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Union Calendar No. 389 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4572 

[Report No. 113–518] 

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 

MAY 6, 2014 

Mr. WALDEN (for himself, Mr. UPTON, Mr. WAXMAN, and Ms. ESHOO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy 

and Commerce 

JULY 11, 2014 

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 May 6, 2014] 

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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 ‘‘STELA Reauthorization 

5 Act of 2014’’. 

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, 2014’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2019’’; and 

11 (2) in paragraph (3)(C), by striking ‘‘January 

12 1, 2015’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘Janu13 ary 1, 2020’’. 

14 SEC. 3. RETRANSMISSION CONSENT NEGOTIATIONS. 

15 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 325(b)(3)(C) of the Com16 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)(3)(C)) is 

17 amended— 

18 (1) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

19 (2) in clause (iii), by striking the period at the 

20 end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

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

22 ‘‘(iv) prohibit a television broadcast station from 

23 coordinating negotiations or negotiating on a joint 

24 basis with another television broadcast station in the 

25 same local market (as defined in section 122(j) of title 

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1 17, United States Code) to grant retransmission con2 sent under this section to a multichannel video pro3 gramming distributor, unless such stations are di4 rectly or indirectly under common de jure control 

5 permitted under the regulations of the Commission.’’. 

6 (b) MARGIN CORRECTION.—Section 325(b)(3)(C) of the 

7 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)(3)(C)) is 

8 further amended by moving the margin of clause (iii) 4 ems 

9 to the left. 

10 (c) DEADLINE FOR REGULATIONS.—Not later than 9 

11 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Com12 mission shall promulgate regulations to implement the 

13 amendments made by this section. 

14 SEC. 4. DELAYED APPLICATION OF JSA ATTRIBUTION RULE 

15 IN CASE OF WAIVER PETITION. 

16 In the case of a party to a joint sales agreement (as 

17 defined in Note 2(k) to section 73.3555 of title 47, Code 

18 of Federal Regulations) that is in effect on the effective date 

19 of the amendment to Note 2(k)(2) to such section made by 

20 the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Report and 

21 Order adopted by the Commission on March 31, 2014 (FCC 

22 14–28), and who, not later than 90 days after the date of 

23 the enactment of this Act, submits to the Commission a peti24 tion for a waiver of the application to such agreement of 

25 the rule in such Note 2(k)(2) (as so amended), such party 

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1 shall not be considered to be in violation of the ownership 

2 limitations of such section by reason of the application of 

3 such rule to such agreement until the later of— 

4 (1) the date that is 18 months after the date on 

5 which the Commission denies such petition; or 

6 (2) December 31, 2016. 

7 SEC. 5. DELETION OR REPOSITIONING OF STATIONS DUR8 ING CERTAIN PERIODS. 

9 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 614(b)(9) of the Commu10 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 534(b)(9)) is amended by 

11 striking the second sentence. 

12 (b) REVISION OF RULES.—Not later than 90 days after 

13 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 

14 revise section 76.1601 of its rules (47 CFR 76.1601) and 

15 any note to such section by removing the prohibition 

16 against deletion or repositioning of a local commercial tele17 vision station during a period in which major television 

18 ratings services measure the size of audiences of local tele19 vision stations. 

20 SEC. 6. REPEAL OF INTEGRATION BAN. 

21 (a) NO FORCE OR EFFECT.—The second sentence of 

22 section 76.1204(a)(1) of title 47, Code of Federal Regula23 tions, shall have no force or effect after the date of the enact24 ment of this Act. 

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1 (b) REMOVAL FROM RULES.—Not later than 180 days 

2 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission 

3 shall complete all actions necessary to remove the sentence 

4 described in subsection (a) from its rules. 

5 SEC. 7. REPORT ON COMMUNICATIONS IMPLICATIONS OF 

6 STATUTORY LICENSING MODIFICATIONS. 

7 (a) STUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United 

8 States shall conduct a study that analyzes and evaluates 

9 the changes to the carriage requirements currently imposed 

10 on multichannel video programming distributors under the 

11 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) and 

12 the regulations promulgated by the Commission that would 

13 be required or beneficial to consumers, and such other mat14 ters as the Comptroller General considers appropriate, if 

15 Congress implemented a phase-out of the current statutory 

16 licensing requirements set forth under sections 111, 119, 

17 and 122 of title 17, United States Code. Among other 

18 things, the study shall consider the impact such a phase19 out and related changes to carriage requirements would 

20 have on consumer prices and access to programming. 

21 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months after the date 

22 of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall 

23 submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report 

24 on the results of the study conducted under subsection (a), 

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1 trative actions. Such report shall also include a discussion 

2 of any differences between such results and the results of 

3 the study conducted under section 303 of the Satellite Tele4 vision Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (124 Stat. 

5 1255). 

6 SEC. 8. LOCAL NETWORK CHANNEL BROADCAST REPORTS. 

7 (a) REQUIREMENT.— 

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—On the 270th day after the 

9 date of the enactment of this Act, and on each suc10 ceeding anniversary of such 270th day, each satellite 

11 carrier shall submit an annual report to the Commis12 sion setting forth— 

13 (A) each local market in which it— 

14 (i) retransmits signals of 1 or more tel15 evision broadcast stations with a commu16 nity of license in that market; 

17 (ii) has commenced providing such sig18 nals in the preceding 1-year period; and 

19 (iii) has ceased to provide such signals 

20 in the preceding 1-year period; and 

21 (B) detailed information regarding the use 

22 and potential use of satellite capacity for the re23 transmission of local signals in each local mar24 ket. 

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1 (2) TERMINATION.—The requirement under 

2 paragraph (1) shall cease after each satellite carrier 

3 has submitted 5 reports under such paragraph. 

4 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

5 (1) the terms ‘‘local market’’ and ‘‘satellite car6 rier’’ have the meaning given such terms in section 

7 339(d) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

8 339(d)); and 

9 (2) the term ‘‘television broadcast station’’ has 

10 the meaning given such term in section 325(b)(7) of 

11 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

12 325(b)(7)). 

13 SEC. 9. REPORT ON DESIGNATED MARKET AREAS. 

14 Not later than 18 months after the date of the enact15 ment of this Act, the Commission shall submit to the appro16 priate congressional committees a report containing an 

17 analysis of— 

18 (1) the extent to which consumers in each local 

19 market (as defined in section 122(j) of title 17, 

20 United States Code) have access to broadcast pro21 gramming from television broadcast stations (as de22 fined in section 325(b)(7) of the Communications Act 

23 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)(7))) located outside their 

24 local market, including through carriage by cable op25 erators and satellite carriers of signals that are sigmstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

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1 nificantly viewed (within the meaning of section 340 

2 of such Act (47 U.S.C. 340)); and 

3 (2) whether there are technologically and eco4 nomically feasible alternatives to the use of designated 

5 market areas (as defined in section 122(j) of title 17, 

6 United States Code) to define markets that would pro7 vide consumers with more programming options and 

8 the potential impact such alternatives could have on 

9 localism and on broadcast television locally, region10 ally, and nationally. 

11 SEC. 10. DEFINITIONS. 

12 In this Act: 

13 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT14 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional commit15 tees’’ means the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

16 and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 

17 Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, 

18 Science, and Transportation and the Committee on 

19 the Judiciary of the Senate. 

20 (2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

21 means the Federal Communications Commission. 

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Union Calendar No. 389 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4572 

[Report No. 113–518] 

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 retransJULY 11, 2014 Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 

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