I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 942

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to reduce restrictions on media

ownership, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 2, 1999

Mr. STEARNS (for himself, Mr. FROST, Mr. OXLEY, Mr. MCCOLLUM, Mr.

FOLEY, Mrs. MEEK of Florida, and Mr. SESSIONS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to reduce

restrictions on media ownership, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Broadcast Ownership

5 for the 21st Century Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. REVISION OF DUOPOLY RULES.

7 Part I of title III of the Communications Act of 1934

8 (47 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end

9 the following new section:
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1 ‘‘SEC. 338. REVISION OF DUOPOLY RULES.

2 ‘‘(a) LIMITATION ON DUOPOLY RULES.—The Com3 mission shall not prohibit a person or entity directly from

4 owning, operating, or controlling or having a cognizable

5 interest in—

6 ‘‘(1) two stations with overlapping coverage

7 contours if each station is located in a separate tele8 vision market, or

9 ‘‘(2) two television stations within the same tel10 evision market, if at least one of such stations is a

11 UHF television station.

12 ‘‘(b) PROTECTION OF EXISTING LOCAL MARKETING

13 AGREEMENTS.—All local marketing or time brokerage

14 agreements between two broadcast television stations, lo15 cated in the same television market, that were signed prior

16 to the date of enactment of the Broadcast Ownership for

17 the 21st Century Act, shall be exempt from the television

18 duopoly rule. The Commission shall take no action that

19 impairs the renewability or transferability (or both) of

20 these arrangements by either the parties or their succes21 sors or assigns.

22 ‘‘(c) VHF STATIONS.—The Commission, in unusual

23 and compelling circumstances, may permit a person or en24 tity to directly or indirectly own, operate, or control or

25 have a cognizable interest in, two VHF television stations

26 within the same television market, if the applicant dem-
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1 onstrates to the satisfaction of the Commission that per2 mitting such ownership, operation, or control will not sig3 nificantly harm competition and will not significantly

4 harm the preservation of a diversity of media voices in

5 the local television market.’’.

6 SEC. 3. CROSS-OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.

7 (a) RULE CHANGES REQUIRED.—The Federal Com8 munications Commission shall modify section 73.3555 of

9 its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555)—

10 (1) by eliminating any provisions limiting the

11 granting or renewal of an AM, FM, or TV broadcast

12 station license to any party (including parties under

13 common control) on the basis of the ownership, op14 eration, or control by such party of a daily news15 paper; and

16 (2) by eliminating the one-to-a-market rule in

17 section 73.3555(c) of such regulations.

18 (b) PRESERVATION OF COGNIZABLE INTEREST

19 RULE.—In modifying such section 73.3555 of its regula20 tions, the Commission shall not treat a minority voting

21 stock interest as a cognizable interest if there is a single

22 holder of more than 50 percent of the outstanding voting

23 stock of the corporate broadcast licensee, cable television

24 system, or daily newspaper in which the minority interest

25 is held.
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1 (c) CABLE CROSS-OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.—Sec2 tion 613(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

3 U.S.C. 533(c)) is amended—

4 (1) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(c)’’; and

5 (2) by adding at the end the following new

6 paragraph:

7 ‘‘(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the Commission

8 may not prohibit or limit a person or entity from holding

9 any form of ownership or other interest in a broadcasting

10 station and a cable system serving the same community.’’.

11 (d) DUAL-NETWORK RULES.—The Federal Commu12 nications Commission shall revise section 73.658(g) of its

13 regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.658(g)) to permit a television

14 broadcast station to affiliate with—

15 ‘‘(1) a person or entity that maintains two or

16 more networks of television broadcast stations unless

17 such dual or multiple networks are composed of two

18 or more persons or entities that, on February 8,

19 1996, offered an interconnected program service on

20 a regular basis for 15 hours or more per week to at

21 least 25 affiliated television licensees in 10 or more

22 States; or

23 ‘‘(2) any person or entity controlling, controlled

24 by, or under common control with such a person or

25 entity described in paragraph (1).
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1 (e) DEADLINE FOR ACTIONS.—The Federal Commu2 nications Commission shall complete all actions necessary

3 to complete the modifications required by this section

4 within 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act.

5 SEC. 4. LIMITATION ON FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COM6 MISSION AUTHORITY.

7 (a) AMENDMENT.—Section 202(c)(1)(B) of the Tele8 communications Act of 1996 is amended by striking ‘‘35

9 percent’’ and inserting ‘‘45 percent’’.

10 (b) DEADLINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION.—The Federal

11 Communications Commission shall amend its regulations

12 to implement the amendment made by subsection (a) with13 in 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act. In

14 amending such regulations, the Commission shall not re15 vise section 73.3555(e)(2)(i) of its regulations (47 C.F.R.

16 73.3555(e)(2)(i)).

17 SEC. 5. RECIPROCAL TREATMENT OF FOREIGN OWNERSHIP

18 RESTRICTIONS.

19 Subsection (b) of section 310 of the Communications

20 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 310(b)) is amended to read as

21 follows:

22 ‘‘(b) FOREIGN OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.—

23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—No broadcast or common

24 carrier or aeronautical en route or aeronautical fixed

25 radio station license shall be granted to or held by—
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1 ‘‘(A) any alien or the representative of any

2 alien;

3 ‘‘(B) any corporation organized under the

4 laws of any foreign country;

5 ‘‘(C) any corporation of which more than

6 one-fifth of any class of the capital stock is

7 owned of record or voted by aliens or their rep8 resentatives or by a foreign government or rep9 resentative thereof or by any corporation orga10 nized under the laws of a foreign country;

11 ‘‘(D) any corporation directly or indirectly

12 controlled by any other corporation of which

13 more than one-fourth of any class of the capital

14 stock is owned of record or voted by aliens,

15 their representatives, or by a foreign govern16 ment or representative thereof, or by any cor17 poration organized under the laws of a foreign

18 country, if the Commission finds that the public

19 interest will be served by the refusal or revoca20 tion of such license.

21 ‘‘(2) RECIPROCAL TREATMENT FOR BROADCAST

22 STATIONS.—In the case of a broadcast station li23 cense, if the foreign country or foreign government

24 referred to in subparagraph (C) or (D) of paragraph
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1 of (1) regularly permits broadcast station licenses to

2 be granted to or held by—

3 ‘‘(A) any corporation of which more than

4 one-fifth of the capital stock is owned of record

5 or voted by one or more United States persons;

6 ‘‘(B) any corporation directly or indirectly

7 controlled by any other corporation of which

8 more than one-fourth of the capital stock is

9 owned of record or voted by one or more United

10 States persons;

11 then the Commission shall apply such subparagraphs

12 (C) and (D) by permitting an alien, corporation,

13 government, or representative from such foreign

14 country to own a portion of the class of the capital

15 stock of the corporation seeking or holding the

16 broadcast station license equal to the portion of the

17 corresponding class of the capital stock of a corpora18 tion holding a broadcast station license in such for19 eign country that are permitted by such foreign

20 country or foreign government to be held by an indi21 vidual citizen, corporation, government, or represent22 ative from the United States, except that the Com23 mission shall not be required by this paragraph to

24 permit a portion of such capital stock ownership rep25 resenting voting stock higher than 40 percent.
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1 ‘‘(3) DEFINITION OF UNITED STATES PER2 SONS.—For purposes of paragraph (2), the term

3 ‘United States person’ means—

4 ‘‘(A) any corporation organized under the

5 laws of a State;

6 ‘‘(B) an individual who is a citizen of the

7 United States;

8 ‘‘(C) a government of the United States or

9 any State; or

10 ‘‘(D) a representative of any of the individ11 uals or entities described in subparagraphs (A)

12 through (C) of this paragraph.’’.

Æ