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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1155 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1155

 To mandate satellite carriage of qualified noncommercial educational 
                          television stations.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 24, 2009

  Ms. Eshoo introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
 To mandate satellite carriage of qualified noncommercial educational 
                          television stations.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Satellite Consumers' Access to 
Public Television Digital Programming Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. SATELLITE CARRIAGE OF QUALIFIED NONCOMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL 
              TELEVISION STATIONS' DIGITAL SIGNALS.

    Section 338(a) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 338(a)) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(5) Carriage of qualified noncommercial educational 
        television stations' digital signals.--
                    ``(A) Obligation to carry.--A satellite carrier 
                that offers multichannel video programming distribution 
                service in the United States to more than 5,000,000 
                subscribers shall, within 1 year after the date of the 
                enactment of the Satellite Consumers' Access to Public 
                Television Digital Programming Act of 2009, retransmit 
                the digital signals (including all free, over-the-air 
                digital programming streams) of each qualified 
                noncommercial educational television station located in 
                any local market in the United States. The 
                retransmissions of each such station--
                            ``(i) shall be made available to all of the 
                        satellite carrier's subscribers in such 
                        station's local market; and
                            ``(ii) shall be carried in the digital 
                        format originally transmitted by the 
                        broadcaster, and, notwithstanding any other 
                        provision of law or regulation, without 
                        material degradation, including conversion to 
                        any lower-resolution or non-digital format.
                    ``(B) Existing contracts.--Nothing in this 
                paragraph shall alter the contractual rights or 
                obligations of the parties to any contract between a 
                qualified noncommercial educational television station, 
                or its representative, and a satellite carrier that is 
                in force and effect as of the date of enactment of the 
                Satellite Consumers' Access to Public Television 
                Digital Programming Act of 2009.''.

SEC. 3. DEFINITION.

    Section 338(k) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (5) through (8) as 
        paragraphs (6) through (9), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (4) the following new 
        paragraph:
            ``(5) Qualified noncommercial educational television 
        station.--The term `qualified noncommercial educational 
        television station' has the meaning given such term in section 
        615(l)(1) of this Act.''.
                                 <all>
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