IB 

Union Calendar No. 282 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5140 

[Report No. 116–354] 

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 

DECEMBER 17, 2019 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on November 18, 2019] 


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•HR 5140 RH

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. 


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•HR 5140 RH

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 Com5 munity 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— 

10 (1) in subsection (a)— 

11 (A) in paragraph (2)— 

12 (i) in subparagraph (A)— 

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

14 inserting ‘‘signals,’’; 

15 (II) by inserting ‘‘, and the car16 rier provides local-into-local service to 

17 all DMAs’’ after ‘‘receiving the sec18 ondary transmission’’; and 

19 (III) by adding at the end the fol20 lowing new sentence: ‘‘Failure to reach 

21 an agreement with network stations to 

22 retransmit their signals shall not be 

23 construed to affect compliance with 

24 providing local-into-local service to all 

25 DMAs if the satellite carrier has the 


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1 capability to retransmit such signals 

2 when an agreement is reached.’’; and 

3 (ii) in subparagraph (B)— 

4 (I) by striking clauses (ii) and 

5 (iii); and 

6 (II) by adding at the end the fol7 lowing: 

8 ‘‘(ii) SHORT MARKETS.—In the case of 

9 secondary transmissions to households lo10 cated in short markets, subject to clause (i), 

11 the statutory license shall be further limited 

12 to secondary transmissions of only those 

13 primary transmissions of network stations 

14 that embody the programming of networks 

15 not offered on the primary stream or the 

16 multicast stream transmitted by any net17 work station in that market.’’; and 

18 (iii) by adding at the end the fol19 lowing: 

20 ‘‘(D) TEMPORARY AND LIMITED USE OF LI21 CENSE.— 

22 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding 

23 the requirement under subparagraph (A) 

24 that a satellite carrier provide local-into25 local service to all DMAs before making a 


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1 secondary transmission under the license 

2 under this section, a satellite carrier that 

3 does not provide local-into-local service to 

4 all DMAs may make a covered transmission 

5 under such license if not later than 180 

6 days after the date of the enactment of the 

7 Satellite Television Community Protection 

8 and Promotion Act of 2019 the satellite car9 rier— 

10 ‘‘(I) demonstrates that it has 

11 acted reasonably and made a good 

12 faith effort to provide local-into-local 

13 service to all DMAs and that it will 

14 continue to make a good faith effort to 

15 provide local-into-local service to all 

16 DMAs; and 

17 ‘‘(II) files a Notice of Temporary 

18 Limited Use with the Copyright Office 

19 in accordance with clause (ii). 

20 ‘‘(ii) NOTICE OF TEMPORARY LIMITED

21 USE.—A Notice of Temporary Limited Use 

22 filed with the Copyright Office under this 

23 subparagraph shall contain— 

24 ‘‘(I) an affirmation that the car25 rier intends to make covered transVerDate Sep 11 2014 19:57 Dec 18, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H5140.RH H5140

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1 missions under the license under this 

2 section despite not providing local3 into-local service to all DMAs; 

4 ‘‘(II) a signed statement that the 

5 satellite carrier acted reasonably and 

6 made good faith efforts to provide 

7 local-into-local service to all DMAs; 

8 ‘‘(III) a list of the designated 

9 market areas with respect to which no 

10 local-into-local service is provided by 

11 the satellite carrier; and 

12 ‘‘(IV) a summary of actions taken 

13 by the satellite carrier to make ar14 rangements to provide local-into-local 

15 service to all DMAs. 

16 ‘‘(iii) PERIOD OF TEMPORARY AND

17 LIMITED LICENSE.— 

18 ‘‘(I) INITIAL 90-DAY PERIOD.—A 

19 satellite carrier that meets the require20 ments of this subparagraph may use 

21 the license under this section to make 

22 covered transmissions for a 90-day pe23 riod beginning on the date such carrier 

24 files a Notice of Temporary Limited 

25 Use with the Copyright Office. 


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1 ‘‘(II) ADDITIONAL PERIODS.—The 

2 initial 90-day period described under 

3 clause (I) may be extended for addi4 tional periods of 90 days if the satellite 

5 carrier files a new Notice of Tem6 porary Limited Use with the Copy7 right Office on or before the last day of 

8 such initial period, and each successive 

9 90-day period thereafter. 

10 ‘‘(iv) AUDIT AND VERIFICATION OF NO11 TICES.—The Register of Copyrights shall 

12 issue regulations that are similar in nature 

13 to the regulations issued under subsection 

14 (b)(2) to permit interested parties to verify 

15 and audit Notices of Temporary Limited 

16 Use filed by satellite carriers under this 

17 subparagraph. 

18 ‘‘(v) CHALLENGE.—Any owner of a 

19 network station for which the primary 

20 stream or multicast stream of that network 

21 would have been transmitted by a satellite 

22 carrier under the license under this section 

23 but for the failure of that satellite carrier to 

24 provide local-into-local service to all DMAs 

25 may bring a civil action to challenge the 


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1 sufficiency of the reasonable actions and 

2 good faith efforts of that satellite carrier to 

3 provide local-into-local service to all DMAs, 

4 as such actions and efforts are described in 

5 the applicable Notice of Temporary Limited 

6 Use. 

7 ‘‘(vi) COVERED TRANSMISSION DE8 FINED.—In this subparagraph, the term 

9 ‘covered transmission’ means a secondary 

10 transmission of a primary transmission 

11 made by a network station to an unserved 

12 household.’’. 

13 (B) by striking paragraphs (3), (6)(E), (9), 

14 (10), and (13); and 

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

16 (6), (7), (8), (11), (12), and (14) as paragraphs 

17 (3) through (10), respectively; 

18 (2) in subsection (c)(1)(E)— 

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

20 agreement’’; 

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

22 or’’; and 

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

24 inserting ‘‘until the subscriber for which the roy25 alty is payable is no longer eligible to receive a 


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1 secondary transmission pursuant to the license 

2 under this section’’; 

3 (3) in subsection (d)— 

4 (A) in paragraph (10)— 

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

6 ‘‘subsection (a)(11)’’ and inserting ‘‘sub7 section (a)(8)’’; 

8 (ii) by striking subparagraphs (A), 

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

10 (iii) by redesignating subparagraph 

11 (D) as subparagraph (A); and 

12 (iv) by adding at the end the following: 

13 ‘‘(B) is a subscriber located in a short mar14 ket.’’; 

15 (B) by striking paragraph (13); 

16 (C) by redesignating paragraphs (14) and 

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

18 and 

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

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

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

22 DMAs’ has the meaning given such term in subsection 

23 (f)(7). 

24 ‘‘(16) SHORT MARKET.—The term ‘short market’ 

25 means a local market in which programming of one 


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1 or more of the four most widely viewed television net2 works nationwide is not offered on either the primary 

3 stream or multicast stream transmitted by any net4 work station in that market.’’; 

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

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

7 subsections (e) and (f). 

8 (b) PREVIOUSLY COVERED SUBSCRIBERS UNDER THE

9 STELA REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2014.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—A subscriber of a satellite car11 rier who receives the secondary transmission of a net12 work station under the statutory license in section 

13 119 of title 17, United States Code, as in effect on the 

14 day before the date of the enactment of this Act, and 

15 to whom subsection (a)(2)(B) of such section, as 

16 amended by subsection (a), does not apply, shall con17 tinue to be eligible to receive that secondary trans18 mission from such carrier under such license, and at 

19 the royalty rate established for such license by the 

20 Copyright Royalty Board or voluntary agreement, as 

21 applicable, until the date that is the earlier of— 

22 (A) 180 days after the date of the enactment 

23 of this Act; or 

24 (B) the date on which such carrier provides 

25 local-into-local service to all DMAs. 


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1 (2) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection, the terms 

2 ‘‘satellite carrier’’, ‘‘subscriber’’, ‘‘secondary trans3 mission’’, ‘‘network station’’, and ‘‘local-into-local 

4 service to all DMAs’’ have the meaning given those 

5 terms in section 119 of title 17, United States Code. 

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

7 States Code, is further amended— 

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

9 (a)— 

10 (A) in subsection (a)— 

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

12 ‘‘paragraphs (4), (5), and (7)’’ and insert13 ing ‘‘paragraphs (3), (4), and (6)’’; and 

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

15 ‘‘paragraphs (4), (5), (6), and (7)’’ and in16 serting ‘‘paragraphs (3), (4), (5), and (6)’’; 

17 and 

18 (B) in subsection (g), by striking ‘‘sub19 section (a)(7)(B)’’ each place it appears and in20 serting ‘‘subsection (a)(5)(B)’’; and 

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

22 119(a)(5)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 119(a)(3)’’. 


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Union Calendar No. 282 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5140 

[Report No. 116–354] 

A BILL 

To amend title 17, United States Code, to narrow 

for other purposes. nals under a distant-signal satellite license, and the category of households eligible to receive sigDECEMBER 17, 2019 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS