I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1155 
To mandate satellite carriage of qualified noncommercial educational television 
stations. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 24, 2009 
Ms. ESHOO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To mandate satellite carriage of qualified noncommercial 
educational television stations. 
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 Consumers’ 
Access to Public Television Digital Programming Act of 
2009’’. 
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SEC. 2. SATELLITE CARRIAGE OF QUALIFIED NONCOMMER-
CIAL EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION STATIONS’ 
DIGITAL SIGNALS. 
Section 338(a) of the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 338(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new paragraph: 
‘‘(5) CARRIAGE
OF
QUALIFIED
NONCOMMER-
CIAL EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION STATIONS’ DIGITAL 
SIGNALS.— 
‘‘(A) OBLIGATION TO CARRY.—A satellite 
carrier that offers multichannel video program-
ming distribution service in the United States 
to more than 5,000,000 subscribers shall, with-
in 1 year after the date of the enactment of the 
Satellite Consumers’ Access to Public Television 
Digital Programming Act of 2009, retransmit 
the digital signals (including all free, over-the- 
air digital programming streams) of each quali-
fied noncommercial educational television sta-
tion located in any local market in the United 
States. The retransmissions of each such sta-
tion— 
‘‘(i) shall be made available to all of 
the satellite carrier’s subscribers in such 
station’s local market; and 
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‘‘(ii) shall be carried in the digital for-
mat originally transmitted by the broad-
caster, and, notwithstanding any other pro-
vision of law or regulation, without mate-
rial degradation, including conversion to 
any lower-resolution or non-digital format. 
‘‘(B) EXISTING
CONTRACTS.—Nothing in 
this paragraph shall alter the contractual rights 
or obligations of the parties to any contract be-
tween a qualified noncommercial educational 
television station, or its representative, and a 
satellite carrier that is in force and effect as of 
the date of enactment of the Satellite Con-
sumers’ Access to Public Television Digital Pro-
gramming Act of 2009.’’. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITION. 
Section 338(k) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (5) through 
(8) as paragraphs (6) through (9), respectively; and 
(2) by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol-
lowing new paragraph: 
‘‘(5) 
QUALIFIED
NONCOMMERCIAL
EDU-
CATIONAL TELEVISION STATION.—The term ‘quali-
fied noncommercial educational television station’ 
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has the meaning given such term in section 
615(l)(1) of this Act.’’. 
Æ 
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