I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 6072 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax credits for 
carriage of independent programmers by certain multichannel video pro-
gramming distributors. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 26, 2023 
Mr. BILIRAKIS (for himself, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. STEUBE, Mr. PA-
NETTA, Mrs. MILLER of West Virginia, Mr. VALADAO, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr. 
SOTO, Mr. CARTER of Georgia, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. CASTOR of Flor-
ida, Mr. CA´RDENAS, and Ms. KELLY of Illinois) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, 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 con-
cerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide 
tax credits for carriage of independent programmers by 
certain multichannel video programming distributors. 
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 ‘‘Independent Program-
mers Tax Incentive Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. CARRIAGE OF INDEPENDENT PROGRAMMERS TAX 
CREDIT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart D of part IV of sub-
chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new 
section: 
‘‘SEC. 45BB. CARRIAGE OF INDEPENDENT PROGRAMMERS 
CREDIT. 
‘‘(a) ALLOWANCE OF CREDIT.—For purposes of sec-
tion 38, in the case of any eligible distributor, the carriage 
of independent programmers credit determined under this 
section for the taxable year is, with respect to each agree-
ment for qualifying carriage entered into by such eligible 
distributor, the lesser of— 
‘‘(1) the net license fees paid or incurred by 
such eligible distributor during such taxable year 
under such agreement for qualifying carriage, or 
‘‘(2) the product of $0.10 multiplied by the av-
erage number of monthly subscribers (for calendar 
months during such taxable year) to which carriage 
is provided under such agreement. 
‘‘(b) MAXIMUM CREDIT.—The credit determined 
under this section with respect to any eligible distributor 
for any taxable year shall not exceed the product of $0.30 
multiplied by the average number of monthly subscribers 
(for calendar months during such taxable year). 
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‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS AND SPECIAL RULES.—For pur-
poses of this section— 
‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE DISTRIBUTOR.—The term ‘eligi-
ble distributor’ means any person which is either— 
‘‘(A) engaged in the trade or business of 
being a multichannel video programming dis-
tributor, or 
‘‘(B) a virtual multichannel video program-
ming distributor. 
‘‘(2) MULTICHANNEL
VIDEO
PROGRAMMING 
DISTRIBUTOR.—The term ‘multichannel video pro-
gramming distributor’ has the meaning given such 
term in section 76.1000(e) of title 47 of the Code 
of Federal Regulations. 
‘‘(3) VIRTUAL
MULTICHANNEL
VIDEO
PRO-
GRAMMING DISTRIBUTOR.—The term ‘virtual multi-
channel video programming distributor’ means any 
person engaged in the trade or business of making 
available directly to the end user, by means of the 
Internet or other IP-based transmission path, mul-
tiple streams of linear video programming. 
‘‘(4) VIDEO PROGRAMMING.—The term ‘video 
programming’ has the meaning given such term in 
section 79.4(a)(1) of title 47 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations. 
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‘‘(5) 
AGREEMENT
FOR
QUALIFYING
CAR-
RIAGE.—The term ‘agreement for qualifying car-
riage’ means a written agreement between an eligible 
distributor and a qualified independent programmer 
that provides for new or expanded carriage of one or 
more linear video programming streams of a quali-
fied independent programmer to at least 40 percent 
of the eligible distributor’s subscriber base in aggre-
gate for such linear video programming streams and 
which requires the eligible distributor to pay a li-
cense fee to the qualified independent programmer. 
‘‘(6) 
QUALIFIED
INDEPENDENT
PRO-
GRAMMER.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘qualified 
independent programmer’ means a United 
States-based person engaged in the production, 
creation, or wholesale distribution of linear 
video programming (including, but not limited 
to, women-, minority-, or socially disadvan-
taged-, owned programmers) if— 
‘‘(i) such person is not a publicly-trad-
ed company, multichannel video program-
ming 
distributor, 
virtual 
multichannel 
video programming distributor, network, or 
television station company, and 
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‘‘(ii) no publicly-traded company, mul-
tichannel video programming distributor, 
virtual multichannel video programming 
distributor, network, or television station 
company has a cognizable interest in such 
person. 
‘‘(B) 
SOCIALLY
DISADVANTAGED.—The 
term ‘socially disadvantaged’ has the meaning 
given such term in section 124.103 of title 13 
of the Code of Federal Regulations. 
‘‘(C) PUBLICLY-TRADED
COMPANY.—The 
term ‘publicly-traded company’ means any enti-
ty if one or more equity interests in such entity 
are traded on an established securities market. 
‘‘(D) NETWORK.—The term ‘network’ has 
the meaning given such term in section 76.55(f) 
of title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations. 
‘‘(E) TELEVISION
STATION
COMPANY.— 
The term ‘television station company’ means 
any person if, after taking into account the au-
dience reach of all television stations under 
common control with such person, such person 
has a national audience reach in excess of 3 
percent. Terms used in this subparagraph 
which are also used in section 202(c) of the 
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Telecommunications Act of 1996 (or in the reg-
ulations issued pursuant to such section) shall 
have the same meaning as when used in such 
section (or such regulations). 
‘‘(F) COGNIZABLE
INTEREST.—The term 
‘cognizable interest’ has the meaning given such 
term in section 76.1000(b) of title 47 of the 
Code of Federal Regulations. 
‘‘(7) LICENSE FEES.—Except as otherwise pro-
vided by the Secretary, in the case of an agreement 
for qualifying carriage which is net effective rate 
positive for the qualified independent programmer, 
the appropriate amount shall be treated as a license 
fee paid by the eligible distributor to the qualified 
independent programmer. 
‘‘(d) DENIAL OF DOUBLE BENEFIT.—No deduction 
shall be allowed under this chapter for any amount to the 
extent that such amount is allowed as a credit under this 
section.’’. 
(b) CREDIT MADE PART OF GENERAL BUSINESS 
CREDIT.—Subsection (b) of section 38 of such Code is 
amended by striking ‘‘plus’’ at the end of paragraph (40), 
by striking the period at the end of paragraph (41) and 
inserting ‘‘, plus’’, and by adding at the end the following 
new paragraph: 
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‘‘(42) the carriage of independent programmers 
credit determined under section 45BB.’’. 
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
for subpart D of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 
of such Code is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new item: 
‘‘Sec. 45BB. Carriage of Independent Programmers Credit.’’. 
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply to expenses paid or incurred after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, in taxable years 
ending after such date. 
SEC. 3. BIENNIAL REPORT BY FCC TO CONGRESS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, and not less frequently 
than every 2 years thereafter, the Federal Communica-
tions Commission shall submit to Congress a report that— 
(1) states the number of qualified independent 
programmers that have a linear video programming 
stream that is distributed to subscribers of one or 
more eligible distributors and the average length of 
time for which such a linear video programming 
stream has been so distributed by the same eligible 
distributor; 
(2) states the number of qualified independent 
programmers that have a linear video programming 
stream that is distributed to subscribers of one or 
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more multichannel video programming distributors 
and the average length of time for which such a lin-
ear video programming stream has been so distrib-
uted by the same multichannel video programming 
distributor; 
(3) states the number of qualified independent 
programmers that have a linear video programming 
stream that is distributed to subscribers of one or 
more virtual multichannel video programming dis-
tributors and the average length of time for which 
such a linear video programming stream has been so 
distributed by the same virtual multichannel video 
programming distributor; and 
(4) contains recommendations for how to in-
crease the number of qualified independent program-
mers described in paragraph (1). 
(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘‘eligi-
ble distributor’’, ‘‘multichannel video programming dis-
tributor’’, ‘‘virtual multichannel video programming dis-
tributor’’, ‘‘video programming’’, and ‘‘qualified inde-
pendent programmer’’ have the meanings given such 
terms in section 45BB(c) of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986, as added by section 2. 
(c) DISCLOSURE OF TAX RETURN INFORMATION.— 
Section 6103(l) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 
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amended by adding at the end the following new para-
graph: 
‘‘(24) DISCLOSURE OF RETURN INFORMATION 
TO FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION FOR BI-
ENNIAL REPORTS TO CONGRESS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, 
upon written request from the Federal Commu-
nications Commission, disclose to officers and 
employees of such Commission such return in-
formation of taxpayers claiming the credit al-
lowable under section 45BB as such Commis-
sion determines necessary to prepare the re-
ports required under section 2 of the Inde-
pendent Programmers Tax Incentive Act. 
‘‘(B) RESTRICTION ON DISCLOSURE.—Re-
turn information disclosed under subparagraph 
(A) may be used by officers and employees of 
the Federal Communications Commission for 
the purposes of, and to the extent necessary in, 
preparing the reports required under section 2 
of the Independent Programmers Tax Incentive 
Act. Such reports shall not include return infor-
mation which is identifiable as being with re-
spect to a particular taxpayer.’’. 
Æ 
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