Eleven Cordillera Communications local channels in eight states were blacked out on Dish Network as part of stalemated retransmission negotiations, Dish said in a news release Thursday. Dish said Cordillera is seeking "above-market rate increases double the current Dish rate" and using the blackout of the NFL Wild Card playoff games scheduled Saturday and Sunday as leverage. “With Dish willing to grant an extension and a retroactive true-up on rates, Cordillera had nothing to lose and consumers had everything to gain by leaving the channels up,” said Warren Schlichting, Dish executive vice president-programming, in a statement. In its statement, Cordillera said Dish "has refused to reach a fair, market-based agreement ... even as we offer terms similar to those of existing agreements with every other cable and satellite provider."

Dish Network is expanding its Hopper service offerings and adding 4K programming, it said in a series of announcements Tuesday at CES. In a news release, Dish unveiled its 64 GB mobile video drive HopperGO, which allows carrying up to 100 hours of content from a Hopper DVR for offline viewing on mobile phones and tablets via the Dish Anywhere app. The $99 HopperGO will be available later in Q1, Dish said. It also announced its Hopper 3 DVR, which will include 16 tuners, expanding the capacity for viewers to watch programming in multiple rooms or set multiple recordings. Dish also said it would integrate Google's YouTube onto Hopper 3 and it would be the first major U.S. pay-TV provider to integrate Netflix titles into its universal search (see here). The Netflix app already is integrated into Dish's Hopper set-top boxes. And Dish said in a news release that a variety of Ultra HD content will be available on its Hopper 3 and its upcoming 4K Joey via Mance Media, Netflix, Sony Pictures and The Orchard.

After adding 2.3 million net subscribers in 2015, SiriusXM expects more modest 2016 net subscriber additions of 1.4 million, it said in guidance Tuesday. The satellite radio company said it ended the year with 29.6 million subscribers, 24 million of them self-pay. It had anticipated adding 2 million net subscribers in 2015.

Kymeta and Intelsat finished initial mobility-related testing of Kymeta's flat-panel antennas on Intelsat's satellite network for maritime and automotive applications, they said in a news release. The automotive testing involved embedding a Kymeta Ku-band antenna into an auto roof and using it to acquire and track satellite signals while mobile. Kymeta also built and tested a glass-on-glass thin-film-transistor-based antenna for maritime use, it said Tuesday.

ViaSat in collaboration with Rockwell Collins will integrate its ViaSat VMT-1500 terminal and its global Ku-band Internet service with Rockwell Collins' ERT-120 smart cabin routers and its ARINCDirect flight support services to provide cabin and cockpit connectivity to business aircraft operators, the satellite company said in a news release Wednesday. ViaSat General Manager Ken Peterman said the collaboration will "offer business jet operators a single, comprehensive suite of cabin connectivity capabilities across our advanced global internet service." Also Wednesday, ViaSat announced its new Exede WiFi Modem, which allows download speeds of up to 25 Mbps. The Exede is aimed at the home satellite Internet service market, ViaSat said in a news release.

The satellite industry is in disagreement about what it says are allowable rise over thermal limits that could come with air-to-ground mobile broadband in the 14-14.5 GHz band. While Qualcomm has said such aeronautical service broadband could safely increase the rise over thermal -- the ratio between the total interference and thermal noise -- by as much as 1 percent, the safe figure that would protect fixed satellite service (FSS) uplinks is actually 0.33 percent, Intelsat and SES said in a joint FCC filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-114. The companies said the satellite industry previously indicated FSS interference from all noise sources should be capped at a 1 percent increase noise floor, going by ITU-Radiocommunication (ITU-R) recommendations, but those calculations didn't take into account additional secondary services in parts of the 14-14.5 GHz band -- tracking and data relay satellite service and federal fixed and mobile services. SpaceX in a joint letter in October with Qualcomm said it thinks Qualcomm's commitments would protect SpaceX's nongeostationary satellite system. But those calculations also failed to take into account those secondary users in the band, said Intelsat and SES. "That pact cannot change the laws of physics, the Table of Allocations or the ITU-R Recommendations." Thus any authorization of an air-to-ground mobile service in that band should follow ITU-R recommendations and give it no more than 0.33 percent rise in thermal noise, they said. Qualcomm didn't comment Wednesday. In a 2014 filing in the docket, the company said the transmit power levels already proposed by the FCC will ensure the AMS rise over thermal limits is less than 0.5 percent.

Sling TV's live and on-demand Internet TV app now supports Google Chromecast, and as a promotion is offering a free Chromecast to customers who prepay for three months of Sling TV's Best of Live TV service, the company said in a news release Tuesday.

ViaSat wants to add the 28.1-28.35 GHz uplink band to its aeronautical earth station blanket license, it said in an FCC International Bureau filing posted Wednesday. ViaSat said its current Ka-band license authorizes use of frequencies including 28.35-291 GHz and 29.5-30 GHz for uplinks and 18.3-19.3 GHz and 19.7-20.2 GHz for downlinks. The application to add 28.1-28.35 GHz would be for the aeronautical earth stations' operations with ViaSat-1 at 115.1 degrees west, ViaSat said. The company said the additional band is needed to meet growing demand for its in-flight connectivity services.

Iridium Communications made its first voice and data ground-test call over its Certus broadband network being carried on its Next satellite constellation, it said Tuesday. Iridium said the voice and data call was the first combined use of the capabilities of three Certus components: the broadband satellite terminal, Next and upgraded capabilities in the company's terrestrial gateway. Certus will introduce an initial data speed of 352 kbps and a voice codec which will operate at twice the current bit rate of Iridium’s current generation offerings, and eventually will allow data speeds as high as 1.4 Mbps for a single user terminal once Next is fully deployed, Iridium said. It has said it expects Next to begin commercial service late in 2016, and said Tuesday that Certus will start beta testing as Next satellites come online.

EchoStar wants 180 more days to move EchoStar 15 to 61.65 degrees west to use as backup capacity for Dish Network, the satellite company said in an FCC International Bureau filing Wednesday. EchoStar said it has been operating at 45 degrees west to provide broadcast satellite service to Brazil, but received a 30-day special temporary authorization in September to provide backup capacity to Dish. That move to 61.65 degrees west is expected to run through Nov. 16, at which point the satellite company said it expects to operate EchoStar 15 in the short term. If approved, the special temporary authorizations would extend to April 29.