The number of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satcom satellites is rocketing, but space operators and experts don't see geostationary-provided broadband becoming obsolete. But many expect low earth orbit satellites and constellations to elbow geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites out of some markets and applications in coming years.

Comcast's Peacock, with 54 million signups, is rolling out to Europe later this year to Sky's 20 million customers, and the next aim is global availability of the streaming service, said the company Thursday. Comcast executives waved off the need for more mergers and acquisitions as a prerequisite to become a viable international streaming power, during a call with analysts. "I love the company we have," and more organic growth is ahead without further acquisitions, said CEO Brian Roberts. "I think we do have the scale. We don't need M&A."

Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John Bush repeatedly raised red flags during oral argument Thursday about the different liabilities government and private sector robocallers face under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and how that seems to run afoul of the First Amendment. He twice said he was "bother[ed]" by what appears to be speakers treated differently due to the content of their speech. It's an appeal of a lower court's tossing TCPA litigation against Realgy Energy on grounds the act was unconstitutional until the Supreme Court severed the government-debt exception from the general robocall ban last year, with severance retroactive to 2015 (see 2102020068).

New York is enjoined from enforcing its broadband affordability law, in a stipulated final judgment (in Pacer, docket 21-CV-02389) approved Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley in Central Islip, Long Island. Hurley ruled last month that ISPs would likely succeed on conflict and field preemption arguments, and granted a motion for preliminary injunction by the New York State Telecommunications Association, CTIA, ACA Connects, USTelecom, NTCA and the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (see 2106110064). Under the stipulated final judgment, the sides agreed to a final judgment in favor of the ISP interest plaintiffs conceding that the state law is preempted by federal law. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) reserves the right to appeal the stipulated final judgment, declaration and permanent injunction. Her office didn't comment. For our report on the sides settling this case that may go to an appeals court, see here.

AT&T and Verizon's Cellco Partnership were by far top recipients of C-band flexible use overlay licenses in Auction 107. Per our breakdown of an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Friday, Verizon received 3,518 licenses and AT&T 1,620. Others included U.S. Cellular with 253 licenses, T-Mobile (141) and Canopy Spectrum (83). Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called the licenses "the sweet spot for 5G deployment [due to] the right mix of capacity and propagation that will help us reach more people in more places faster. With these licenses in hand, more carriers can deploy mid-band 5G." The C-band auction was approved under former Chairman Ajit Pai and was “no walk in the park,” Commissioner Brendan Carr said Monday. “We must do more than implement the tough spectrum decisions the FCC made over the last few years if we are going to extend U.S. leadership in 5G,” he said: “We must move forward with a number of new spectrum proceedings too.”

Items adjacent to net neutrality in President Joe Biden's executive order issued earlier this month (see 2107090006) could get packaged together with net neutrality or at least all be on deck for FCC meetings late this year or early 2022, experts and interested parties told us. Some think the agency may try to move some less controversial items, such as broadband “nutrition labeling,” while it still has a 2-2 party split and acting chairwoman. Many think work is underway on net neutrality (see 2107200036).

TV stations increasingly are available via a mushrooming number of streaming options such as aggregators. Discussions between networks and affiliates have been rising as cable subscribers decline, putting retransmission consent dollars in jeopardy, experts said in recent interviews. Networks wanted big increases on what affiliates pay based on the notion affiliates get more retrans revenue, but there's MVPD resistance to rising retrans fees, said broadcast lawyer Jack Goodman.

The legions of geostationary orbit gateway earth stations in the upper microwave flexible use band Viasat applied for in recent days are evidence the FCC's lengthier buildout period for GSO earth station deployments adopted last year is allowing stockpiling of earth station sites, SpaceX said in a docket 18-314 filing posted Tuesday. Since July 1, per our search of International Bureau filings, Viasat has submitted 382 earth station applications in the 27.5-28.35 MHz band to connect with its Viasat-3 network. SpaceX said Hughes' critiques of arguments against the extended buildout period now "essentially concedes" that Viasat is engaged in stockpiling earth station sites. Hughes said earlier this month the Viasat applications "prove nothing about the likelihood of warehousing" and that SpaceX hasn't shown evidence the sites are unnecessary. SpaceX is among parties that sought reconsideration of Part 25 satellite rules (see 2105070044). Neither Viasat nor Hughes commented Wednesday.

States and localities are loosening pandemic-related restrictions, but federal and state courts are a more mixed bag, our informal survey found. State courts likely will be fully open by Labor Day and generally done with COVID-19 precautions, said Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, who's president of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ). Federal courts are more scattered in their moves.

The FCC approval Friday of AT&T's spinoff of its North American video distribution business came with no conditions. See also our news bulletin here. The International and Wireless bureaus order approving transfer of some satellite, earth station and private land mobile radio licenses said that since TPG Capital, which is buying a 30% stake in the spinoff, has no significant video programming or distribution assets, New DirecTV poses "no adverse effect on market concentration or likely competitive or public interest harms." Staff said no one had challenged AT&T and TPG assertions that the $7.8 billion deal announced in February (see 2102240046) would make New DirecTV more competitive through dedicated management, an ability to focus solely on the video business and the addition of capital and resources. Network affiliates had sought a condition requiring provide local-into-local service into all designated market areas (see 2105040055). The bureaus' order said nothing in the record points to New DirecTV having any less incentive to carry local broadcast channels and the affiliates didn't put forward evidence or a good theory showing New DirecTV would have different competitive pressures in those markets post transaction. Indie programmer RMG had urged that New DirecTV be required to allocate at least 1% of its channel lineup for rural-focused programming and be barred from removing rural content from its post-spinoff programming lineup. The order said the spinoff doesn't raise vertical integration concerns that New DirecTV would discriminate against unaffiliated programmers or change the incentives behind DirecTV program carriage decisions. AT&T said it "appreciate[s] the FCC’s prompt review and approval."