ated with, a broadcasting network directly to a home
satellite antenna, if the household receiving the signal
is located in an area in which such station may not
assert its rights not to have its signal duplicated
under the Commission’s network nonduplication regu-
lations; or
‘‘(D) retransmission by a cable operator or other
multichannel video provider of the signal of a tele-
vision broadcast station outside the station’s local
market if such signal was obtained from a satellite
carrier and—
‘‘(i) the originating station was a supersta-
tion on May 1, 1991; and
‘‘(ii) as of July 1, 1998, such station was
retransmitted by a satellite carrier under the
statutory license provided in section 119 of title
17, United States Code.’’;
(2) by adding at the end of paragraph (3) the
following new subparagraph:
‘‘(C) Within 45 days after the effective date of the Sat-
ellite Television Improvement Act, the Commission shall
commence a rulemaking proceeding to revise the regulations
governing the exercise by television broadcast stations of the
right to grant retransmission consent under this subsection,
and such other regulations as are necessary to administer
the limitation contained in paragraph (2). Such regula-
tions shall establish election time periods that correspond
with those regulations adopted under subparagraph (B).
The rulemaking shall be completed within 180 days after
the effective date of the Satellite Television Improvement
Act.’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new para-
graph:
‘‘(7) For purposes of this subsection:
‘‘(A) The term ‘superstation’ means a television
broadcast station, other than a network station, li-
censed by the Commission that is secondarily trans-
mitted by a satellite carrier.
‘‘(B) The term ‘satellite carrier’ has the meaning
given that term in section 119(d) of title 17, United
States Code.’’.
SEC. 
9. 
MUST-CARRY 
FOR 
SATELLITE 
CARRIERS 
RE-
TRANSMITTING TELEVISION BROADCAST SIG-
NALS.
Title III of the Communications Act of 1934 is amend-
ed by inserting after section 337 the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 338. CARRIAGE OF LOCAL TELEVISION SIGNALS BY
SATELLITE CARRIERS.
‘‘(a) CARRIAGE OBLIGATIONS.—Each satellite carrier
providing direct to home service of a television broadcast
station to subscribers located within the local market of such
station pursuant to section 122 of title 17, United States
Code, shall, not later than January 1, 2002, carry all tele-
vision broadcast stations located within that local market.
Carriage of additional television broadcast stations within
the local market shall be at the discretion of the satellite
carrier, subject to section 325(b).
‘‘(b) GOOD SIGNAL REQUIRED.—
‘‘(1) COSTS.—A television broadcast station as-
serting its right to carriage under subsection (a) shall
be required to bear the costs associated with delivering
a good quality signal to the designated local receive
facility of the satellite carrier. The selection of a local
receive facility by a satellite carrier shall not be made
in a manner that frustrates the purposes of this sec-
tion.
‘‘(2) REGULATIONS.—The regulations issued
under subsection (g) shall set forth the obligations
necessary to carry out this subsection.
‘‘(c) DUPLICATION NOT REQUIRED.—Notwithstanding
subsection (a), a satellite carrier shall not be required to
carry the signal of any local television broadcast station
that substantially duplicates the signal of another local tele-
vision broadcast station which is secondarily transmitted
by the satellite carrier, or to carry the signals of more that
one local television broadcast station affiliated with a par-
ticular broadcast network (as the term is defined by regula-
tion).
‘‘(d) CHANNEL POSITIONING.—No satellite carrier
shall be required to provide the signal of a local television
broadcast station to subscribers in that station’s local mar-
ket on any particular channel number or to provide the
signals in any particular order, except that the satellite car-
rier shall retransmit the signal of the local television broad-
cast station to subscribers in that station’s local market on
contiguous channels and in a nondiscriminatory manner
on any navigational device, on-screen program guide, or
menu.
‘‘(e) COMPENSATION FOR CARRIAGE.—A satellite car-
rier shall not accept or request monetary payment or other
valuable consideration in exchange either for carriage of
local television broadcast stations in fulfillment of the re-
quirements of this section or for channel positioning rights
provided to such stations under this section, except that any
such station may be required to bear the costs associated
with delivering a good quality signal to the local receive
facility of the satellite carrier.
‘‘(f) REMEDIES.—
‘‘(1) COMPLAINTS
BY
BROADCAST
STATIONS.—
Whenever a local television broadcast station believes
that a satellite carrier has failed to meet its obliga-
tions under this section, such station shall notify the
carrier, in writing, of the alleged failure and identify
its reasons for believing that the satellite carrier is ob-
ligated to carry the signal of such station or has oth-
erwise failed to comply with the channel positioning
or repositioning or other requirements of this section.
The satellite carrier shall, within 30 days of such
written notification, respond in writing to such noti-
fication and either commence to carry the signal of
such station in accordance with the terms requested or
state its reasons for believing that it is not obligated
to carry such signal or is in compliance with the
channel positioning and repositioning or other re-
quirements of this section. A local television broadcast
station that is denied carriage or channel positioning
or repositioning in accordance with this section by a
satellite carrier may obtain review of such denial by
filing a complaint with the Commission. Such com-
plaint shall allege the manner in which such satellite
carrier has failed to meet its obligations and the basis
for such allegations.
‘‘(2) OPPORTUNITY TO RESPOND.—The Commis-
sion shall afford such satellite carrier and oppor-
tunity to present data and arguments to establish
that there has been no failure to meet its obligations
under this section.
‘‘(3) REMEDIAL
ACTIONS; DISMISSAL.—Within
120 days after the date a complaint is filed, the Com-
mission shall determine whether the satellite carrier
has met its obligations under this section. If the Com-
mission determines that the satellite carrier has failed
to meet such obligations, the Commission shall order
the satellite carrier to reposition the complaining sta-
tion or, in the case of an obligation to carry a sta-
tion, to commence carriage of the station and to con-
tinue such carriage for at least 12 months. If the
Commission determines that the satellite carrier has
fully met the requirements of this section, it shall dis-
miss the complaint.
‘‘(g) REGULATIONS
BY COMMISSION.—Within 180
days after the effective date of this section, the Commission
shall, following a rulemaking proceeding, issue regulations
implementing the requirements imposed by this section.
‘‘(h) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section:
‘‘(1) TELEVISION
BROADCAST
STATION.—The
term ‘television broadcast station’ means a full-power
television broadcast station, and does not include a
low-power or translator television broadcast station.
‘‘(2) LOCAL MARKET.—The term ‘local market’
means the designated market area in which a station
is located.
‘‘(3) DESIGNATED
MARKET
AREA.—The term
‘designated market area’ means a designated market
area, as determined by the Nielsen Media Research
and published in the DMA Market and Demographic
Report or, if no longer published, as determined by
another commercial publication that delineates tele-
vision markets based on viewing patterns.
‘‘(4) LOCAL RECEIVE FACILITY.—The term local
receive facility means the reception point in the local
market of a television broadcast station or in a mar-
ket contiguous to the local market of a television
broadcast station at which a satellite carrier initially
receives the signal of the station for purposes of trans-
mission of such signals to the facility which uplinks
the signals to the carrier’s satellites for secondary
transmission to the satellite carrier’s subscribers. The
designation of a local receive facility by a satellite
carrier shall not be used to undermine or evade the
carriage requirements imposed by this section.’’.
SEC. 10. NETWORK NONDUPLICATION; SYNDICATED EXCLU-
SIVITY AND SPORTS BLACKOUT.
(a) REGULATIONS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Within 45 days after the effec-
tive date of this Act, the Federal Communications
Commission shall commence a rulemaking to establish
regulations that apply network nonduplication pro-
tection, syndicated exclusivity protection, and sports
blackout protection to the retransmission of broadcast
signals by satellite carriers to subscribers. To the ex-
tent possible, and where technologically feasible and
economically reasonable, such regulations shall, sub-
ject to paragraph (2), include the same level of protec-
tion accorded retransmissions of television broadcast
signals by cable systems for network nonduplication
(47 C.F.R. 76.92), syndicated exclusivity (47 C.F.R.
151), and sports blackout (47 C.F.R. 76.67). The
Commission shall complete all action necessary to
prescribe the regulations required by this section so
that the regulations shall become effective within 1
year after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(2) NETWORK
NONDUPLICATION.—The network
nonduplication regulations required under paragraph
(1) shall allow a network television broadcast station
to assert nonduplication rights—
(A) against a satellite carrier throughout
that station’s local market if that satellite carrier
is retransmitting that station pursuant to sec-
tion 122 of title 17, United States Code, or other
television broadcast stations located in the same
local market pursuant to section 122 of title 17,
United States Code, except for television broad-
cast stations located in that same market that
are affiliated with the same network as the sta-
tion, to subscribers located in that station’s local
market; or
(B) against a satellite carrier retransmit-
ting television broadcast stations pursuant to
section 119 of title 17, United States Code, in the
geographic area in which the signal of that tele-
vision broadcast station is of Grade B intensity
as defined by the Federal Communications Com-
mission on March 1, 1999, in section 73.683(a)
of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, based
upon the Individually Located Longley-Rice
methodology described by the Federal Commu-
nications Commission in its Docket No. 98–201,
but such geographic area shall not extend beyond
the local market of such station.
If a subscriber’s network service is terminated as a re-
sult of network nonduplication protection asserted by
a local network television broadcast station under
subparagraph (B), or as a result of the provisions of
section 119 of title 17, United States Code, the sat-
ellite carrier shall provide to the subscriber free of
charge an over-the-air television broadcast receiving
antenna that will provide the subscriber with an over-
the-air signal of Grade B intensity for those network
stations that were terminated as a result of subpara-
graph (B).
(3) WAIVERS.—(A) The network nonduplication
protection described in paragraph (2)(b) shall not
apply to a subscriber located in the geographic area
that is identified by the Individually Located
Longley-Rice methodology described by the Federal
Communications Commission in its Docket No. 98–
201 who files with the satellite carrier a written
waiver with respect to that subscriber’s household ob-
tained from the network station whose local market is
in that geographic area, allowing the subscriber to re-
ceive satellite service of another network station affili-
ated with that same network. The local network sta-
tion and the satellite carrier shall maintain a file
available to the public that contains such waiver.
(B) If a subscriber within the local market of a
network station petitions the Federal Communica-
tions Commission with the written findings and con-
clusions of a test conducted in accordance with the
provisions of section 73.686(d) of title 47, Code of
Federal Regulations, as in effect on March 1, 1999,
demonstrating that the household in which the sub-
scriber resides does not receive an over-the-air signal
of the network station of Grade B intensity, the net-
work station shall have 30 days in which to file with
the Commission an objection to the petition. If the
network station does not file a timely objection, then
the station may not assert network nonduplication
protection described in paragraph (2)(B) with respect
to that subscriber’s household. If the station does file
a timely objection, then the Commission shall have
120 days in which to determine the sufficiency of the
subscriber’s petition. If the Commission determines
that the petition is sufficient, then The network non-
duplication protection described in paragraph (2)(B)
shall not apply to that subscriber’s household.
(4) INTERIM
PROVISIONS.—Until the Federal
Communications 
Commission 
issues 
regulations
under paragraphs (1) and (3), no subscriber whose
household is located outside the Grade A contour of a
network station shall have his or her satellite service
of another network station affiliated with that same
network terminated as a result of the provisions of
section 119 of title 17, United States Code.
(5) LOCAL MARKET DEFINED.—The term ‘‘local
market’’ has the meaning provided in section 337(h)
of the Communications Act of 1934, as added by sec-
tion 3 of this Act.
(b) DEFERRED APPLICABILITY OF AMENDMENTS TO
SECTION 119 OF TITLE 17, UNITED STATES CODE.—Not-
withstanding the amendments to section 119 of title 17,
United States Code, made by this Act, until the regulations
regarding network nonduplication protection are estab-
lished under subsection (a), the statutory license under sub-
section (a) of such section 119 for secondary transmissions
of primary transmissions of programming contained in a
primary transmission made by a network station (as de-
fined in section 119(d) of title 17, United States Code, as
in effect on the day before the effective date of this Act) shall
be limited to secondary transmissions to persons who reside
in unserved households (as defined in section 119(d) of title
17, United States Code, as in effect on the day before the
effective date of this Act).
SEC. 11. STUDY ON TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT OF
MUST-CARRY ON DELIVERY OF LOCAL SIG-
NALS.
Not later than July 1, 2000, the Register of Copyrights
and the Federal Communications Commission shall submit
to the Congress a joint report that sets forth in detail their
findings and conclusions with respect to the technical feasi-
bility of imposing the requirements of section 337 of the
Communications Act of 1934 on satellite carriers that de-
liver local signals, and the technical and economic impact
of such section on the ability of satellite carriers to serve
multiple television markets with retransmission of local tel-
evision broadcast stations. In preparing this report, the
Register of Copyrights and the Commission shall give par-
ticular consideration to how section 337 of the Communica-
tions Act of 1934 affects the technical limitations and eco-
nomic incentives for satellite retransmissions of local tele-
vision broadcast signals in television markets other than the
100 largest television markets in the United States (as de-
termined by the Nielsen Media Research and published in
the DMA Market and Demographic Report).
SEC. 12. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall
take effect on July 1, 1999, except that—
(1) the amendments made by section 5 shall take
effect on the date of the enactment of this Act; and
(2) the amendment made by section 6(1)(B)(ii)
shall take effect on the date that is 1 year after the
date of the enactment of this Act.