Dish Network launched WeatherNation, a multiformat, local, regional and national TV weather news service, in a multiyear agreement, Dish said Thursday. The agreement includes a national weather information channel and an interactive app for local weather, available on Dish's Hopper and other select set-top boxes, it said. WeatherNation, Channel 215, is available to Dish customers for a six-week free preview, Dish said. Dish, Motel 6 and World Cinema, which delivers satellite TV to hotels, also completed a multiyear agreement for Dish and World Cinema to deliver high definition satellite TV service and high-speed Internet access to over 500 of Motel 6's properties, Dish said Wednesday. Motel 6 chose Dish's smartbox to deliver in-room entertainment, Dish said. Smartbox can be upgraded with new features through downloads via satellite, without requiring new equipment, it said.

In the U.K. and Ireland, Sky has connected more than 1 million boxes in the year to date, “taking our connected base to almost 7 million homes,” the company said Tuesday in its Q3 earnings announcement. This has driven on-demand downloads to more than 300 million during Q3, up 63 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, Sky said. In Italy, roughly a third of Sky customers have now connected their boxes to the Internet with the connected home strategy being deployed in Germany for the first time this quarter, it said. “This growing penetration of connected devices is enabling us to drive growth in revenues from new products and services.” For example, more than half a million customers in the U.K. and Ireland have purchased one or more movies from the Sky Store, and the service regularly ranks No. 1 or 2 among digital retailers for new releases, Sky said.

Dish Network and the Weather Channel signed a multiyear renewal contract, Dish said Tuesday. Customers will continue to have access to The Weather Channel and its interactive app on Dish's Hopper and other select set-top boxes, Dish said. The agreement includes over-the-top streaming rights for live and VOD content, it said. The Weather Channel will be added to Sling TV by July, Dish said.

Raytheon received a $103 million Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contract to supply a space-based system that will make air travel more efficient and safe, Raytheon said Tuesday. The Raytheon system will be part of the FAA's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), which improves GPS signal accuracy for use by general and commercial aircraft, it said. WAAS will allow more access to remote landing sites, direct flight routing and precision landing, without dependence on ground-based infrastructure, it said. Raytheon will develop a payload that will be included in a new geostationary (GEO) satellite and ground uplink stations to support the WAAS system in U.S. airspace, it said. The GEO 6 and 5 system, which was awarded to Raytheon in 2012, will replace two WAAS GEO payloads at the end of their service leases, it said. The WAAS GEO 6 payload will be launched in Q2 of 2017, and the system will enter a 10-year operational phase in 2019, Raytheon said.

Six satellite operators and manufacturers unveiled the SAT>IP Alliance, formalizing a coalition started last year to develop compatible hardware and software for the SAT>IP technology. It was announced at NAB Show in Las Vegas, said an SES news release Wednesday. The alliance includes ALi Corporation, Hispasat, MaxLinear, Nagra, Panasonic and SES. The organization will promote the use of the SAT>IP protocol in the industry and improve the standard, SES said. SAT>IP technology "converts satellite signals into IP at the reception point using a small server, which may be located in the satellite dish or in the user's home, and distributing the signal to the different IP devices such as tablets, smartphones and laptops," SES said. It allows for high-quality content via satellite, SES said.

Inmarsat-5 F2, the second Global Xpress satellite (see 1501200055), successfully completed orbital deployment, Inmarsat said in a news release Tuesday. The satellite's thermal radiator panels were deployed and the payload was switched on, Inmarsat said. The next phase is payload testing, which is expected to take three weeks, it said. Inmarsat-5 F3, the third Global Xpress satellite, is scheduled to launch before the end of Q2, which will complete a globally available Ka-band mobile broadband satellite network, it said. Inmarsat is also collaborating with Honeywell Aerospace and Kymeta on an in-flight Internet connectivity system, it said in another news release Tuesday. The companies will offer a fast, lightweight Ka-band antenna for the business and commercial aviation market, it said. Kymeta will offer its mTenna products to Honeywell, which will test and integrate them into its JetWave aviation product line, Inmarsat said.

BBC Global News signed a long-term agreement to broadcast its international news channel free-to-air in HD on SES' Astra at 19.2 degrees east on a multiplex operated and uplinked by SES starting Wednesday, SES said in a news release Wednesday. The channel is an HD version of BBC World News in English, SES said. More than 47 million people watch HDTV in about 52 percent of European satellite homes, it said. SES broadcasts more than 1,800 HD channels globally and more than 500 in Europe in 2014, it said.

Dish Network, Major League Baseball and MLB Advanced Media reached a multiyear carriage agreement, including the launch of MLB Extra Innings on Dish, Dish said in a news release Tuesday. The agreement offers authenticated access to streaming sports service MLB.TV, it said. Dish and MLB Network also reached a multi-year renewal agreement for continued carriage of MLB Network and MLB Network Strike Zone, which includes digital rights for the channels on DishAnywhere.com and the Dish Anywhere app, it said. MLB Network, channel 152, will be available in Dish's America's Top 200 programming and Multi-Sport packages, and MLB Network Strike Zone, channel 153, will be available in the sport package, it said. Dish will offer a free preview of MLB Extra Innings, channel 476 on Dish's Hopper or channel 900 for other set-top-boxes, starting April 6 through 12, it said. The channel is available for $195 for 2015, Dish said.

EchoStar's legal and operating name for Solaris Mobile is now EchoStar Mobile, said the company in a news release Wednesday. It changed the name of that subsidiary to align the company with the entire group of EchoStar companies.

The Supreme Court granted DirecTV’s motion for cert appealing a California Second District Court of Appeals decision on a class-action lawsuit brought against the company over early termination fees, the high court’s website said. DirecTV had sought to have the litigation dismissed in favor of arbitration but the U.S. district and appeals courts ruled that despite a customer agreement that compelled arbitration, the plaintiffs could bring a class-action lawsuit against the satellite carrier.