Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Commitments and Contingencies

v3.19.3
Commitments and Contingencies
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 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 September 30, 2019 (in thousands):
Years Ending December 31,
Amount
2019 (remaining three months)
$
12,430

2020
15,410

2021
3,566

2022
818

Total
$
32,224



Satellite Bandwidth Capacity
The Company maintains agreements with satellite service providers to provide for satellite capacity. Except when an arrangement is assessed to meet the definition of a finance lease in accordance with ASC 842, in which case the expensing pattern is front-loaded, 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 and including the satellite bandwidth arrangement assessed as a finance lease, as of September 30, 2019 (in thousands):
Years Ending December 31,
Amount
2019 (remaining three months)
$
25,527

2020
75,029

2021
46,816

2022
34,473

2023
33,013

Thereafter
91,343

Total Future Payments
$
306,201



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 September 30, 2019, we also had outstanding letters of credit in the amount of $5.6 million, of which $5.1 million was 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. On September 25, 2019, we agreed to settle the lawsuit with BMG for an aggregate payment of $5.5 million, to be paid over time, as follows: $500,000 within 14 days of the execution of the settlement agreement; $1.5 million on or before each of December 31, 2019, June 30, 2020, and June 30, 2021; and $500,000 on or before June 30, 2022. We have booked an accrual for this legal settlement in the amount of $5.5 million as of September 30, 2019.

SwiftAir Litigation. On August 14, 2014, SwiftAir, LLC filed suit against our wholly owned subsidiary Row 44 and Southwest Airlines for breach of contract, quantum meruit, unjust enrichment and several other contract- and tort/statutory-based claims 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 portal on Southwest Airlines so that SwiftAir could market a destination deal product to Southwest Airlines’ passengers. In 2013, after Southwest Airlines decided not to proceed further with the destination deal product, Row 44 terminated its contract with SwiftAir. In its lawsuit, SwiftAir seeks approximately $9 million in monetary damages (plus punitive and other extra-contractual damages) from Row 44 and Southwest Airlines. In 2017, the court granted Row 44’s motion for summary judgment as to SwiftAir’s tort/statutory-based claims. In January 2018, the court granted Row 44’s motions in limine that limited SwiftAir’s contract damages claims against Row 44 to nominal damages. Southwest Airlines however remained exposed to all of SwiftAir’s compensatory damages claims.  On September 9, 2019, following a three-week trial, the jury returned a full defense verdict in favor of Row 44 and Southwest Airlines. On October 1, 2019, the Court entered judgment against SwiftAir; notice of entry of judgment was given on October 10, 2019. On October 15, 2019, Row 44 filed its memorandum of costs and it intends to file a motion for attorneys’ fees and non-statutory costs and expenses. On October 25 and 28, 2019, SwiftAir filed motions for a new trial and judgment notwithstanding the verdict, respectively. If SwiftAir decides to appeal the judgment, its notice of appeal will be due between December 2019 and March 2020. Separately, Southwest Airlines has sought indemnification from Row 44 in connection with its defense of SwiftAir’s claim (and for any loss that it may face). We intend to vigorously defend against any claims in this matter. We do not believe that a material loss relating to this matter is probable, and due to the speculative nature of SwiftAir’s potential post-trial motions and appeal (and its damages claims), 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.