SES ordered several new satellites this week, it said in a news release Tuesday. The satellite operator ordered SES-16/GovSat through LuxGovSat, a joint venture by SES and the Luxembourg government, it said. The satellite, which will be made by manufacturer Orbital ATK, will use military Ka- and X-bands, it said. SES ordered SES-15, which will be built by Boeing, for more capacity in North America, it said. The satellite will have Ku-band wide beams and Ka- and Ku-band high throughput satellite capabilities, it said. SES ordered SES-14 for growing video demands in the Americas and North Atlantic region, it said. The satellite, which will be built by Airbus Space and Defence, will replace SES’s NSS-806, it said. SES-14 will have C- and Ku-band wide beam coverage and Ka- and Ku-band HTS coverage, it said. SES-14 and -15 will use electric propulsion systems for orbit raising and in-orbit maneuvers and to reduce their weight and allow larger payloads, it said. SES-15 and -16 will be launched in Q2 2017; SES-14 will be launched Q4 2017, it said.

Intelsat Q4 revenue fell 3.7 percent to $619.1 million from the year-ago quarter, a news release said Wednesday. Network services were 46 percent of revenue at $284.1 million, a 5 percent decrease, it said. Government was 16 percent of revenue at $99.7 million, a 14 percent decrease. Media was 37 percent of revenue at $226 million, a 3 percent increase. Income from operations fell 12 percent to $292.7 million. Intelsat stock fell 9.5 percent to $15.77 in trading Wednesday. It will launch Intelsat 34, a replacement for its 304.5 degrees East video neighborhood, in Q3, it said. Intelsat 31, a second satellite that will offer services for direct-to-home (DTH) provider DirecTV Latin America, will launch in Q1 2016, it said. Meanwhile, Intelsat 29e, an Intelsat EpicNG high-throughput satellite, will launch in Q1 2016, it said. Intelsat and Azercosmos, the national satellite operator of Azerbaijan, partnered to deliver the DTH Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38 satellite at 45 degrees East, Intelsat said in a news release Tuesday. The satellite will offer enhanced capacity, coverage and service offerings for Azerspace-1 and Intelsat 12, it said. Intelsat 38 will provide services for Africa, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, it said. The satellite will be launched in 2017, it said.

DirecTV launched Fox Sports Go, which is now available to about 80 million subscribers, a Fox Sports spokesman said in an email Wednesday. National channels will be launched first, including Big East Digital Network, Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox Sports 1, he said. Regional sports networks will launch in late March or April, he said. Several Fox spokesmen tweeted about the launch Tuesday.

Sling TV is adding Epix channels to its live and VOD programming, including Epix, Epix2, Epix3 and Epix Drive-In, Sling TV said in a news release Monday. The launch date and pricing will be announced in the next few weeks, it said. Sling TV launched Feb. 9 (see 1502090025).

Dish Network and Epix reached a multiyear renewal agreement for continued carriage of the channel to the DBS company's customers, Dish said in a news release Monday. Dish customers who subscribe to Epix will have access to more than 2,000 VOD titles on DISHAnywhere.com, epix.com and Dish Anywhere and Epix apps, it said.

Establishing an air-ground mobile broadband service could affect secondary service on irregular fixed-service satellite (FSS) operations, including satellite launches, said the Satellite Industry Association in an ex parte notice Thursday in FCC RM-11640. Temporary FSS operations are done under special temporary authorizations, SIA said. The commission should note in a report or order the importance of protecting temporary FSS operations and new satellite constellations from interference from secondary users, SIA said. Earlier this month, the FCC removed from circulation a draft order on establishing an ATG service over national security concerns (see 1502120054).

The FCC should create a new fee category for multichannel video programming distributors, the American Cable Association said in a ex parte notice Friday in docket 13-140. Cable operators and IPTV providers shouldn’t be the only MVPDs supporting the Media Bureau’s MVPD regulatory activities through fees, ACA said. The commission should assess regulatory fees on direct broadcast satellite providers the same way it assess fees for cable and IPTV providers, ACA said. The commission could add DBS to the cable/IPTV fee category, as it added IPTV to the cable-TV category in its 2013 regulatory fees order, ACA said. "The FCC should reject cable's latest proposal to raise satellite fees, just as it did the last five times cable proposed it," DirecTV said in a statement Friday. "The dominant cable providers require more regulation by virtue of their size and broadband offering and since regulatory fees are supposed to recover the costs of regulation, there's no reason for the FCC to revisit the current fee structure." Dish Network didn’t comment.

SES's Ultra HD "demonstration" channel is available in the U.K. and Ireland, the company said in a news release Thursday. The channel will show animals, nature and sports to feature the clarity of Ultra HD TV, SES said. The channel can be received by connecting a standard satellite dish to an Ultra HD flat-screen TV with an integrated satellite tuner and HEVC decoder, it said.

Dish will offer a $250 savings to customers who switch from DirecTV, the company said in a news release Tuesday. The promotion ends April 8, it said. The company released a series of promotional videos showing what customers are willing to do for $250. Customers will need to make a 24-month commitment with AutoPay and paperless billing, it said. "We deal with promotions like this all the time, and Dish has targeted us directly in the past without much success," a DirecTV spokesman said.

Sling TV, the live, over-the-top Internet TV service announced at CES (see 1501050037), is available nationwide, the company said in a news release Monday. Customers can watch live TV on computers, smartphones, tablets and TVs, it said. The company's $20 core package includes ABC Family, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, the Food Network, HGTV, TBS and TNT, and additional sports channels can be added for a $5-per-month Sports Extra package, it said. Customers can watch ESPN and ESPN2 on the WatchESPN app with Internet-connected devices, it said. Sling TV also offers Kids Extra and News & Info Extra packages for $5 a month, it said.