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Union Calendar No. 265 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5035 

[Report No. 116–329] 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 12, 2019 

Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of Pennsylvania introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

DECEMBER 9, 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 12, 2019] 


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A BILL 

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. 


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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 ‘‘Television Viewer Pro5 tection Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF AUTHORITY. 

7 Section 325(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

8 U.S.C. 325(b)) is amended— 

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

10 31, 2019’’ and inserting ‘‘the expiration date, if any, 

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

12 Code’’; and 

13 (2) in paragraph (3)(C), by striking ‘‘until Jan14 uary 1, 2020,’’ each place it appears. 

15 SEC. 3. SATISFACTION OF GOOD FAITH NEGOTIATION RE16 QUIREMENT BY MULTICHANNEL VIDEO PRO17 GRAMMING DISTRIBUTORS. 

18 (a) SATISFACTION OF GOOD FAITH NEGOTIATION RE19 QUIREMENT.—Section 325(b)(3)(C) of the Communications 

20 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)(3)(C)) is amended— 

21 (1) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and in22 serting a semicolon; 

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

24 end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

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


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

2 enactment of the Television Viewer Protection Act of 

3 2019, specify that— 

4 ‘‘(I) a multichannel video programming 

5 distributor may satisfy its obligation to negotiate 

6 in good faith under clause (iii) with respect to 

7 a negotiation for retransmission consent under 

8 this section with a large station group by desig9 nating a qualified MVPD buying group to nego10 tiate on its behalf, so long as the qualified 

11 MVPD buying group itself negotiates in good 

12 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 into 

20 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 large 

12 station group for retransmission consent under this 

13 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 more 

21 than 25 percent of all households served by 

22 a multichannel video programming dis23 tributor in any single local market in which 

24 the applicable large station group operates; 

25 and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) negotiates agreements for such retrans2 mission consent— 

3 ‘‘(I) that contain standardized contract 

4 provisions, including billing structures and 

5 technical quality standards, for each multi6 channel video programming distributor on 

7 behalf of which the entity negotiates; and 

8 ‘‘(II) under which the entity assumes 

9 liability to remit to the applicable large sta10 tion group all fees received from the multi11 channel video programming distributors on 

12 behalf of which the entity negotiates; 

13 ‘‘(D) ‘large station group’ means a group of tele14 vision broadcast stations that— 

15 ‘‘(i) are directly or indirectly under com16 mon de jure control permitted by the regulations 

17 of the Commission; 

18 ‘‘(ii) generally negotiate agreements for re19 transmission consent under this section as a sin20 gle entity; and 

21 ‘‘(iii) include only television broadcast sta22 tions that have a national audience reach of 

23 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 Code; 

3 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 the 

8 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)) is amend9 ed— 

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 defined 

16 in section 122(j) of title 17, United States Code)’’ 

17 each place it appears. 

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

19 section, and the regulations promulgated by the Federal 

20 Communications Commission under such amendments, 

21 shall not take effect before January 1 of the calendar year 

22 after the calendar year in which this Act is 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 entering 

10 into a contract with a consumer for the provision of 

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

12 provide the consumer, by phone, in person, online, or 

13 by other reasonable means, the total monthly charge 

14 for the covered service, whether offered individually or 

15 as part of a bundled service, selected by the consumer 

16 (explicitly noting the amount of any applicable pro17 motional discount reflected in such charge and when 

18 such discount will expire), including any related ad19 ministrative fees, equipment fees, or other charges, a 

20 good faith estimate of any tax, fee, or charge imposed 

21 by the Federal Government or a State or local govern22 ment (whether imposed on the provider or imposed on 

23 the consumer but collected by the provider), and a 

24 good faith estimate of any fee or charge that is used 

25 to recover any other assessment imposed on the proVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:22 Dec 09, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H5035.RH H5035

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1 vider by the Federal Government or a State or local 

2 government. 

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

4 a covered service that enters into a contract described 

5 in paragraph (1) shall, not later than 24 hours after 

6 entering into the contract, send the consumer, by 

7 email, online link, or other reasonably comparable 

8 means, a copy of the information described in such 

9 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 the 

13 contract, without paying early cancellation fees or 

14 other disconnection fees or penalties, during the 24- 

15 hour period beginning when the provider of the cov16 ered service sends the copy required by paragraph (2). 

17 ‘‘(b) CONSUMER RIGHTS IN E-BILLING.—If a provider 

18 of a covered service provides a bill to a consumer in an 

19 electronic format, the provider shall include in the bill— 

20 ‘‘(1) an itemized statement that breaks down the 

21 total amount charged for or relating to the provision 

22 of the covered service by the amount charged for the 

23 provision of the service itself and the amount of all 

24 related taxes, administrative fees, equipment fees, or 

25 other charges; 


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

2 provision of the covered service entered into between 

3 the consumer and the provider; and 

4 ‘‘(3) the termination date of any applicable pro5 motional discount. 

6 ‘‘(c) CONSUMER RIGHTS TO ACCURATE EQUIPMENT

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

8 broadband internet access service may not charge a con9 sumer for— 

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

11 consumer; or 

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

13 the consumer covered equipment if— 

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

15 equipment to the consumer; or 

16 ‘‘(B) the consumer has returned the equip17 ment to the provider, except to the extent that the 

18 charge relates to the period beginning on the date 

19 when the provider provided the equipment to the 

20 consumer and ending on the date when the con21 sumer returned the equipment to the provider. 

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

23 ‘‘(1) BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.— 

24 The term ‘broadband internet access service’ has the 

25 meaning given such term in section 8.1(b) of title 47, 


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1 Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regula2 tion. 

3 ‘‘(2) COVERED EQUIPMENT.—The term ‘covered 

4 equipment’ means equipment (such as a router) em5 ployed on the premises of a person (other than a pro6 vider of a covered service or fixed broadband internet 

7 access service) to provide a covered service or to pro8 vide fixed broadband internet access service. 

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

10 service’ means service provided by a multichannel 

11 video programming distributer, to the extent such dis12 tributor is acting as a multichannel video program13 ming distributor.’’. 

14 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Section 642 of the Commu15 nications Act of 1934, as added by subsection (a) of this 

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

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

18 Communications Commission may grant an additional 6- 

19 month extension if the Commission finds that good cause 

20 exists for such an additional extension. 


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Union Calendar No. 265 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5035 

[Report No. 116–329] 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to extions, and for other purposes. mission of signals of television broadcast sta- tend expiring provisions relating to the retransDECEMBER 9, 2019 

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


pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS