Matt Daneman

The Supreme Court case pitting DirecTV against ex-customers over its arbitration policy points up what critics contend are problems with forced arbitration, while backers say it's a cost-effective way of settling disputes over small sums. During oral argument Tuesday, at issue will be language in customers' contracts requiring arbitration for disputes unless applicable state law forbids it, and whether the arbitration agreement is unenforceable. That is according to briefs in the case and comments from participants.

Don't expect to see many mergers or acquisitions in the satellite industry despite the benefits of such consolidation, Intelsat Chief Financial Officer Michael McDonnell said Tuesday at a Deutsche Bank's investor conference. The few such M&A transactions in the industry -- such as Eutelsat's 2014 takeover of SatMex -- sometimes come with high price tags, and many smaller operators' governments aren't as interested in consolidation as their owners, McDonnell said. He declined to address directly what he called rumors of Intelsat considering a sale of some assets, except to say its satellite fleet is designed so most of them carry a variety of customer sets and they are supported by a common platform. "We don't really have any assets we consider to be non-core," McDonnell said. While the company's network services revenue has been declining in recent years, its high-throughput Epic satellite platform going online next year opens the door to expansion into markets such as connected cars and IoT and "is our path back to growth," McDonnell said. The company has four launches planned for 2016 -- Intelsat 31 and 29e in Q1 and 33e and 36 in the second half of the year -- and most of its satellites planned in coming years are Epics, he said.

The video market remains divided on whether it's suffering from a lack of real, effective competition or whether it's replete with competitors. "Choice and competition are now the hallmarks of the market for the delivery of video programming," NCTA said in replies in docket 15-158 as the FCC prepares its 17th video competition report. Pointing to such sentiments, NAB said it "wonders if these commenters are observing the same marketplace as everyone else." In initial comments last month, the FCC received a variety of suggestions for improving the video market (see 1508210033). The deadline for replies was Monday.

Wi-Fi advocates and the wireless industry are increasingly jousting over LTE-unlicensed. The WifiForward coalition labeled LTE-U users "spectrum bullies," in a short advocacy video put on YouTube Tuesday. The animated video shows a schoolyard bully-like tablet running on LTE-U pushing around smartphones and smart watches. "If Wi-Fi won't work, we all suffer," the video narrator says. "We can insist on politeness, ensuring that Wi-Fi and other new technologies can live in harmony and preventing spectrum bullies from disrupting unlicensed bands." WifiForward launched in 2014 with the goal of increasing the amount of unlicensed spectrum available for Wi-Fi use (see 1402140055). In a conference call Tuesday with reporters, Wi-Fi advocates said licensed assisted access standards should be finalized by the spring and until they are other LTE-U iterations shouldn't be approved (see 1509080046). Such unlicensed spectrum bands used in everything from cordless phones and baby monitors to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi "have been incredibly useful to consumers," said David Young, Verizon vice president-public policy, in a blog Wednesday. "The FCC’s 'permissionless innovation' approach to unlicensed spectrum has been an incredible success, unleashing torrents of innovation in spectrum bands that were once considered useless." Unlicensed spectrum "is poised to unleash a new wave of mobile innovation," said Young. LTE-U "will benefit consumers, competition and innovation," said Scott Bergmann, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs, in a statement Wednesday: "Unlicensed spectrum has always offered an opportunity for permissionless innovation and we look forward to continuing to educate all stakeholders about the benefits of LTE Unlicensed."

The seven must-have changes pay TV seeks in retransmission consent rule reforms won't solve all that ails the retrans market, but they will improve it, Dish Network Deputy Counsel Jeffrey Blum told us Tuesday. Numerous multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and allies -- including the American Cable Association, Cablevision, CenturyLink, DirecTV, Dish, ITTA, Mediacom, NTCA, Time Warner Cable and USTelecom -- through the American Television Alliance have lined up behind seven specific reforms they're pushing at the FCC. The deadline for the agency to issue an NPRM is Friday. Broadcasters are opposing many retrans changes (see 1508310026).

Cord cutters increasingly are cutting Wall Street's regard for much of the pay-TV industry, as numerous stocks took a dive last week amid fears of declining numbers of video subscribers and smaller bundles. "It is clear the dynamic with the customer is changing," Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan said Friday in an earnings conference call. "The traditional video bundle does not work for all customers." The march toward smaller bundles "does leave anxiety out there for a lot of companies," CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said in another conference call.

The cable TV bundle isn't going away anytime soon, and programmers diving into over-the-top self-distribution may ultimately be hurting themselves, Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge said Tuesday. While the traditional cable bundle model may have peaked, "My sense is it is not about to all fall apart, and we will be having this same conversation three years from now," Rutledge said during an earnings conference call.

Any FCC efforts to claw back Dish Network designated entity (DE) credits face a big hurdle within the halls of the agency itself. "The notion you'll get three votes on the eighth floor is far from certain," said a communications lawyer whose firm has done satellite work: "If you don't get majority approval on the eighth floor, it's nothing more than a staff recommendation."

Declaring itself interconnection fee-free helps Charter Communications' bid for regulatory approval to buy Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, said industry officials in interviews this week. By how much remains to be seen, they said. "I think it makes it a much easier sell," Cogent Communications CEO Dave Schaeffer said. "Anything they can show that they are willing to promote Internet growth ... will quell a lot of the concerns regulators had."

The set-top cable box -- and the monthly bill for renting it -- is increasingly in critics' crosshairs.