I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6072 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax credits for 

carriage of independent programmers by certain multichannel video programming distributors. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 26, 2023 

Mr. BILIRAKIS (for himself, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. STEUBE, Mr. PANETTA, Mrs. MILLER of West Virginia, Mr. VALADAO, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr. 

SOTO, Mr. CARTER of Georgia, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. CA ́RDENAS, and Ms. KELLY of Illinois) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in 

addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be 

subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 

of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide 

tax credits for carriage of independent programmers by 

certain multichannel video programming distributors. 

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 ‘‘Independent Program5 mers Tax Incentive Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. CARRIAGE OF INDEPENDENT PROGRAMMERS TAX 

2 CREDIT. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart D of part IV of sub4 chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 

5 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new 

6 section: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 45BB. CARRIAGE OF INDEPENDENT PROGRAMMERS 

8 CREDIT. 

9 ‘‘(a) ALLOWANCE OF CREDIT.—For purposes of sec10 tion 38, in the case of any eligible distributor, the carriage 

11 of independent programmers credit determined under this 

12 section for the taxable year is, with respect to each agree13 ment for qualifying carriage entered into by such eligible 

14 distributor, the lesser of— 

15 ‘‘(1) the net license fees paid or incurred by 

16 such eligible distributor during such taxable year 

17 under such agreement for qualifying carriage, or 

18 ‘‘(2) the product of $0.10 multiplied by the av19 erage number of monthly subscribers (for calendar 

20 months during such taxable year) to which carriage 

21 is provided under such agreement. 

22 ‘‘(b) MAXIMUM CREDIT.—The credit determined 

23 under this section with respect to any eligible distributor 

24 for any taxable year shall not exceed the product of $0.30 

25 multiplied by the average number of monthly subscribers 

26 (for calendar months during such taxable year). 


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1 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS AND SPECIAL RULES.—For pur2 poses of this section— 

3 ‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE DISTRIBUTOR.—The term ‘eligi4 ble distributor’ means any person which is either— 

5 ‘‘(A) engaged in the trade or business of 

6 being a multichannel video programming dis7 tributor, or 

8 ‘‘(B) a virtual multichannel video program9 ming distributor. 

10 ‘‘(2) MULTICHANNEL VIDEO PROGRAMMING

11 DISTRIBUTOR.—The term ‘multichannel video pro12 gramming distributor’ has the meaning given such 

13 term in section 76.1000(e) of title 47 of the Code 

14 of Federal Regulations. 

15 ‘‘(3) VIRTUAL MULTICHANNEL VIDEO PRO16 GRAMMING DISTRIBUTOR.—The term ‘virtual multi17 channel video programming distributor’ means any 

18 person engaged in the trade or business of making 

19 available directly to the end user, by means of the 

20 Internet or other IP-based transmission path, mul21 tiple streams of linear video programming. 

22 ‘‘(4) VIDEO PROGRAMMING.—The term ‘video 

23 programming’ has the meaning given such term in 

24 section 79.4(a)(1) of title 47 of the Code of Federal 

25 Regulations. 


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1 ‘‘(5) AGREEMENT FOR QUALIFYING CAR2 RIAGE.—The term ‘agreement for qualifying car3 riage’ means a written agreement between an eligible 

4 distributor and a qualified independent programmer 

5 that provides for new or expanded carriage of one or 

6 more linear video programming streams of a quali7 fied independent programmer to at least 40 percent 

8 of the eligible distributor’s subscriber base in aggre9 gate for such linear video programming streams and 

10 which requires the eligible distributor to pay a li11 cense fee to the qualified independent programmer. 

12 ‘‘(6) QUALIFIED INDEPENDENT PRO13 GRAMMER.— 

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

15 independent programmer’ means a United 

16 States-based person engaged in the production, 

17 creation, or wholesale distribution of linear 

18 video programming (including, but not limited 

19 to, women-, minority-, or socially disadvan20 taged-, owned programmers) if— 

21 ‘‘(i) such person is not a publicly-trad22 ed company, multichannel video program23 ming distributor, virtual multichannel 

24 video programming distributor, network, or 

25 television station company, and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) no publicly-traded company, mul2 tichannel video programming distributor, 

3 virtual multichannel video programming 

4 distributor, network, or television station 

5 company has a cognizable interest in such 

6 person. 

7 ‘‘(B) SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED.—The 

8 term ‘socially disadvantaged’ has the meaning 

9 given such term in section 124.103 of title 13 

10 of the Code of Federal Regulations. 

11 ‘‘(C) PUBLICLY-TRADED COMPANY.—The 

12 term ‘publicly-traded company’ means any enti13 ty if one or more equity interests in such entity 

14 are traded on an established securities market. 

15 ‘‘(D) NETWORK.—The term ‘network’ has 

16 the meaning given such term in section 76.55(f) 

17 of title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations. 

18 ‘‘(E) TELEVISION STATION COMPANY.— 

19 The term ‘television station company’ means 

20 any person if, after taking into account the au21 dience reach of all television stations under 

22 common control with such person, such person 

23 has a national audience reach in excess of 3 

24 percent. Terms used in this subparagraph 

25 which are also used in section 202(c) of the 


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1 Telecommunications Act of 1996 (or in the reg2 ulations issued pursuant to such section) shall 

3 have the same meaning as when used in such 

4 section (or such regulations). 

5 ‘‘(F) COGNIZABLE INTEREST.—The term 

6 ‘cognizable interest’ has the meaning given such 

7 term in section 76.1000(b) of title 47 of the 

8 Code of Federal Regulations. 

9 ‘‘(7) LICENSE FEES.—Except as otherwise pro10 vided by the Secretary, in the case of an agreement 

11 for qualifying carriage which is net effective rate 

12 positive for the qualified independent programmer, 

13 the appropriate amount shall be treated as a license 

14 fee paid by the eligible distributor to the qualified 

15 independent programmer. 

16 ‘‘(d) DENIAL OF DOUBLE BENEFIT.—No deduction 

17 shall be allowed under this chapter for any amount to the 

18 extent that such amount is allowed as a credit under this 

19 section.’’. 

20 (b) CREDIT MADE PART OF GENERAL BUSINESS

21 CREDIT.—Subsection (b) of section 38 of such Code is 

22 amended by striking ‘‘plus’’ at the end of paragraph (40), 

23 by striking the period at the end of paragraph (41) and 

24 inserting ‘‘, plus’’, and by adding at the end the following 

25 new paragraph: 


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1 ‘‘(42) the carriage of independent programmers 

2 credit determined under section 45BB.’’. 

3 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

4 for subpart D of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 

5 of such Code is amended by adding at the end the fol6 lowing new item: 

‘‘Sec. 45BB. Carriage of Independent Programmers Credit.’’. 

7 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

8 this section shall apply to expenses paid or incurred after 

9 the date of the enactment of this Act, in taxable years 

10 ending after such date. 

11 SEC. 3. BIENNIAL REPORT BY FCC TO CONGRESS. 

12 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 

13 date of the enactment of this Act, and not less frequently 

14 than every 2 years thereafter, the Federal Communica15 tions Commission shall submit to Congress a report that— 

16 (1) states the number of qualified independent 

17 programmers that have a linear video programming 

18 stream that is distributed to subscribers of one or 

19 more eligible distributors and the average length of 

20 time for which such a linear video programming 

21 stream has been so distributed by the same eligible 

22 distributor; 

23 (2) states the number of qualified independent 

24 programmers that have a linear video programming 

25 stream that is distributed to subscribers of one or 


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1 more multichannel video programming distributors 

2 and the average length of time for which such a lin3 ear video programming stream has been so distrib4 uted by the same multichannel video programming 

5 distributor; 

6 (3) states the number of qualified independent 

7 programmers that have a linear video programming 

8 stream that is distributed to subscribers of one or 

9 more virtual multichannel video programming dis10 tributors and the average length of time for which 

11 such a linear video programming stream has been so 

12 distributed by the same virtual multichannel video 

13 programming distributor; and 

14 (4) contains recommendations for how to in15 crease the number of qualified independent program16 mers described in paragraph (1). 

17 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘‘eligi18 ble distributor’’, ‘‘multichannel video programming dis19 tributor’’, ‘‘virtual multichannel video programming dis20 tributor’’, ‘‘video programming’’, and ‘‘qualified inde21 pendent programmer’’ have the meanings given such 

22 terms in section 45BB(c) of the Internal Revenue Code 

23 of 1986, as added by section 2. 

24 (c) DISCLOSURE OF TAX RETURN INFORMATION.— 

25 Section 6103(l) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 


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1 amended by adding at the end the following new para2 graph: 

3 ‘‘(24) DISCLOSURE OF RETURN INFORMATION

4 TO FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION FOR BI5 ENNIAL REPORTS TO CONGRESS.— 

6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, 

7 upon written request from the Federal Commu8 nications Commission, disclose to officers and 

9 employees of such Commission such return in10 formation of taxpayers claiming the credit al11 lowable under section 45BB as such Commis12 sion determines necessary to prepare the re13 ports required under section 2 of the Inde14 pendent Programmers Tax Incentive Act. 

15 ‘‘(B) RESTRICTION ON DISCLOSURE.—Re16 turn information disclosed under subparagraph 

17 (A) may be used by officers and employees of 

18 the Federal Communications Commission for 

19 the purposes of, and to the extent necessary in, 

20 preparing the reports required under section 2 

21 of the Independent Programmers Tax Incentive 

22 Act. Such reports shall not include return infor23 mation which is identifiable as being with re24 spect to a particular taxpayer.’’. 

Æ 


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