets have been the most active in rolling out new platforms, increasing subscriber bases, growing revenue and adding TV channels, it said. A growing trend in emerging markets, like Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, has been the expansion into new markets for existing players, it said. Emerging markets should account for nearly 100 percent of growth in subscriptions, revenue and the number of TV channels by 2023, Euroconsult said.

The Ariane 5 ECA launch of the DirecTV-14 and GSAT-16 satellites was postponed due to unfavorable weather. The satellites were to be launched Thursday from Kourou, French Guiana, Arianespace said Thursday in a news release. "Another launch date will be decided depending on the evolution of the weather conditions in Kourou."

Gilat and Azercosmos signed an agreement to use Gilat's SkyEdge II-c network for multi-application satellite managed services for Azercosmos' customers. Azercosmos will use the network to offer managed services on its Azerspace-1 satellite, Gilat said Wednesday in a news release. The satellite serves customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus, it said.

Comments for the further rulemaking about FCC Part 25 rules for space and earth stations are due Jan. 29, and replies are due March 2. The International Bureau extended the comment deadlines by 45 days, the FCC said Wednesday in a Federal Registernotice. The Satellite Industry Association requested the extension (see 1411130043).

Lockheed Martin completed thermal vacuum testing on a mobile user objective system (MUOS) communications satellite for the U.S. Navy. It's the fourth satellite in the MUOS constellation that's scheduled for launch next year, Lockheed Martin said Monday in a news release. It will complete the operational constellation and provide global coverage, it said. MUOS operates "like a smartphone cell tower in the sky" to improve current secure mobile satellite communications for war fighters on the move, Lockheed said.

Hughes’ latest portable broadband global area network (BGAN) terminal received Inmarsat type approval. The 9211-HDR terminal will operate with Inmarsat’s High Data Rate (HDR) streaming service, Hughes said Monday in a news release. The terminal provides data streaming rates of “an average speed of 650 kbps and speeds as high as 800 kbps” over Inmarsat’s BGAN HDR service, it said. It has multi-user Wi-Fi access and an active external antenna port that enables “future optional connectivity of remote semi-fixed and mobile tracking antennas,” it said.

SES will deliver the German channel, TurkShow, over Western Europe via the Astra satellite. The satellite is located at 19.2 degrees east, SES said. The channel will cater to the 6.5 million Turkish people living in Europe, it said.

The FCC International Bureau extended the comment deadline for further review of Part 25 rules to Jan. 29. Replies are due March 2, it said Monday in an order. The Satellite Industry Association asked for an extension this month (see 1411130043). SIA asserts that many satellite industry experts have been unavailable for consultation due to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in October and November, the bureau said. The proposed extension of time was unopposed, it said.

The Satellite Industry Association requested an extension of time for the comment period on whether to create service rules for the 42-43.5 GHz band. SIA asked for a 30-day extension to Jan. 15 for initial comments, and Feb. 17 for replies, said its request, posted Wednesday in RM-11664. This would allow SIA and its members to better prepare a thorough, fact-based response to the FCC’s questions in the notice of inquiry, it said. Looking at one band for spectrum sharing with widely deployed mobile wireless services requires extensive analysis and review, SIA said. The FCC is seeking comment on multiple bands across a broad range of radio spectrum, it said.

Black Television News Channel reiterated that the FCC has a clear path to grant BTNC a waiver of the FCC’s advertising ban on DBS set-aside channels. Once the FCC waives or modifies its current ad ban, BTNC will satisfy the noncommercial programming requirement, BTNC said in a filing in docket 14-77. Because BTNC’s programming is targeted to an underserved and geographically dispersed minority, “there is currently no viable commercial case for carriage of the programming that BTNC seeks to offer,” it said. BTNC’s programming will not be “mass entertainment” over a “small audience,” but news, educational and informational programming, it said.