I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2862
To amend the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999 to provide 
residents of States with single network affiliate stations to receive the 
signals of such stations via satellite, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 24, 2003
Mr. BRADLEY of New Hampshire (for himself and Mr. BASS) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 
1999 to provide residents of States with single network 
affiliate stations to receive the signals of such stations 
via satellite, 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 ‘‘North Country Access 
Act of 2003’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Under the provisions set forth in section 
122 of title 17, United States Code, a satellite car-
rier retransmitting to its subscribers an over-the-air 
television broadcast station within the local market 
of that station may make a secondary transmission 
under the statutory license of the programming con-
tained on that broadcast signal. 
(2) Under the section 119 of title 17, United 
States Code, a satellite carrier retransmitting to its 
subscribers an over-the-air television broadcast sta-
tion from a distant market may make a secondary 
transmission under the statutory license of the pro-
gramming contained on that broadcast signal. How-
ever, the statutory license under section 119 does 
not permit retransmission of a distant network tele-
vision station to subscribers who reside within the 
local market of a television station owned by or af-
filiated with the same network and who receive an 
over-the-air signal of Grade B intensity, as defined 
by the Federal Communications Commission, using 
a conventional rooftop antenna. 
(3) Within some States of the United States, 
there is only one licensed commercial network tele-
vision station of any network. Nevertheless, there 
can be more than one television market within the
State, as defined by the Federal Communications 
Commission, resulting in the commercial network 
station being a distant signal to satellite subscribers 
who are located outside the local market of the sta-
tion but who reside within the geographic borders of 
the State. As a result, many of these satellite sub-
scribers outside the local market are not eligible to 
receive the commercial network station under either 
the section 119 or section 122 statutory license. 
(4) Such a commercial television network sta-
tion serves a strong public interest in the State by 
providing regional and local news, weather, and 
other information. There is an important interest in 
assuring that all citizens of that State be eligible to 
receive satellite service of that commercial network 
station under the copyright laws. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF LOCAL MARKET TO INCLUDE EN-
TIRE STATE. 
Section 122(j)(2) of title 17, United States Code, is 
amended—
(1) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as sub-
paragraph (D); and 
(2) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the fol-
lowing new subparagraph:
‘‘(D) STATES WITH SINGLE COMMERCIAL 
NETWORK STATION.—In addition to the areas 
described in subparagraphs (A) and (B), a com-
mercial network station’s local market shall in-
clude all communities within the geographic 
borders of the State in which the commercial 
network station is licensed, if that commercial 
network station is the only commercial network 
station of any network licensed within the 
State. ’’.
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