Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Commitments and Contingencies

v3.19.1
Commitments and Contingencies
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2019
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies
Commitments and Contingencies

Movie License and Internet Protocol Television (“IPTV”) Commitments
In the ordinary course of business, we have long-term commitments, such as license fees and guaranteed minimum payments owed to content providers. In addition, we have long-term arrangements with service and television providers to license and provide content and IPTV services that are subject to future guaranteed minimum payments from us to the licensor.

The following is a schedule of future minimum commitments under movie and IPTV arrangements as of March 31, 2019 (in thousands):
Years Ending December 31,
Amount
2019 (remaining nine months)
$
36,745

2020
13,210

2021
4,807

2022
800

Total
$
55,562



Satellite Bandwidth Capacity
The Company maintains agreements with satellite service providers to provide for satellite capacity. The Company expenses these satellite fees in the month the service is provided as a charge to licensing and services cost of sales.

The following is a schedule of future minimum satellite costs, across all connectivity end-markets, as of March 31, 2019 (in thousands):
Years Ending December 31,
Amount
2019 (remaining nine months)
$
78,653

2020
73,754

2021
45,188

2022
32,849

2023
31,389

Thereafter
87,942

Total Future Payments
$
349,775



Other Commitments
In the normal course of business, we enter into future purchase commitments with some of our connectivity vendors to secure future inventory for our customers and engineering and antenna project developments. As of March 31, 2019, we also had outstanding letters of credit in the amount of $4.7 million, of which $4.2 million were issued under the letter of credit facility under the senior secured credit agreement that the Company entered into on January 6, 2017 (the “2017 Credit Agreement”).

Contingencies
We are subject to various legal proceedings and claims that have arisen in the ordinary course of business and that have not been fully and finally adjudicated. We record accruals for loss contingencies when our management concludes it is probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the related loss can be reasonably estimated. On a regular basis, our management evaluates developments in legal proceedings and other matters that could cause an increase or decrease in the amount of the liability that has been accrued previously. While it is not possible to accurately predict or determine the eventual outcomes of these matters, an adverse determination in one or more of these matters could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows. Some of our legal proceedings as well as other matters that our management believes could become significant are discussed below:

Music Infringement and Related Claims. On May 6, 2014, UMG Recordings, Inc., Capitol Records, Universal Music Corp. and entities affiliated with the foregoing (collectively, “UMG”) filed suit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against us and Inflight Productions Ltd. (“IFP”), our indirect subsidiary, for copyright infringement and related claims and unspecified money damages. In August 2016, we entered into settlement agreements with major record labels and publishers, including UMG, to settle music copyright infringement and related claims (the “Sound Recording Settlements”). As a result of the Sound Recording Settlements, we paid approximately $18.0 million in cash and issued approximately 1.8 million shares of our common stock to settle lawsuits and other claims. Under the settlement agreement with UMG, we paid UMG an additional $5.0 million in cash in March 2017 and agreed to issue 500,000 additional shares of our common stock when and if our closing price of our common stock exceeds $10.00 per share and 400,000 additional shares of our common stock when and if the closing price of our common stock exceeds $12.00 per share.

In 2016, we received notices from several other music rights holders and associations acting on their behalf regarding potential claims that we infringed their music rights and the rights of artists that they represent. To date, none of these rights holders or associations has initiated litigation against us, except for BMG Rights Management (US) LLC (“BMG”) as described in the following paragraph. Other than in respect of the BMG litigation (the loss probability and liability estimate of which we discuss in the following paragraph), we believe that a loss relating to these matters is probable, but we believe that it is unlikely to be material and therefore have accrued an immaterial amount for these loss contingencies. If initiated however, we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these claims.

On May 3, 2018, BMG filed suit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against us and IFP for copyright infringement and related claims and unspecified money damages. The Court set the trial date for September 2019. We believe that a loss relating to this matter is probable, and therefore, we have reserved for this loss contingency in the amount of $1.0 million as of March 31, 2019. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against this claim.

SwiftAir Litigation. On August 14, 2014, SwiftAir, LLC filed suit against our wholly owned subsidiary Row 44 and against Southwest Airlines for breach of contract, quantum meruit, unjust enrichment and similar claims and money damages in the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles. SwiftAir and Row 44 had a contractual relationship whereby Row 44 agreed to give SwiftAir access to Row 44’s Southwest Airlines portal so that SwiftAir could market its destination deal product to Southwest Airlines’ passengers. In 2013, after Southwest Airlines decided not to proceed with the destination deal product, Row 44 terminated its contract with SwiftAir. In its lawsuit, SwiftAir seeks approximately $9 million in monetary damages against Row 44 and Southwest Airlines.  In January 2018, the court granted Row 44’s motions in limine and thereby limited SwiftAir’s damages claims against Row 44 to nominal damages. Southwest Airlines however remains exposed to SwiftAir’s damages claims.  If Southwest Airlines is not successful in its defense against those claims, then Southwest Airlines may seek indemnification from Row 44 for its loss. The trial in this lawsuit is currently scheduled to commence in June 2019.  We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against SwiftAir’s claims as well as against any indemnification claim that Southwest Airlines may later assert against us. We do not believe that a material loss relating to this matter is probable, and due to the speculative nature of SwiftAir’s damages claims (and, therefore, Southwest Airlines’ potential indemnification claim), we are currently unable to estimate the amount of any potential loss; as such, we have not accrued any amount for this loss contingency.

In addition, from time to time, we are or may be party to various additional legal matters incidental to the conduct of our business. Some of the outstanding legal matters include speculative claims for indeterminate amounts of damages, for which we have not recorded any contingency accrual. Additionally, we have determined that other legal matters are likely not material to our financial statements, and as such have not discussed those matters above. Although we cannot predict with certainty the ultimate resolution of these speculative and immaterial matters, based on our current knowledge, we do not believe that the outcome of any of these matters will have a material adverse effect on our financial statements.