I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5140 

To amend title 17, United States Code, to narrow the category of households 

eligible to receive signals under a distant-signal satellite license, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 18, 2019 

Mr. NADLER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend title 17, United States Code, to narrow the category of households eligible to receive signals under a 

distant-signal satellite license, 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 ‘‘Satellite Television 

5 Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ELIGIBILITY TO RECEIVE SIGNALS UNDER A DIS7 TANT-SIGNAL SATELLITE LICENSE. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 119 of title 17, United 

9 States Code, is amended— 


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1 (1) in subsection (a)— 

2 (A) in paragraph (2)— 

3 (i) in subparagraph (A)— 

4 (I) by striking ‘‘signals, and’’ and 

5 inserting ‘‘signals,’’; and 

6 (II) by inserting ‘‘, and the car7 rier provides local-into-local service to 

8 all DMAs’’ after ‘‘receiving the sec9 ondary transmission’’; and 

10 (ii) in subparagraph (B)— 

11 (I) by striking clauses (ii) and 

12 (iii); and 

13 (II) by adding at the end the fol14 lowing: 

15 ‘‘(ii) SHORT MARKETS.—In the case 

16 of secondary transmissions to households 

17 located in short markets, subject to clause 

18 (i), the statutory license shall be further 

19 limited to secondary transmissions of only 

20 those primary transmissions of network 

21 stations that embody the programming of 

22 networks not offered on the primary 

23 stream or the multicast stream transmitted 

24 by any network station in that market.’’; 


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1 (B) by striking paragraphs (3), (6)(E), 

2 (9), (10), and (13); and 

3 (C) by redesignating paragraphs (4), (5), 

4 (6), (7), (8), (11), (12), and (14) as paragraphs 

5 (3) through (10), respectively; 

6 (2) in subsection (c)(1)(E)— 

7 (A) by striking the comma after ‘‘in the 

8 agreement’’; 

9 (B) by striking ‘‘until December 31, 2019, 

10 or’’; and 

11 (C) by striking ‘‘, whichever is later’’ and 

12 inserting ‘‘until the subscriber for which the 

13 royalty is payable is no longer eligible to receive 

14 a secondary transmission pursuant to the li15 cense under this section’’; 

16 (3) in subsection (d)— 

17 (A) in paragraph (10)— 

18 (i) in subparagraph (D), by striking 

19 ‘‘subsection (a)(11)’’ and inserting ‘‘sub20 section (a)(8)’’; 

21 (ii) by striking subparagraphs (A), 

22 (B), (C), and (E); 

23 (iii) by redesignating subparagraph 

24 (D) as subparagraph (A); and 


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1 (iv) by adding at the end the fol2 lowing: 

3 ‘‘(B) is a subscriber located in a short 

4 market.’’; 

5 (B) by striking paragraph (13); 

6 (C) by redesignating paragraphs (14) and 

7 (15) as paragraphs (13) and (14), respectively; 

8 and 

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

10 ‘‘(15) LOCAL-INTO-LOCAL SERVICE TO ALL

11 DMAS.—The term ‘local-into-local service to all 

12 DMAs’ has the meaning given such term in sub13 section (f)(7). 

14 ‘‘(16) SHORT MARKET.—The term ‘short mar15 ket’ means a local market in which programming of 

16 one or more of the four most widely viewed television 

17 networks nationwide is not offered on either the pri18 mary stream or multicast stream transmitted by any 

19 network station in that market.’’; 

20 (4) by striking subsections (e) and (h); and 

21 (5) by redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as 

22 subsections (e) and (f). 

23 (b) PREVIOUSLY COVERED SUBSCRIBERS UNDER

24 THE STELA REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2014.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—A subscriber of a satellite 

2 carrier who receives the secondary transmission of a 

3 network station under the statutory license in sec4 tion 119 of title 17, United States Code, as in effect 

5 on the day before the date of the enactment of this 

6 Act, and to whom subsection (a)(2)(B) of such sec7 tion, as amended by subsection (a), does not apply, 

8 shall continue to be eligible to receive that secondary 

9 transmission from such carrier under such license, 

10 and at the royalty rate established for such license 

11 by the Copyright Royalty Board or voluntary agree12 ment, as applicable, until the date that is the earlier 

13 of— 

14 (A) 120 days after the date of the enact15 ment of this Act; or 

16 (B) the date on which such carrier pro17 vides local-into-local service to all DMAs. 

18 (2) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection, the 

19 terms ‘‘satellite carrier’’, ‘‘subscriber’’, ‘‘secondary 

20 transmission’’, ‘‘network station’’, and ‘‘local-into21 local service to all DMAs’’ have the meaning given 

22 those terms in section 119 of title 17, United States 

23 Code. 

24 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Title 17, United 

25 States Code, is further amended— 


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1 (1) in section 119, as amended by subsection 

2 (a)— 

3 (A) in subsection (a)— 

4 (i) in paragraph (1), by striking 

5 ‘‘paragraphs (4), (5), and (7)’’ and insert6 ing ‘‘paragraphs (3), (4), and (6)’’; and 

7 (ii) in paragraph (2), by striking 

8 ‘‘paragraphs (4), (5), (6), and (7)’’ and in9 serting ‘‘paragraphs (3), (4), (5), and (6)’’; 

10 and 

11 (B) in subsection (g), by striking ‘‘sub12 section (a)(7)(B)’’ each place it appears and in13 serting ‘‘subsection (a)(5)(B)’’; and 

14 (2) in section 501(e), by striking ‘‘section 

15 119(a)(5)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 119(a)(3)’’. 

Æ 


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