II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5058 

To repeal the limitations on multiple ownership of radio and television stations 

imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, to prohibit the 

Federal Communications Commission from limiting common ownership 

of daily newspapers and full-power broadcast stations, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 17, 2020 

Mr. PAUL introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to 

the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To repeal the limitations on multiple ownership of radio 

and television stations imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from limiting common ownership 

of daily newspapers and full-power broadcast stations, 

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 ‘‘Local News and 

5 Broadcast Media Preservation Act of 2020’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. REGULATION OF BROADCAST OWNERSHIP BY THE 

2 FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION. 

3 (a) REPEAL OF MULTIPLE BROADCAST STATION

4 OWNERSHIP RULES.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Communica6 tions Commission may not impose any limitation on 

7 the number of radio or television stations— 

8 (A) that a person or entity may directly or 

9 indirectly own, operate, or control; or 

10 (B) in which a person or entity may have 

11 a cognizable interest. 

12 (2) REGULATIONS.—In accordance with para13 graph (1), the Federal Communications Commission 

14 shall repeal section 73.3555 of title 47, Code of Fed15 eral Regulations. 

16 (3) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND17 MENT.—Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act 

18 of 1996 (Public Law 104–104; 110 Stat. 108) is 

19 amended by striking subsections (a) through (d) and 

20 (h). 

21 (b) PROHIBITION ON LIMITATION OF NEWSPAPER

22 AND BROADCAST STATION CROSS-OWNERSHIP.—The 

23 Federal Communications Commission may not impose any 

24 limitation on the ability of a person or entity to own one 

25 or more daily newspapers and one or more full-power 

26 broadcast stations. 


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1 SEC. 3. CLAYTON ACT. 

2 Section 7 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 18) is 

3 amended by adding at the end the following: 

4 ‘‘For purposes of an acquisition described in this sec5 tion, the market share in any geographic market of the 

6 television broadcasting market, the radio broadcasting 

7 market, or the daily newspaper publication market (or any 

8 relevant product market within such markets) of the ac9 quiring person as a result of the acquisition shall not be 

10 considered to substantially lessen competition or to tend 

11 to create a monopoly.’’. 

12 SEC. 4. SAFE HARBOR FOR CERTAIN COLLECTIVE NEGO13 TIATIONS. 

14 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

15 (1) ANTITRUST LAWS.—The term ‘‘antitrust 

16 laws’’— 

17 (A) has the meaning given the term in 

18 subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton 

19 Act (15 U.S.C. 12); and 

20 (B) includes— 

21 (i) section 5 of the Federal Trade 

22 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the ex23 tent that section applies to unfair methods 

24 of competition; and 

25 (ii) any State law (including regula26 tions) that prohibits or penalizes the conVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Jan 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5058.IS S5058

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1 duct described in, or is otherwise incon2 sistent with, subsection (b). 

3 (2) NEWS CONTENT CREATOR.—The term 

4 ‘‘news content creator’’ means— 

5 (A) any print or digital news organization 

6 that— 

7 (i) has a dedicated professional edi8 torial staff that creates and distributes 

9 original news and related content con10 cerning local, national, or international 

11 matters of public interest on at least a 

12 weekly basis; and 

13 (ii) is commercially marketed through 

14 subscriptions, advertising, or sponsorship; 

15 and 

16 (B) provides original news and related con17 tent, with the editorial content consisting of not 

18 less than 25 percent current news and related 

19 content. 

20 (3) ONLINE CONTENT DISTRIBUTOR.—The 

21 term ‘‘online content distributor’’ means any entity 

22 that— 

23 (A) operates a website or other online serv24 ice that displays, distributes, or directs users to 

25 news articles, works of journalism, or other conVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Jan 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5058.IS S5058

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1 tent on the internet that is generated by third2 party news content creators; and 

3 (B) has not fewer than 1,000,000,000 

4 monthly active users, in the aggregate, of all of 

5 its websites or online services worldwide. 

6 (b) LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.—A news content cre7 ator may not be held liable under the antitrust laws for 

8 engaging in negotiations with any other news content cre9 ator during the 4-year period beginning on the date of en10 actment of this Act to collectively withhold content from, 

11 or negotiate with, an online content distributor regarding 

12 the terms on which the news content of the news content 

13 creator may be distributed by the online content dis14 tributor, if— 

15 (1) the negotiations with the online content dis16 tributor— 

17 (A) are not limited to price; 

18 (B) are nondiscriminatory as to similarly 

19 situated news content creators; 

20 (C) directly relate to the quality, accuracy, 

21 attribution or branding, and interoperability of 

22 news; and 

23 (D) pertain to terms that would be avail24 able to all news content creators; 


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1 (2) the coordination between the news content 

2 creators is directly related to and reasonably nec3 essary for negotiations with an online content dis4 tributor that are otherwise consistent with this Act; 

5 and 

6 (3) the negotiations do not involve any person 

7 that is not a news content creator or an online con8 tent distributor. 

9 (c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Except as provided in 

10 this Act, this Act shall not be construed to modify, impair, 

11 or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws. 

Æ 


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