I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1626

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure equity for all fullservice television broadcasters and ensure the benefits of local programming for communities served by class A television broadcast stations 

by providing cable carriage rights for qualified class A television stations, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 3, 2003

Mr. PETERSON of Minnesota (for himself, Mr. GONZALEZ, Ms. ROSLEHTINEN, Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida, and Mr. MARIO

DIAZ-BALART of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure equity 

for all full-service television broadcasters and ensure the 

benefits of local programming for communities served 

by class A television broadcast stations by providing 

cable carriage rights for qualified class A television 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 Voices on TV 

5 Act of 2003’’. 
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress makes the following findings: 

3 (1) The newly created class A television service 

4 provides valuable local and specialized television 

5 service to unserved and underserved audiences 

6 throughout the United States, and for that reason 

7 Congress enacted the Community Broadcasters Pro8 tection Act of 1999 to provide permanent broadcast 

9 licenses to television stations providing such service. 

10 (2) It was the purpose of the Community 

11 Broadcasters Protection Act of 1999 to provide con12 tinuing opportunities for low power television broad13 cast stations to qualify for and be granted class A 

14 licenses, especially where those licenses could provide 

15 local programming and local voices to underserved 

16 urban and rural communities. 

17 (3) This new television service was created 

18 seven years after the enactment of the Cable Tele19 vision Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 

20 1992 (Public Law 102–385), and while that Act in21 cludes licenses for class A television service under 

22 the provisions relating to low power broadcast tele23 vision, it does not reflect the fact that such stations 

24 operate as full-service, commercial broadcast tele25 vision stations under part 73 of title 47, Code of 

26 Federal Regulations (the rules of the Federal Com-
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1 munications Commission for full power television 

2 stations) and provide significant local programming 

3 to their underserved communities often equaling in 

4 duration that provided by the major networks in 

5 other small markets. 

6 (4) Thirteen of the largest 25 Hispanic markets 

7 in the United States receive Spanish language net8 work programming through low power television sta9 tions. The provisions of the Cable Television Con10 sumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 that 

11 exclude from mandatory carriage on cable television 

12 any low power television broadcast station within the 

13 largest 160 Metropolitan Statistical Areas deny equi14 table cable carriage opportunities for such television 

15 stations and other television stations serving special16 ized and other underserved urban communities. 

17 (5) In 1992, Congress believed that require18 ments for mandatory carriage on cable television 

19 were necessary to ensure the benefits of the local 

20 origination of programming. Today, such provisions 

21 are also necessary to ensure the benefits of the local 

22 programming provided by qualified class A television 

23 stations. 

24 (6) Must-carry rights are often challenged on 

25 issues of signal quality and strength. If qualified 
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1 class A television broadcast stations and other low 

2 power television stations use industry standard 

3 equipment in delivering signals to the cable 

4 headends, cable operators should accept any equip5 ment provided and paid for by such television sta6 tions so long as acceptance of such equipment does 

7 not negatively impact the operation of cable systems. 

8 SEC. 3. CABLE TELEVISION CARRIAGE REQUIREMENTS RE9 GARDING CLASS A LOCAL TELEVISION SERV10 ICE. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 614 of the Communica12 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 534) is amended—

13 (1) in subsection (b)(2)(A)—

14 (A) by inserting ‘‘or qualified class A sta15 tion’’ after ‘‘qualified low power station’’; and 

16 (B) by inserting ‘‘full power analog or dig17 ital’’ after ‘‘in lieu of a’’; 

18 (2) in subsection (b)(4), by inserting ‘‘and 

19 qualified low power stations’’ after ‘‘local commercial 

20 television stations’’ each place it appears in subpara21 graphs (A) and (B); 

22 (3) in subsection (c)(1)—

23 (A) in subparagraph (A)—
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1 (i) by inserting ‘‘or one qualified class 

2 A station’’ after ‘‘qualified low power sta3 tion’’; and 

4 (ii) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

5 (B) by striking subparagraph (B) and in6 serting the following new subparagraphs (B) 

7 and (C): 

8 ‘‘(B) a cable operator of a cable system 

9 with a capacity of more than 35 usable acti10 vated 6 mHz channels, but fewer than 72 such 

11 channels, shall be required to carry two stations 

12 that are either qualified class A stations or 

13 other qualified low power stations; and 

14 ‘‘(C) a cable operator of a cable system 

15 with a capacity of 72 or more usable activated 

16 6 mHz channels shall be required to carry three 

17 stations that are either qualified class A sta18 tions or other qualified low power stations.’’; 

19 and 

20 (iii) by adding after subparagraph 

21 (C), as so added, the following new flush 

22 matter:

23 ‘‘If there are three or fewer commercial full power 

24 stations serving a designated market area that do 

25 not substantially retransmit the signal of another 
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1 broadcast station, all qualified class A stations in 

2 the designated market area shall be granted carriage 

3 rights, except that the number of class A stations 

4 that a cable operator is required to carry under this 

5 sentence shall not exceed the national average num6 ber of broadcast stations that a cable operator is re7 quired to carry in television markets in the United 

8 States.’’; and 

9 (4) in subsection (h)—

10 (A) in paragraph (1)—

11 (i) in subparagraph (A)—

12 (I) by inserting ‘‘or qualified 

13 class A station’’ after ‘‘full power tele14 vision broadcast station’’; and 

15 (II) by inserting ‘‘or granted’’ 

16 after ‘‘assigned to its community’’; 

17 and 

18 (ii) in subparagraph (B)—

19 (I) in clause (i), by inserting 

20 ‘‘(other than qualified class A sta21 tions)’’ after ‘‘low power television 

22 stations’’; and 

23 (II) in clauses (ii) and (iii), by 

24 inserting ‘‘or qualified low power sta-
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1 tion’’ after ‘‘television broadcast sta2 tion’’; and 

3 (B) by adding at the end the following new 

4 paragraph: 

5 ‘‘(3) QUALIFIED CLASS A STATION.—

6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘qualified 

7 class A station’ means a class A television sta8 tion, or a station certified as a class A tele9 vision station under section 336(f)(1)(B), 

10 that—

11 ‘‘(i) operates in accordance with part 

12 73 of title 47, Code of Federal Regula13 tions, as prescribed for class A licensed 

14 stations; 

15 ‘‘(ii) regularly broadcasts—

16 ‘‘(I) a minimum of 3 hours per 

17 week in the first year after the date of 

18 enactment of the Local Voices on TV 

19 Act of 2003, 5 hours per week in the 

20 second year after such date of enact21 ment, and 8 hours per week in the 

22 third year after such date of enact23 ment and thereafter, of local program24 ming produced within the Grade B 

25 contour of such station; or 
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1 ‘‘(II) for a group of commonly 

2 controlled class A stations, a min3 imum of 3 hours per week in the first 

4 year after such date of enactment, 5 

5 hours per week in the second year 

6 after such date of enactment, and 8 

7 hours per week in the third year after 

8 such date of enactment and there9 after, of local programming produced 

10 within the grade B contour of the sta11 tions in such a group, but not to ex12 ceed the designated market area of 

13 the main studio of such a group; 

14 ‘‘(iii) meets all obligations and re15 quirements applicable to television broad16 cast stations under part 73 of title 47, 

17 Code of Federal Regulations, with respect 

18 to the broadcast of nonentertainment pro19 gramming; programming and rates involv20 ing political candidates, election issues, 

21 controversial issues of public importance, 

22 editorials, and personal attacks; program23 ming for children; and equal employment 

24 opportunity; and 
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1 ‘‘(iv) maintains a fully operational 

2 amber alert system, as part of a national 

3 missing person broadcast emergency re4 sponse. 

5 ‘‘(B) MAIN STUDIO.—For purposes of sub6 paragraph (A), the main studio of a qualified 

7 class A station, or group of stations, shall be lo8 cated within the grade B contour of the quali9 fied class A station, or group of stations, or 

10 within 15 miles of the city or cities of license, 

11 whichever is greater. 

12 ‘‘(C) MARKET DETERMINATIONS.—For 

13 purposes of subparagraph (A), the market of a 

14 qualified class A station shall be determined by 

15 the grade B contour of such station or 35 miles 

16 from the cable system’s headend, whichever is 

17 greater. However, the market of such a station 

18 shall be further adjusted to ensure cable car19 riage rights where 15 percent or more of the 

20 station’s grade B contour is on a cable system’s 

21 headend outside the grade B contour of that 

22 station or where previous service to a commu23 nity was lost through digital television displace24 ments or other spectrum reallocations since 

25 January 1, 1996.’’. 
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1 (b) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in the amendments to 

2 section 614 of the Communications Act of 1934 made by 

3 subsection (a) of this section shall diminish the must-carry 

4 rights of any class A or other low power television broad5 cast station outside the largest 160 Metropolitan Statis6 tical Areas of the United States as of June 30, 1990. 

7 SEC. 4. IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNITY BROADCASTERS 

8 PROTECTION ACT OF 1999. 

9 (a) REGULATIONS FOR TREATMENT OF LOW-POWER

10 TELEVISION BROADCAST STATIONS AS CLASS A STA11 TIONS.—

12 (1) DEADLINE FOR REGULATIONS.—Not later 

13 than 12 months after the date of the enactment of 

14 this Act, the Federal Communications Commission 

15 shall prescribe regulations to implement the provi16 sions of section 336(f)(2)(B) of the Communications 

17 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 336(f)(2)(B)) that provide 

18 for the application and granting of new class A tele19 vision licenses. Such regulations shall provide class 

20 A eligibility standards for low power stations that 

21 had valid licenses for such stations on December 29, 

22 1999. 

23 (2) SATISFACTION OF PUBLIC INTEREST, CON24 VENIENCE, AND NECESSITY.—The regulations under 

25 paragraph (1) shall require that the Commission 
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1 consider, in determining whether the treatment of a 

2 low-power television station as a class A station 

3 would meet the public interest, convenience, and ne4 cessity, the extent to which the low-power television 

5 station would—

6 (A) advance the benefits of free over-the7 air broadcast television; and 

8 (B) promote the widespread dissemination 

9 of information from a multiplicity of sources. 

10 (b) ACCEPTANCE OF APPLICATIONS OF ADVANCED

11 TELEVISION SERVICES.—Section 336(f)(4) of the Com12 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 336(f)(4)) is amend13 ed by inserting after the first sentence the following new 

14 sentence: ‘‘The Commission shall promptly review each 

15 such license application, and if the Commission determines 

16 that the proposed facilities meet the requirements of the 

17 preceding sentence shall grant such license application not 

18 later than 60 days after the date of such determination.’’.

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