The FCC canceled its critical information needs (CIN) studies, said the agency in a news release Friday (http://tinyurl.com/latnjcq). “The Commission will reassess the best way to fulfill its obligation to Congress to identify barriers to entry into the communications marketplace faced by entrepreneurs and other small businesses,” said an FCC “spokesperson” in the release. Commissioner Ajit Pai said he was “pleased” by the move. “In our country, the government does not tell the people what information they need,” Pai said in a separate statement (http://fcc.us/1mODcOh). “Instead, news outlets and the American public decide that for themselves.” The CIN had come under fire from Pai, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and Republicans on Capitol Hill, and the agency had said it was changing the studies, which Commissioner Mignon Clyburn defended (CD Feb 27 p3).

Samsung said it’s partnering with Mandalay Sports Media to create second-screen content that will be available on Samsung smart TVs, smartphones and tablets. The agreement covers new and original content “beginning with the script writing process” that will deliver an interactive experience for users, Samsung said Wednesday. Mandalay is developing shows that will be coupled with Samsung’s Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology platform that enables second-screen content to be synched to events happening on the big screen. Consumers opt in to the feature to experience separate second-screen content that’s relevant to the storyline, Samsung said. Second-screen storytelling is happening today, “but the experience has always been a bit disjointed and mostly ‘post production,'” said Eric Anderson, Samsung vice president-content and product solutions. The power of the technology comes from content creators “knowing what new storytelling tools they have access to before they write the first line in the script, and how best to harmonize the connected screens in today’s living rooms,” Anderson said. Mandalay is developing content that will be accessible on some TVs and “a variety” of tablets and smartphones, Samsung said.

Broadcasters are “leveraging outdated rules” to harm consumers with blackouts and “outrageous increases in retrans fees,” said a Time Warner Cable spokesman Friday in an emailed response to a blog post from broadcaster group TVFreedom (CD Feb 28 p16). “It is therefore not surprising that TWC, along with a wide range of other [multichannel video program distributors] MVPDs, public interest groups and independent programmers, have all brought this issue to the attention of policymakers,” said the TWC spokesman. TWC’s long-term deal to air Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games “allows us to keep Dodgers games and programming at a fair cost for our customers over for the next 25 years,” the spokesman said.

SES selected Airbus Defence and Space to build the SES-10 satellite. The satellite will significantly expand SES’s capacity to serve the thriving markets of Latin America, SES said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ffzfS5). The satellite’s coverage includes Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, it said. It will be positioned at 67 degrees west and will feature 50 high-power Ku-band transponders, it said.

The Eutelsat 3B satellite arrived in Long Beach, Calif., to prepare for an April 15 launch. The satellite will be handed over to Sea Launch’s prime contractor, Energia Logistics, “to be mated with the payload support structure and integrated with the Zenit-3SL launch vehicle,” Eutelsat said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1c2Wf0G). It is designed to increase and diversify Eutelsat’s resources and footprint at the 3 degrees east location, Eutelsat said. Eutelsat 3B will replace Eutelsat 3D, which will be redeployed to another orbital location to continue full commercial service, Eutelsat said.

Communications Daily will observe the federal Washington’s Birthday holiday on Monday, Feb. 17. Our next issue will be Tuesday, Feb. 18.

Commercial communications satellites will carry TV and media coverage from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics to an anticipated global audience of three billion people, the Satellite Industry Association said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1eUBwjL). Commercial satellite operators SES, Intelsat, Eutelsat and Telesat are providing satellite connectivity to broadcasters and news organizations “so they may transmit live video content of the events as they happen to locations around the world,” it said. NBC is relying on SES satellite capacity during its live coverage of the Olympics, SIA said. TV channels and service providers “have also booked almost 500 hours of satellite transmissions from Eutelsat Communications to bring around-the-clock coverage to viewers throughout Europe,” it said.

The in-flight Wi-Fi market could account for 10 percent of ViaSat’s satellite services revenue within three years as deployments continue with JetBlue and United Airlines, wrote Stephens analyst Tim Quillin in a research note. JetBlue has introduced ViaSat’s Exede-based satellite broadband service on 12 aircraft since December and is expected retrofit 15 per quarter for it, said ViaSat CEO Mark Dankberg on a conference call. United is outfitting aircraft for the service, using a mix of Ka-band and Ku-band, Dankberg said. But JetBlue’s recent launch with Ka-band has United “more interested in how they might evolve to something more like” JetBlue, Dankberg said: ViaSat doesn’t expect a decision from United “for a few months.” He said LiveTV is deploying ViaSat’s Ka-band broadband service with JetBlue, which sells it under the Fly-Fi brand and has installed it on Airbus A320-232 airplanes. JetBlue will add Fly-Fi to its Embraer E-190 jets in 2015, Barger said. Fly-Fi’s basic Simply Surf service is free through June, with a Fly-Fi Plus high-bandwidth plan for streaming movies and large downloads available for $9 per hour, JetBlue said. ViaSat added 79,000 gross subscribers in Q3, down from 92,000 in the previous quarter, ViaSat said. The downturn was tied to there being fewer days in the quarter and “more selective customer targeting” as means for reducing churn, Quillin said. ViaSat’s Exede had 29,000 net additions, ViaSat said. The net additions would imply annualized churn of 34 percent, down from 37 percent, but up from an average of about 30 percent in the previous four quarters, Quillin said. ViaSat’s Q3 net loss narrowed to $5.9 million from $20.6 million a year earlier as revenue rose to $332 million from $286.4 million. Satellite services, which includes Exede, posted an increase in Q3 revenue to $138.7 million from $121.7 million a year ago as its operating loss dropped to $9.7 million from $18.3 million, the company said.

Globalstar launched its STX3 simplex satellite global transmitter with a low power-consuming technology, Globalstar said in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1enHlS9). “This makes the STX3 a key requirement for customers whose monitoring devices are dispersed in remote and harsh environments.” About the size of a quarter, the transmitter is designed “to be easily integrated into a broad range of machine-to-machine devices and applications for cost-effective remote sensing, tracking and monitoring of items as diverse as sheep, ships and meters,” it said.

SES signed a long-term renewal with Towercom, a Slovakian TV operator, for use of a transponder on the Astra 3B satellite at 23.5 degrees east. Towercom already uses Astra 3B capacity to deliver TV services, including HD content distribution, to the Czech and Slovakian markets, SES said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1dgzSJ8). Towercom provides capacity to Skylink, a satellite-TV platform, serving more than two million customers in those countries, SES said.