I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3498 

To amend section 119 of title 17, United States Code, and the Communications Act of 1934 to permit satellite carriers to retransmit the signals 

of certain noncommercial, educational broadcast stations outside their 

local markets, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 31, 2009 

Mrs. LUMMIS (for herself, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. SHEA-PORTER, 

Mr. SIMPSON, Mr. ADERHOLT, and Mr. PRICE of North Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, 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 section 119 of title 17, United States Code, and 

the Communications Act of 1934 to permit satellite carriers to retransmit the signals of certain noncommercial, 

educational broadcast stations outside their local markets, 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 ‘‘Statewide PTV Access 

5 Act of 2009’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SECONDARY TRANSMISSION OF NONCOMMERCIAL 

2 STATIONS BY SATELLITE CARRIERS OUTSIDE 

3 LOCAL MARKETS. 

4 (a) SECONDARY TRANSMISSIONS.—Section 

5 119(a)(2)(C) of title 17, United States Code, is amend6 ed— 

7 (1) by redesignating clauses (iii), (iv), and (v) 

8 as clauses (iv), (v), and (vi), respectively; and 

9 (2) by inserting after clause (ii) the following: 

10 ‘‘(iii) NONCOMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL

11 BROADCAST STATIONS.— 

12 ‘‘(I) SECONDARY TRANSMISSIONS

13 WITHIN STATE-WIDE NETWORK.—In 

14 the case of a State-wide network of 

15 noncommercial educational broadcast 

16 stations, the statutory license provided 

17 for in subparagraph (A) shall apply to 

18 the secondary transmission of any 

19 noncommercial educational broadcast 

20 station in that State-wide network to 

21 any subscriber in any county within 

22 that State that is located outside that 

23 station’s local market and is not 

24 served by a noncommercial edu25 cational television broadcast station 

26 that is located within that State. 


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1 ‘‘(II) STATE-WIDE NETWORK DE2 FINED.—In this clause, the term 

3 ‘State-wide network of noncommercial 

4 educational broadcast stations’ is a 

5 network of three or more noncommer6 cial educational broadcast stations 

7 that are licensed to a single State, po8 litical, educational, or special purpose 

9 subdivision of a State, or a single 

10 public agency.’’. 

11 (b) ROYALTY FEE.—Section 119(b)(1)(B) of title 17, 

12 United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘or para13 graph (2)(C)(iii)’’ after ‘‘subscriber under paragraph (3)’’. 

14 SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 

15 1934. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 325(b)(2) of the Commu17 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325 (b)(2)) is amend18 ed— 

19 (1) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of subparagraph 

20 (D); 

21 (2) by striking the period at the end of sub22 paragraph (E) and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 

23 (3) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the fol24 lowing new subparagraph: 


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1 ‘‘(F) to retransmission of the signal of a 

2 television broadcast station outside the station’s 

3 local market by a satellite carrier directly to its 

4 subscribers, if— 

5 ‘‘(i) such station is a part of a net6 work of three or more noncommercial edu7 cational broadcast stations that are li8 censed to a single State, political, edu9 cational, or special purpose subdivision of 

10 a State, or a single public agency; and 

11 ‘‘(ii) the satellite carrier retransmits 

12 the secondary signal of such eligible non13 commercial educational broadcast station 

14 only to its subscribers— 

15 ‘‘(I) located in any county within 

16 that State that is located outside that 

17 station’s local market; and 

18 ‘‘(II) not served by another non19 commercial educational broadcast sta20 tion that is located within that 

21 State;’’. 

22 (b) DISTANT SIGNALS.—Section 339(a)(1) of the 

23 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 339 (a)(1)) is 

24 amended by adding at the end the following new subpara25 graph: 


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1 ‘‘(C) In the case of a network of three or 

2 more noncommercial educational broadcast sta3 tions that are licensed to a single State, polit4 ical, educational, or special purpose subdivision 

5 of a State, or public agency, a satellite carrier 

6 may carry the signals of such network to all 

7 subscribers in any county within that State that 

8 is located outside that station’s designated mar9 ket area and is not served by another non10 commercial educational broadcast station lo11 cated within that State.’’. 

Æ 


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