II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4796 

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 

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 

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

the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

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 2022’’. 


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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 1 

25 or more daily newspapers and 1 or more full-power broad26 cast 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 23:30 Sep 07, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4796.IS S4796

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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, broadcast, or digital news 

6 organization 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)(i) provides original news and related 

17 content, with the editorial content consisting of 

18 not less than 25 percent current news and re19 lated content; or 

20 (ii) broadcasts original news and related 

21 content pursuant to a license granted by the 

22 Federal Communications Commission under 

23 title III of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

24 U.S.C. 301 et seq.). 


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1 (3) ONLINE CONTENT DISTRIBUTOR.—The 

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

3 that— 

4 (A) operates a website or other online serv5 ice that displays, distributes, or directs users to 

6 news articles, works of journalism, or other con7 tent on the internet that is generated by third8 party news content creators; and 

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

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

11 its websites or online services worldwide. 

12 (b) LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.—A news content cre13 ator may not be held liable under the antitrust laws for 

14 engaging in negotiations with any other news content cre15 ator during the 4-year period beginning on the date of en16 actment of this Act to collectively withhold content from, 

17 or negotiate with, an online content distributor regarding 

18 the terms on which the news content of the news content 

19 creator may be distributed by the online content dis20 tributor, if— 

21 (1) the negotiations with the online content dis22 tributor— 

23 (A) are not limited to price; 

24 (B) are nondiscriminatory as to similarly 

25 situated news content creators; 


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

2 attribution or branding, and interoperability of 

3 news; and 

4 (D) pertain to terms that would be avail5 able to all news content creators; 

6 (2) the coordination between the news content 

7 creators is directly related to and reasonably nec8 essary for negotiations with an online content dis9 tributor that are otherwise consistent with this Act; 

10 and 

11 (3) the negotiations do not involve any person 

12 that is not a news content creator or an online con13 tent distributor. 

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

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

16 or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws. 

Æ 


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