IIB 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5035 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 11, 2019 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation 

AN ACT 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to extend expiring provisions relating to the retransmission of signals 

of television 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Television Viewer Pro3 tection Act of 2019’’. 

4 SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF AUTHORITY. 

5 Section 325(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 

6 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)) is amended— 

7 (1) in paragraph (2)(C), by striking ‘‘December 

8 31, 2019’’ and inserting ‘‘the expiration date, if any, 

9 described in section 119(h) of title 17, United States 

10 Code’’; and 

11 (2) in paragraph (3)(C), by striking ‘‘until Jan12 uary 1, 2020,’’ each place it appears. 

13 SEC. 3. SATISFACTION OF GOOD FAITH NEGOTIATION RE14 QUIREMENT BY MULTICHANNEL VIDEO PRO15 GRAMMING DISTRIBUTORS. 

16 (a) SATISFACTION OF GOOD FAITH NEGOTIATION

17 REQUIREMENT.—Section 325(b)(3)(C) of the Commu18 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)(3)(C)) is amend19 ed— 

20 (1) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and in21 serting a semicolon; 

22 (2) in clause (v), by striking the period at the 

23 end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

24 (3) by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘(vi) not later than 90 days after the date of 

2 the enactment of the Television Viewer Protection 

3 Act of 2019, specify that— 

4 ‘‘(I) a multichannel video programming 

5 distributor may satisfy its obligation to nego6 tiate in good faith under clause (iii) with re7 spect to a negotiation for retransmission con8 sent under this section with a large station 

9 group by designating a qualified MVPD buying 

10 group to negotiate on its behalf, so long as the 

11 qualified MVPD buying group itself negotiates 

12 in good faith in accordance with such clause; 

13 ‘‘(II) it is a violation of the obligation to 

14 negotiate in good faith under clause (iii) for the 

15 qualified MVPD buying group to disclose the 

16 prices, terms, or conditions of an ongoing nego17 tiation or the final terms of a negotiation to a 

18 member of the qualified MVPD buying group 

19 that is not intending, or is unlikely, to enter 

20 into the final terms negotiated by the qualified 

21 MVPD buying group; and 

22 ‘‘(III) a large station group has an obliga23 tion to negotiate in good faith under clause (ii) 

24 with respect to a negotiation for retransmission 


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1 consent under this section with a qualified 

2 MVPD buying group.’’. 

3 (b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 325(b)(7) of the Commu4 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)(7)) is amended— 

5 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 

6 and inserting a semicolon; 

7 (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period 

8 at the end and inserting a semicolon; and 

9 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

10 ‘‘(C) ‘qualified MVPD buying group’ means an 

11 entity that, with respect to a negotiation with a 

12 large station group for retransmission consent under 

13 this section— 

14 ‘‘(i) negotiates on behalf of two or more 

15 multichannel video programming distributors— 

16 ‘‘(I) none of which is a multichannel 

17 video programming distributor that serves 

18 more than 500,000 subscribers nationally; 

19 and 

20 ‘‘(II) that do not collectively serve 

21 more than 25 percent of all households 

22 served by a multichannel video program23 ming distributor in any single local market 

24 in which the applicable large station group 

25 operates; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) negotiates agreements for such re2 transmission consent— 

3 ‘‘(I) that contain standardized con4 tract provisions, including billing struc5 tures and technical quality standards, for 

6 each multichannel video programming dis7 tributor on behalf of which the entity nego8 tiates; and 

9 ‘‘(II) under which the entity assumes 

10 liability to remit to the applicable large 

11 station group all fees received from the 

12 multichannel video programming distribu13 tors on behalf of which the entity nego14 tiates; 

15 ‘‘(D) ‘large station group’ means a group of tel16 evision broadcast stations that— 

17 ‘‘(i) are directly or indirectly under com18 mon de jure control permitted by the regula19 tions of the Commission; 

20 ‘‘(ii) generally negotiate agreements for re21 transmission consent under this section as a 

22 single entity; and 

23 ‘‘(iii) include only television broadcast sta24 tions that have a national audience reach of 

25 more than 20 percent; 


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1 ‘‘(E) ‘local market’ has the meaning given such 

2 term in section 122(j) of title 17, United States 

3 Code; and 

4 ‘‘(F) ‘multichannel video programming dis5 tributor’ has the meaning given such term in section 

6 602.’’. 

7 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 325(b) of 

8 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)) is 

9 amended— 

10 (1) in paragraph (2)— 

11 (A) by inserting ‘‘and’’ after ‘‘1992,’’; and 

12 (B) by striking ‘‘, and the term ‘local mar13 ket’ has the meaning given that term in section 

14 122(j) of such title’’; and 

15 (2) in paragraph (3)(C), by striking ‘‘(as de16 fined in section 122(j) of title 17, United States 

17 Code)’’ each place it appears. 

18 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

19 this section, and the regulations promulgated by the Fed20 eral Communications Commission under such amend21 ments, shall not take effect before January 1 of the cal22 endar year after the calendar year in which this Act is 

23 enacted. 


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1 SEC. 4. REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO CHARGES FOR COV2 ERED SERVICES. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part IV of title VI of the Commu4 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 551 et seq.) is amended 

5 by adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 642. REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO CHARGES FOR 

7 COVERED SERVICES. 

8 ‘‘(a) CONSUMER RIGHTS IN SALES.— 

9 ‘‘(1) RIGHT TO TRANSPARENCY.—Before enter10 ing into a contract with a consumer for the provision 

11 of a covered service, a provider of a covered service 

12 shall provide the consumer, by phone, in person, on13 line, or by other reasonable means, the total monthly 

14 charge for the covered service, whether offered indi15 vidually or as part of a bundled service, selected by 

16 the consumer (explicitly noting the amount of any 

17 applicable promotional discount reflected in such 

18 charge and when such discount will expire), includ19 ing any related administrative fees, equipment fees, 

20 or other charges, a good faith estimate of any tax, 

21 fee, or charge imposed by the Federal Government 

22 or a State or local government (whether imposed on 

23 the provider or imposed on the consumer but col24 lected by the provider), and a good faith estimate of 

25 any fee or charge that is used to recover any other 


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1 assessment imposed on the provider by the Federal 

2 Government or a State or local government. 

3 ‘‘(2) RIGHT TO FORMAL NOTICE.—A provider 

4 of a covered service that enters into a contract de5 scribed in paragraph (1) shall, not later than 24 

6 hours after entering into the contract, send the con7 sumer, by email, online link, or other reasonably 

8 comparable means, a copy of the information de9 scribed in such paragraph. 

10 ‘‘(3) RIGHT TO CANCEL.—A provider of a cov11 ered service that enters into a contract described in 

12 paragraph (1) shall permit the consumer to cancel 

13 the contract, without paying early cancellation fees 

14 or other disconnection fees or penalties, during the 

15 24-hour period beginning when the provider of the 

16 covered service sends the copy required by para17 graph (2). 

18 ‘‘(b) CONSUMER RIGHTS IN E-BILLING.—If a pro19 vider of a covered service provides a bill to a consumer 

20 in an electronic format, the provider shall include in the 

21 bill— 

22 ‘‘(1) an itemized statement that breaks down 

23 the total amount charged for or relating to the pro24 vision of the covered service by the amount charged 

25 for the provision of the service itself and the amount 


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1 of all related taxes, administrative fees, equipment 

2 fees, or other charges; 

3 ‘‘(2) the termination date of the contract for 

4 the provision of the covered service entered into be5 tween the consumer and the provider; and 

6 ‘‘(3) the termination date of any applicable pro7 motional discount. 

8 ‘‘(c) CONSUMER RIGHTS TO ACCURATE EQUIPMENT

9 CHARGES.—A provider of a covered service or fixed 

10 broadband internet access service may not charge a con11 sumer for— 

12 ‘‘(1) using covered equipment provided by the 

13 consumer; or 

14 ‘‘(2) renting, leasing, or otherwise providing to 

15 the consumer covered equipment if— 

16 ‘‘(A) the provider has not provided the 

17 equipment to the consumer; or 

18 ‘‘(B) the consumer has returned the equip19 ment to the provider, except to the extent that 

20 the charge relates to the period beginning on 

21 the date when the provider provided the equip22 ment to the consumer and ending on the date 

23 when the consumer returned the equipment to 

24 the provider. 

25 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 


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1 ‘‘(1) BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERV2 ICE.—The term ‘broadband internet access service’ 

3 has the meaning given such term in section 8.1(b) 

4 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any suc5 cessor regulation. 

6 ‘‘(2) COVERED EQUIPMENT.—The term ‘cov7 ered equipment’ means equipment (such as a router) 

8 employed on the premises of a person (other than a 

9 provider of a covered service or fixed broadband 

10 internet access service) to provide a covered service 

11 or to provide fixed broadband internet access service. 

12 ‘‘(3) COVERED SERVICE.—The term ‘covered 

13 service’ means service provided by a multichannel 

14 video programming distributer, to the extent such 

15 distributor is acting as a multichannel video pro16 gramming distributor.’’. 

17 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Section 642 of the Commu18 nications Act of 1934, as added by subsection (a) of this 

19 section, shall apply beginning on the date that is 6 months 

20 after the date of the enactment of this Act. The Federal 

21 Communications Commission may grant an additional 6- 


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1 month extension if the Commission finds that good cause 

2 exists for such an additional extension. 

Passed the House of Representatives December 10, 

2019. 

Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 

Clerk. 


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