IB 
Union Calendar No. 282 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5140 
[Report No. 116–354] 
To amend title 17, United States Code, to narrow the category of households 
eligible to receive signals under a distant-signal satellite license, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 18, 2019 
Mr. NADLER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary 
DECEMBER 17, 2019 
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 November 18, 2019] 
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A BILL 
To amend title 17, United States Code, to narrow the cat-
egory of households eligible to receive signals under a 
distant-signal satellite license, and for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Satellite Television Com-
munity Protection and Promotion Act of 2019’’. 
SEC. 2. ELIGIBILITY TO RECEIVE SIGNALS UNDER A DIS-
TANT-SIGNAL SATELLITE LICENSE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 119 of title 17, United 
States Code, is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)— 
(A) in paragraph (2)— 
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 
(I) by striking ‘‘signals, and’’ and 
inserting ‘‘signals,’’; 
(II) by inserting ‘‘, and the car-
rier provides local-into-local service to 
all DMAs’’ after ‘‘receiving the sec-
ondary transmission’’; and 
(III) by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new sentence: ‘‘Failure to reach 
an agreement with network stations to 
retransmit their signals shall not be 
construed to affect compliance with 
providing local-into-local service to all 
DMAs if the satellite carrier has the 
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capability to retransmit such signals 
when an agreement is reached.’’; and 
(ii) in subparagraph (B)— 
(I) by striking clauses (ii) and 
(iii); and 
(II) by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(ii) SHORT MARKETS.—In the case of 
secondary transmissions to households lo-
cated in short markets, subject to clause (i), 
the statutory license shall be further limited 
to secondary transmissions of only those 
primary transmissions of network stations 
that embody the programming of networks 
not offered on the primary stream or the 
multicast stream transmitted by any net-
work station in that market.’’; and 
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(D) TEMPORARY AND LIMITED USE OF LI-
CENSE.— 
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—Notwithstanding 
the requirement under subparagraph (A) 
that a satellite carrier provide local-into- 
local service to all DMAs before making a 
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secondary transmission under the license 
under this section, a satellite carrier that 
does not provide local-into-local service to 
all DMAs may make a covered transmission 
under such license if not later than 180 
days after the date of the enactment of the 
Satellite Television Community Protection 
and Promotion Act of 2019 the satellite car-
rier— 
‘‘(I) demonstrates that it has 
acted reasonably and made a good 
faith effort to provide local-into-local 
service to all DMAs and that it will 
continue to make a good faith effort to 
provide local-into-local service to all 
DMAs; and 
‘‘(II) files a Notice of Temporary 
Limited Use with the Copyright Office 
in accordance with clause (ii). 
‘‘(ii) NOTICE OF TEMPORARY LIMITED 
USE.—A Notice of Temporary Limited Use 
filed with the Copyright Office under this 
subparagraph shall contain— 
‘‘(I) an affirmation that the car-
rier intends to make covered trans-
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missions under the license under this 
section despite not providing local- 
into-local service to all DMAs; 
‘‘(II) a signed statement that the 
satellite carrier acted reasonably and 
made good faith efforts to provide 
local-into-local service to all DMAs; 
‘‘(III) a list of the designated 
market areas with respect to which no 
local-into-local service is provided by 
the satellite carrier; and 
‘‘(IV) a summary of actions taken 
by the satellite carrier to make ar-
rangements to provide local-into-local 
service to all DMAs. 
‘‘(iii) PERIOD
OF
TEMPORARY
AND 
LIMITED LICENSE.— 
‘‘(I) INITIAL 90-DAY PERIOD.—A 
satellite carrier that meets the require-
ments of this subparagraph may use 
the license under this section to make 
covered transmissions for a 90-day pe-
riod beginning on the date such carrier 
files a Notice of Temporary Limited 
Use with the Copyright Office. 
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‘‘(II) ADDITIONAL PERIODS.—The 
initial 90-day period described under 
clause (I) may be extended for addi-
tional periods of 90 days if the satellite 
carrier files a new Notice of Tem-
porary Limited Use with the Copy-
right Office on or before the last day of 
such initial period, and each successive 
90-day period thereafter. 
‘‘(iv) AUDIT AND VERIFICATION OF NO-
TICES.—The Register of Copyrights shall 
issue regulations that are similar in nature 
to the regulations issued under subsection 
(b)(2) to permit interested parties to verify 
and audit Notices of Temporary Limited 
Use filed by satellite carriers under this 
subparagraph. 
‘‘(v) CHALLENGE.—Any owner of a 
network station for which the primary 
stream or multicast stream of that network 
would have been transmitted by a satellite 
carrier under the license under this section 
but for the failure of that satellite carrier to 
provide local-into-local service to all DMAs 
may bring a civil action to challenge the 
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sufficiency of the reasonable actions and 
good faith efforts of that satellite carrier to 
provide local-into-local service to all DMAs, 
as such actions and efforts are described in 
the applicable Notice of Temporary Limited 
Use. 
‘‘(vi) COVERED
TRANSMISSION
DE-
FINED.—In this subparagraph, the term 
‘covered transmission’ means a secondary 
transmission of a primary transmission 
made by a network station to an unserved 
household.’’. 
(B) by striking paragraphs (3), (6)(E), (9), 
(10), and (13); and 
(C) by redesignating paragraphs (4), (5), 
(6), (7), (8), (11), (12), and (14) as paragraphs 
(3) through (10), respectively; 
(2) in subsection (c)(1)(E)— 
(A) by striking the comma after ‘‘in the 
agreement’’; 
(B) by striking ‘‘until December 31, 2019, 
or’’; and 
(C) by striking ‘‘, whichever is later’’ and 
inserting ‘‘until the subscriber for which the roy-
alty is payable is no longer eligible to receive a 
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or more of the four most widely viewed television net-
works nationwide is not offered on either the primary 
stream or multicast stream transmitted by any net-
work station in that market.’’; 
(4) by striking subsections (e) and (h); and 
(5) by redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as 
subsections (e) and (f). 
(b) PREVIOUSLY COVERED SUBSCRIBERS UNDER THE 
STELA REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2014.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—A subscriber of a satellite car-
rier who receives the secondary transmission of a net-
work station under the statutory license in section 
119 of title 17, United States Code, as in effect on the 
day before the date of the enactment of this Act, and 
to whom subsection (a)(2)(B) of such section, as 
amended by subsection (a), does not apply, shall con-
tinue to be eligible to receive that secondary trans-
mission from such carrier under such license, and at 
the royalty rate established for such license by the 
Copyright Royalty Board or voluntary agreement, as 
applicable, until the date that is the earlier of— 
(A) 180 days after the date of the enactment 
of this Act; or 
(B) the date on which such carrier provides 
local-into-local service to all DMAs. 
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(2) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection, the terms 
‘‘satellite carrier’’, ‘‘subscriber’’, ‘‘secondary trans-
mission’’, ‘‘network station’’, and ‘‘local-into-local 
service to all DMAs’’ have the meaning given those 
terms in section 119 of title 17, United States Code. 
(c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Title 17, United 
States Code, is further amended— 
(1) in section 119, as amended by subsection 
(a)— 
(A) in subsection (a)— 
(i) in paragraph (1), by striking 
‘‘paragraphs (4), (5), and (7)’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘paragraphs (3), (4), and (6)’’; and 
(ii) in paragraph (2), by striking 
‘‘paragraphs (4), (5), (6), and (7)’’ and in-
serting ‘‘paragraphs (3), (4), (5), and (6)’’; 
and 
(B) in subsection (g), by striking ‘‘sub-
section (a)(7)(B)’’ each place it appears and in-
serting ‘‘subsection (a)(5)(B)’’; and 
(2) in section 501(e), by striking ‘‘section 
119(a)(5)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 119(a)(3)’’. 
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Union Calendar No. 282 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 5140 
[Report No. 116–354] 
A BILL 
To amend title 17, United States Code, to narrow 
the category of households eligible to receive sig-
nals under a distant-signal satellite license, and 
for other purposes. 
DECEMBER 17, 2019 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 
and ordered to be printed 
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