nine ninety four the satellite home viewer reauthorization act which i'm pleased to have introduced along with the ranking republican member of our subcommittee the gentleman from florida mr stearns it is truly a bipartisan measure and we have worked together as the provisions of our legislation were drafted certain provisions the communications and copyright acts expire at the end of this year making reauthorization of the ability of satellite carriers to retransmit distant work signals must pass legislation and that largely accounts for the reason that it is the first legislative item to come to market than our subcommittee at the on this matter i suggested that we proceed with this reauthorization in the most straightforward manner possible and i'm pleased that we're following that course today and are avoiding in the bill collateral matters such a retransmission consent reform that are relevant not just to the satellite platform but to wald multichannel video providers the satellite home of your act reauthorization or chevron has these key provisions it renews for five years the provision allowing carriers to deliver a distant network station to homes under specified circumstances and that provision otherwise would expire at the end of this year the good faith negotiation requirements in the communications act which also but expire at the end of this year it provides needed clarification regarding the provision by satellite carriers of significantly viewed signals by stating that a significantly viewed signalled may only be provided in high definition format if the satellite carrier is passing through all of the high definition programming of the corresponding local station in high definition format as well it directs the federal communications commission to adopt a predictive methodology for the reception of digital signals within six months in order to determine which households are eligible to receive distant network signals and it makes a series of technical changes to the law to reflect the fact that after june the twelfth full power television stations are no longer broadcasting analog signals there are other matters that are not addressed in h r twenty nine ninety four that are the subjects of ongoing discussions and that will continue between now and the time of our full committee markup it's my hope that we will be able to resolve these matters over the coming weeks and include these resolutions in the full committee markup the ickle when that full committee markup occurs later this summer the first of these matters was brought to us by the gentleman from michigan mr stupak is an effort is to bring the local satellite services to all two hundred ten designated market areas nationwide today direct t v offers local service and about one hundred fifty of those two hundred ten markets and very soon dish networks will be offering local service and one hundred eighty two of the two hundred ten markets but even with that full complement of one hundred eighty two markets being carried that still leaves about twenty eight local markets without local into local service i want to commend all of the stakeholders who have been participating in the discussions that are designed to achieve a way through a set of incentives in courage one or both carriers to carry all two hundred ten local markets and i'm pleased to report this morning that we are very close to achieving agreement among broadcasters satellite carriers and other interested parties on the subject i fully anticipate that an agreement will be reached on this matter prior to the time of our full committee markup that would be a victory not only for broadcasters  satellite carriers but also and most importantly for television consumers nationwide another man or that i look forward to resolving both here and in the house judiciary committee is ensuring that residents in short markets these are markets that do not have a full complement of local affiliates carrying all of the major networks can receive the programs of networks missing in their market from an adjacent designated market area if the signals of those missing that works are not already being offered locally by full power broadcaster on one of its multicast streams while satellite carriers can today import distant signals from any market and they are hindered in their desire to bring in adjacent market signals by the so called grade be bullied problem that prevents them from offering distant signals to those households that can receive the signal of an out of market network affiliate over the air and this grade b bleed problem persists and numerous markets across the nation that problem can and should be resolved and usefully addressed and i think we'll be in a position to do that as well by the time of the full committee markup i want to express my appreciation to mr stearns and to members on the republican side of the aisle for their excellent coordination and cooperation with us as over the last several months we have discussed the provisions of the reauthorization of the satellite home viewer act as we undertook an oversight hearing and then a legislative hearing and as we made preparations for the markup today this has been a truly excellent bipartisan process and i want to thank mr stearns and all the members for their outstanding cooperation at this time i'm pleased to recognize the gentleman from florida mr stearns for his opening s good morning and thank you mr chairman you are correct this is a bipartisan bill and we appreciate the opportunity to cooperate and i think i urge all my colleagues support our bill the original satellite legislation in  eighty eight is credited with helping foster the incredibly competitive video marketplace that we have today to the benefit of all consumers constituents and friends often tell me how much they love their satellite service my my sense is that that is the sentiment of most satellite subscribers and that is why we have reauthorized the legislation each time has come up for renewal and why this reauthorize authorization is just so important the bill before six stands for another five years the authority of satellite operators to provide the signals of out of market stations to subscribers who cannot receive their local stations over the air in addition the bill makes a clerical and substantive changes to the statute to reflect the end of analog broadcasting in particular it directs the f c c to update for digital broadcasting both the predictive model and the on location testing rules for determining whether subscriber is eligible for a distance single the bill also rectifies the f c c the implementation of the significantly provisions these provisions added to the statues five years ago allow a satellite operator to provide a subscriber in a local market with signals from a network affiliate in a nearby market if that nearby affiliate is watched over the air by a significant number of consumers in that local market the statue prohibited a satellite operator however from carrying the significantly viewed affiliate in high definition format if it didn't also carry the local affiliate of the same network in high definition format the c construed that provision to prohibit carriage of the significantly viewed affiliate in high definition at any moment of the day that the local station was not broadcasting in high definition because satellite operators find  in feasible to watch to match the transmission formats of the two stations moment by moment they usually choose not to carry the significantly viewed stations at all to address that the bill makes clear that a satellite operator may carry significantly viewed affiliate in high definition when the local affiliate is not broadcasting in high definition so long as a satellite operator does carry the local affiliate in high definition when it is available in that particular format an issue that the bill does not address my colleagues but that may come up today is what to do about consumers who cannot receive programming they truly consider local either because they are missing local affiliates from one or more networks in that market or because they have been assigned to a designated market area outside that state this issue is only worth considering if it is done in a way that truly respects the rights of the broadcasters that would be imported the owners of the broad programming and the satellite operate to negotiate the terms of such carriage we must clear existing regulatory obstacles rather than create a whole new set of rules as i've already mentioned the video market is robustly competitive in that environment there should be less interference in the market not more at the last hearing on satellite legislation some raised an interest in letting satellite providers carry broadcast stations to viewers in adjacent markets that is outside of the d m a even when there are local affiliate in the d m a i agree with leaving it out of the bill at this time while i can understand the goal of delivering more in state news throughout a state of still not convinced we have to legislate in this area to reach that goal going down the road poses significant harm to consumers broadcasters and content creators whatever we do my colleagues we should ensure that the satellite operator out of market station and the owners of the content are allowed to freely negotiate that is the best way to ensure consumers get as much desirable content as possible at the lowest rates anything else simply protects one company at the expense of another without really helping consumers and at its core this legislation should be about to consumers i would conclude m making a little personal announcement many of you saw amy bender who is our counsel on the republican side she had the birth of her daughter recently meghan claire bender perkins she was born this past tuesday mother and baby are doing very well and also i'd like to congratulate our other republican council neil freed on his engagement impending wedding this fall so congratulations to both amy  would like to recognize the ranking republican member of our full committee the gentleman from texas mr barton for five minutes thank you mr chairman smith my formal statement for the record i'm just glad to say we're having a boring transition i think we all know that happened several weeks ago and nothing happened it just it just went seamless i still have yet to buy my coupons so i have some tv's it don't work but i'm going to talk to my congressm about that and tell him to get off the dime on this act mr chairman we've worked in a bipartisan fashion as we get ready to reauthorize i know there are a few issues of local interest to several members but we think that this is going to be a pretty straightforward reauthorization and we look forward to working with the majority to make that happen with that i yield back thank you very much only because michael doyle did not say anything on telecommunications i will also differ thank you thank you mr sampson i'm shocked this is just excellent cooperation the gentleman from nebraska mr terry is recognized for a very minutes thank you m terry the gentleman from missouri mr blunt is recognized for three minutes mr chairman chairman i have a statement for the record only and i'm just glad you have this hearing and and hope that we are able to move forward with the markup as it's intended thank you very much mr blunt the gentleman from oregon mr walden is recognized for three minutes and he waves and the gentleman from california mr dunne of it for three minutes thank you very much mr dunne of edge do we have anyone else  enough that concludes opening statements from committee members and at this time we will declare the bill open for amendment at any point and i'm pleased to call up h r twenty nine ninety four the satellite home of your reauthorization act it is without objection open for amendment at any point and i have a manager's amendment at the desk the clerk will report the manager's amendment is very straightforward it makes one technical change and has two provisions further defining the digital over the air reception predictive model that we are directing the federal communications commission to develop the first provision requires that the commission rely on the current longleat rice model which has worked very well for predicting the reception of analog signals and this direction would require the commission to continue utilizing that long really rice predictive model and simply updated to predict the reception of digital signals the second provision clarifies that the model should predict the ability of homes to receive the local over the air signal through the use of a conventional stationary rooftop antenna that has been that we have had in the last since the first satellite home of your act was passed in one thousand nine hundred eighty and we continue that standard with the manager's amendment that is all that the amendment does i hope it will be the privilege of the committee to accept it and i would ask at this time if there are any other members who have comments or seek recognition on the amendment status quo which frankly i have no problem with at this time i think we should go along and accept this in the subcommittee i think when it gets to full committee with mr barton and his counsel they should have an opportunity to look at this manager's amendment basically it would really insert a statutory provision forcing the f c c to assume all consumers have a large outdoor antenna on their roof not specified whether it's twenty or thirty feet we know that many consumers if not most do not have such a rooftop antenna certainly been highlighted in the recent digital transition and to me they don't have intended that makes it a appear that they don't get the adequate segm over the air when both we and they know that many of them don't this disqualifies them from receiving a distant network signal over the satellite as a result many of them do not get network programming at all because without the rooftop antenna  they can't get a signal over the air so the implications of this is still i don't think a major concern but i want to leave that option open in case members either or both sides when i look at this name i hear from constituent about you know what just means in terms of their satellite reception we can look at more care for the full committee but mr chairman i certainly will support the manager's amendment as you've offered it thank you mr stearns would you yield to me for just a moment i appreciate the gentleman's comments and i'll have to say that from time to time over the last two decades i have had many of the same concerns that the gentleman has expressed this is the model that we've used  for purposes of today's markup i think it's appropriate that we announce our intention to continue it but in my view just as in mr stern's view that is a decision subject to further conversation and we would welcome the views of others who might have an interest in the subject between now and the full committee markup and i think the gentleman for for raising that point and for yielding to me or is there further comment on the manager's amendment does any other member seek recognition if not the question occurs on the amendment those in favorable say those opposed the ayes have it and the amendment is agreed to do other members seek recognition for purposes of offering amendments general lady from tennessee ms black i do have an amendment at the desk clerk will report the amendment amendments h r two ninety nine four offered by minute blackburn of tennessee at the end of the bill add the following new sec without objection further reading of the amendment is considered as read and the gentle lady is recognized for five minutes in support of her amendment thank you mr chairman i do appreciate that i am wanting to bring to everyone's attention a tragic yet critically important advance and informs my deliberation on a great many policy issues that come before this committee on february fifth super tuesday last year we had the super tuesday tornadoes in west tennessee it was stating it left thirty three people dead and over a hundred and fifty were seriously injured we had entire communities that were in tatters and some of those communities still are through the dedicated work of state and federal disaster response coordination many lives were spared we had property that was protected and yet government agencies were not alone in preparing west tennessee local broadcasters played a critical role by providing communities up to the minute information so that families could take the proper precautions in advance of the gathering storm without the service local broadcasters provided i have no doubt the storm's impact would have been much more devastating this was not the first and it will not be the last tornado that threatens west tennessee yet in the wake of the successful transition to an all digital broadcast signal many of my constituents find themselves out of range out of luck and able to receive an over the air signal of any kind in most urban and suburban communities this is not a problem cable and satellite providers can supplement a weak or nonexistent over the air signal and provide communities the local programming they need but in the rural areas like arden hardiman and chester county in the seventh district of tennessee these options are not always available cable service is often unavailable outside the county seat and in the jackson d m a satellite providers a do not carry local into local programming quine the jackson d m a which includes just over ninety eight thousand television households is a short market served by only two of four major broadcast network affiliates since the jackson d m a lacks a full complement a major broadcast network affiliates to serve the community both major satellite providers alike not to deliver not to deliver local and to local programming daming the service either too expensive or undesirable for consumers to me cost of delivery farther and so the current law allows for distant signal retransmission when a subscriber is deemed an serve some subscribers in short markets are deemed starved as a result they are ineligible to receive out of market signal from the satellite provider this is known as signal bleed constituents in these rural areas are therefore left with no option to receive broadcast programming this is not a simply inconvenient problem in areas throughout the nation and like in west tennessee this is a public safety issue the amendment before you reflects a common sense solution to solve the so signal bleed in the short market problem it provides a free market mandate free incentive for satellite providers to carry those affiliates that are in the local market the amendment accomplishes this goal by allowing satellite providers to retransmit missing network signals from an adjacent market to subscribers who reside in the short market and are with end within the over the air signal bleep what it does not do is this the amendment does not require satellite providers to provide the service does not impact the retransmission consent rights and does not affect the local broadcasters network non duplications syndicated exclusivity or sports blackout rights and just as important the amendment is one hundred percent silent to whether a compulsory license applies or whether the license shall be freely negotiated this is a decision that will be dealt with before the judiciary committee and not in energy and commerce and i understand that if adopted the amendment would provide a free market incentive for satellite providers to solve the shark short market problem while protecting contractual rights and intellectual property value for our local broadcast affiliates recognizing all of that i'm going to withdraw this amendment this morning as a said earlier mr chairman in the spirit of full cooperation i recognize that stakeholders including broadcasters and members of the creative community have raised concerns and we need to work through all of this has pledged to work with me the chairman and all of our impacted committee members to make appropriate changes and ultimately solve the short market problem and mr chairman if you'd indulge me in a brief colloquy i'd like to take this you for bringing this matter before the committee i also made reference to this need in my opening statement and i think we absolutely must fix this short market gap the great be believed as you have so well described in your statement is the principal impediment to doing that and the correction of the grade b bleed barrier actually is not within our jurisdiction it's within the jurisdiction of the house judiciary committee as you've also noted in your statement  nevertheless i think this is the committee where we can assemble all of the interested parties we can conduct useful negotiations and discussions with the relevant stakeholders and your urging that that take place i urging that august second and i look forward to working with you and interested parties and all members who have a concern about this issue as we continue to address it also appreciate your willingness to withdraw the amendment for today's purposes and we in fact w continue these conversations and i thank you fielding thank you mr chairman i appreciate your work on this it is a public safety issue for some of my counties and i thank you for your consideration and you'll back my time thank you very much without objection the general lad amendment is withdrawn do other members seek recognition for purposes of offering amendments and the members on the democratic side other members on the republican side the gentleman from georgia mr deal thank you mr chairman i have an amendment at the desk but i'm not going to offer it i would ask the chairman if he would engage in a colloquy with me be happy to respond to the gentleman that the gentleman will yield to me if i found my proceed that i would like to lay out the issue that  recognize the gentleman for purposes of striking the last word and the gentleman has asked for a colloquy and let me ask the gentleman will yield to me for the purpose i certainly will be happy to engage the gentleman thank you very much chairman as you know under the current designated market area system in ninety eight d m a is across the country satellite and cable subscribers cannot get there in state programming these are the so called often areas that can't get in state broadcast  ations for news sports public affairs programming simply because they are assigned to a d m a whose broadcast signals originate from a city in another state many of the viewers in this county some of whom are my constituents would like to view their in state television and are willing to pay to do so but cannot under the current d m a system be a member that i have at the desk is a little different approach than what has been discussed on this issue in the past it is designed to allow all the stakeholders to continue the discussion of how to provide in state programming to consumers who are signed to these out of state markets it applies only to satellite although personally i would like to still plot all the p d s for purposes of parity the amendment does not make carriage of the adjacent market signal mandatory for either the satellite operator all the broadcast or it would allow broadcasters to negotiate retransmission consent agreements and while the network non duplications rules do not currently apply to most satellite programming the amendment does not prohibit the f c c from applying network non duplication rules in these circumstances the memmott also does not force carriage of the content with a compulsory license this is a copyright issue within the jurisdiction of the judiciary committee of course of which you serve as well it is my hope that we can before we go to full committee sit down together along with other members on both sides of the aisle who have expressed concern about this issue and see if there is any resolution that we can come to before we get to the markup in the full committee and i would just simply ask the chairman if he would be willing to engage in that discussion well i thank the gentleman very much for those comments and for bringing the issue before us this is a matter that was raised in both of our previous hearings on the satellite home of your act there is interest in accomplishing the same goal the gentleman has identified by members on the democratic side also and and it's my hope that through a process of consultation we can at the proper time arrive at a consensus based solution to this problem there are areas around the country where fairly small populations in one state are receiving their television programming from the balance of the d m a in which they're situated which is the majority part of the d m a and that's located in another state and so the local television programming that these individuals receive actually originates in the neighboring state and many people in that situation think that that news and local programming is less relevant to them than would be the news and local programming that originates in the adjacent market in the state in which they live and that situation pertains in a variety of markets across the united states it is my hope that we can reach a solution and some of the issues that have been raised in connection with reaching that solution would be the need to respect the retransmission consent rights of broadcasters and not in some way diminish their market opportunities to obtain rico retransmission consent agreements because of adjacent market imports having perhaps some kind of percentage cap on what the size of this or for the market that would be subject to whatever repair is made standard and the important signal was high def that would create something of a competitive disadvantage and then there is the much more thorny issue of whether or not to respect the syndicated exclusivity a non duplication network non duplication rights  so as that list suggests resolving this is perhaps not an easy matter now all of that said i would very much like to see it resolved just as i know the gentleman from georgia would and i will be happy to continue discussions with them and other interested members of the subcommittee and interested external parties as we seek to get to that goal i thank the chairman very much he certainly has an understanding of the complexity of the issue but he also i'm sure has an understanding of the importance of this to those constituents and there are many of them all across this country who fit into that category i thank you for that and with that mr chairman how would you go back my time thank you very much mr deal and without objection while the gentleman didn't offer the amendment so it is it is not pending our other members seeking recognition for the purpose of offering amendments let received a note saying that mr stupak who very much wanted to be here this morning had to depart to attend a funeral  in his state and he's apparently at the airport and seeking to get back to this markup and due to the extraordinary cooperation of members we are nearing the end point of this markup so let me take the opportunity and i'll recognize myself to strike the last word for this purpose of saying that mr stupak brought before us the challenge of finding a way to make sure that all two hundred ten designated market areas across the united states are receiving what we call local and a local television service where the local television stations are uplink to the satellite and then retransmitted back into the market of their origination and there will be about twenty eight markets after dish networks completes its intended range of local market kerridge there will still be about twenty eight markets across the country not served and we are conducting administers to pax urging and with his encouragement negotiations among the interested parties primarily broadcasters and satellite carriers to find a way that through a set of appropriate incentives we can achieve the carriage of all two hundred ten markets as i said earlier these negotiations are going very well and we were within perhaps a day or two days of i think reaching agreement on the appropriate set of incentives that would assure the carriage of all two hundred ten markets but because of the impending upcoming recess and the need to move this bill forward we held a subcommittee markup as originally scheduled but given the pace of these negotiations i think we're going to be in a position prior to the full committee  markup to have this agreement in place so mr stupak asked that i make some comments about the two to an issue i think the news on this is pretty good and i want to simply encourage the parties that have been involved in these conversations to perhaps redouble their efforts and maybe the good news awaiting us when we return from the upcoming recess will be that this challenge is resolved and we will be ready to assure that all two hundred ten markets are covered when the full committee markup occurs let me ask again if there are other members seeking recognition for purposes of offering amendments i do not see any hands raised and so at this point i will subcommittee on communications technology on the internet forward h r twenty nine ninety four as amended to the full committee with the recommendation that the bill pass those in favor will say i those opposed no the ayes have and the bill is favorably reported by the subcommittee to the full committee i ask unanimous consent that staff be authorized to make technical and conforming corrections without objection so watered and with thanks to all of the members