I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3498 
To amend section 119 of title 17, United States Code, and the Communica-
tions 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) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary, 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 com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend section 119 of title 17, United States Code, and 
the Communications Act of 1934 to permit satellite car-
riers to retransmit the signals of certain noncommercial, 
educational broadcast stations outside their local mar-
kets, and for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘Statewide PTV Access 
Act of 2009’’. 
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SEC. 2. SECONDARY TRANSMISSION OF NONCOMMERCIAL 
STATIONS BY SATELLITE CARRIERS OUTSIDE 
LOCAL MARKETS. 
(a) 
SECONDARY
TRANSMISSIONS.—Section 
119(a)(2)(C) of title 17, United States Code, is amend-
ed— 
(1) by redesignating clauses (iii), (iv), and (v) 
as clauses (iv), (v), and (vi), respectively; and 
(2) by inserting after clause (ii) the following: 
‘‘(iii) NONCOMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL 
BROADCAST STATIONS.— 
‘‘(I) SECONDARY TRANSMISSIONS 
WITHIN
STATE-WIDE
NETWORK.—In 
the case of a State-wide network of 
noncommercial educational broadcast 
stations, the statutory license provided 
for in subparagraph (A) shall apply to 
the secondary transmission of any 
noncommercial educational broadcast 
station in that State-wide network to 
any subscriber in any county within 
that State that is located outside that 
station’s local market and is not 
served by a noncommercial edu-
cational television broadcast station 
that is located within that State. 
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‘‘(II) STATE-WIDE NETWORK DE-
FINED.—In this clause, the term 
‘State-wide network of noncommercial 
educational broadcast stations’ is a 
network of three or more noncommer-
cial educational broadcast stations 
that are licensed to a single State, po-
litical, educational, or special purpose 
subdivision of a State, or a single 
public agency.’’. 
(b) ROYALTY FEE.—Section 119(b)(1)(B) of title 17, 
United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘or para-
graph (2)(C)(iii)’’ after ‘‘subscriber under paragraph (3)’’. 
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 
1934. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 325(b)(2) of the Commu-
nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325 (b)(2)) is amend-
ed— 
(1) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of subparagraph 
(D); 
(2) by striking the period at the end of sub-
paragraph (E) and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the fol-
lowing new subparagraph: 
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‘‘(F) to retransmission of the signal of a 
television broadcast station outside the station’s 
local market by a satellite carrier directly to its 
subscribers, if— 
‘‘(i) such station is a part of a net-
work of three or more noncommercial edu-
cational broadcast stations that are li-
censed to a single State, political, edu-
cational, or special purpose subdivision of 
a State, or a single public agency; and 
‘‘(ii) the satellite carrier retransmits 
the secondary signal of such eligible non-
commercial educational broadcast station 
only to its subscribers— 
‘‘(I) located in any county within 
that State that is located outside that 
station’s local market; and 
‘‘(II) not served by another non-
commercial educational broadcast sta-
tion that is located within that 
State;’’. 
(b) DISTANT SIGNALS.—Section 339(a)(1) of the 
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 339 (a)(1)) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subpara-
graph: 
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‘‘(C) In the case of a network of three or 
more noncommercial educational broadcast sta-
tions that are licensed to a single State, polit-
ical, educational, or special purpose subdivision 
of a State, or public agency, a satellite carrier 
may carry the signals of such network to all 
subscribers in any county within that State that 
is located outside that station’s designated mar-
ket area and is not served by another non-
commercial educational broadcast station lo-
cated within that State.’’. 
Æ 
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