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riage of television broadcast signals by satellite car-
riers.
‘‘(3) The terms ‘network station’, ‘satellite car-
rier’ and ‘secondary transmission’ have the meaning
given such terms under section 119(d).
‘‘(4) The term ‘subscriber’ means an entity that
receives a secondary transmission service by means of
a secondary transmission from a satellite and pays a
fee for the service, directly or indirectly, to the sat-
ellite carrier or to a distributor.
‘‘(5) The term ‘television broadcast station’
means an over-the-air, commercial or noncommercial
television broadcast station licensed by the Federal
Communications Commission under subpart E of
part 73 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations.’’.
(b) TECHNICAL
AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—
The table of sections for chapter 1 of title 17, United States
Code, is amended by adding after the item relating to sec-
tion 121 the following:
‘‘122. Limitations on exclusive rights; secondary transmissions by satellite car-
riers within local market.’’.
SEC. 103. EXTENSION OF EFFECT OF AMENDMENTS TO SEC-
TION 119 OF TITLE 17, UNITED STATES CODE.
Section 4(a) of the Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1994
(17 U.S.C. 119 note; Public Law 103–369; 108 Stat. 3481)
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is amended by striking ‘‘December 31, 1999’’ and inserting
‘‘December 31, 2004’’.
SEC. 104. COMPUTATION OF ROYALTY FEES FOR SATELLITE
CARRIERS.
Section 119(c) of title 17, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
‘‘(4) REDUCTION.—
‘‘(A) SUPERSTATION.—The rate of the roy-
alty fee in effect on January 1, 1998 payable in
each case under subsection (b)(1)(B)(i) shall be
reduced by 30 percent.
‘‘(B) NETWORK.—The rate of the royalty fee
in effect on January 1, 1998 payable under sub-
section (b)(1)(B)(ii) shall be reduced by 45 per-
cent.
‘‘(5) 
PUBLIC
BROADCASTING
SERVICE
AS
AGENT.—For purposes of section 802, with respect to
royalty fees paid by satellite carriers for retransmit-
ting the Public Broadcasting Service satellite feed, the
Public Broadcasting Service shall be the agent for all
public television copyright claimants and all Public
Broadcasting Service member stations.’’.
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SEC. 105. DEFINITIONS.
Section 119(d) of title 17, United States Code, is
amended by striking paragraph (10) and inserting the fol-
lowing:
‘‘(10) 
UNSERVED
HOUSEHOLD.—The 
term
‘unserved household’, with respect to a particular tele-
vision network, means a household that cannot re-
ceive, through the use of a conventional outdoor roof-
top receiving antenna, an over-the-air signal of grade
B intensity (as defined by the Federal Communica-
tions Commission) of a primary network station af-
filiated with that network or is not otherwise eligible
to receive directly from a satellite carrier a signal of
that television network (other than a signal provided
under section 122) in accordance with section 338 of
the Communications Act of 1934.’’.
SEC. 106. PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE SATELLITE
FEED.
(a) SECONDARY TRANSMISSIONS.—Section 119(a)(1)
of title 17, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by striking the paragraph heading and in-
serting ‘‘(1) SUPERSTATIONS
AND
PBS
SATELLITE
FEED.—’’;
(2) by inserting ‘‘or by the Public Broadcasting
Service satellite feed’’ after ‘‘superstation’’; and
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(3) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘In the
case of the Public Broadcasting Service satellite feed,
the compulsory license shall be effective until January
1, 2002.’’.
(b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 119(d) of title 17, United
States Code, is amended—
(1) by amending paragraph (9) to read as fol-
lows:
‘‘(9) SUPERSTATION.—The term ‘superstation’—
‘‘(A) means a television broadcast station,
other than a network station, licensed by the
Federal Communications Commission that is
secondarily transmitted by a satellite carrier;
and
‘‘(B) includes the Public Broadcasting Serv-
ice satellite feed.’’; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(12) PUBLIC
BROADCASTING
SERVICE
SAT-
ELLITE FEED.—The term ‘Public Broadcasting Serv-
ice satellite feed’ means the national satellite feed dis-
tributed by the Public Broadcasting Service con-
sisting of educational and informational program-
ming intended for private home viewing, to which the
Public Broadcasting Service holds national terrestrial
broadcast rights.’’.
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SEC. 107. APPLICATION OF FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS
COMMISSION REGULATIONS.
Section 119(a) of title 17, United States Code, is
amended—
(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘is permis-
sible under the rules, regulations, and authorizations
of the Federal Communications Commission,’’ after
‘‘satellite carrier to the public for private home view-
ing,’’;
(2) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘is permis-
sible under the rules, regulations, and authorizations
of the Federal Communications Commission,’’ after
‘‘satellite carrier to the public for private home view-
ing,’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(11) STATUTORY LICENSE CONTINGENT ON COM-
PLIANCE WITH FCC RULES AND REMEDIAL STEPS.—
The willful or repeated secondary transmission to the
public by a satellite carrier of a primary trans-
mission made by a broadcast station licensed by the
Federal Communications Commission is actionable as
an act of infringement under section 501, and is fully
subject to the remedies provided by sections 502
through 506 and 509, if, at the time of such trans-
mission, the satellite carrier is not in compliance
with the rules, regulations, and authorizations of the
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Federal Communications Commission concerning the
carriage of television broadcast station signals.’’.
SEC. 108. TELEVISION BROADCAST STATION STANDING.
Section 501 of title 17, United States Code, is amended
by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(f) With respect to any secondary transmission that
is made by a satellite carrier of a primary transmission
embodying the performance or display of a work and is ac-
tionable as an act of infringement under section 122, a tele-
vision broadcast station holding a copyright or other license
to transmit or perform the same version of that work shall,
for purposes of subsection (b) of this section, be treated as
a legal or beneficial owner if such secondary transmission
occurs within the local market of that station.’’.
SEC. 109. MORATORIUM ON COPYRIGHT LIABILITY.
Until December 31, 1999, no subscriber, as defined
under section 119(d)(8) of title 17, United States Code, lo-
cated within the predicted Grade B contour of a local net-
work television broadcast station shall have satellite service
of a distant network signal affiliated with the same network
terminated, if that subscriber received satellite service of
such network signal before July 11, 1998, as a result of sec-
tion 119 of title 17, United States Code.
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SEC. 110. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This title and the amendments made by this title shall
take effect on January 1, 1999, except the amendments
made by section 104 shall take effect on July 1, 1999.
TITLE II—SATELLITE
TELEVISION ACT OF 1999
SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE.
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Satellite Television Act
of 1999’’.
SEC. 202. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) In the Cable Television Consumer Protection
and Competition Act of 1992, Congress stated its pol-
icy of promoting competition in cable services and
making available to the public a diversity of views
and information through cable television and other
video media.
(2) In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Con-
gress stated its policy of securing lower prices and
higher quality service for American telecommuni-
cations consumers and encouraging the rapid deploy-
ment of new telecommunications technologies.
(3) In most places throughout America, cable tel-
evision system operators still do not face effective
competition from other providers of multichannel
video service.
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(4) Absent effective competition, the market
power exercised by cable television operators enables
them to raise the price of cable service to consumers,
and to control the price and availability of cable pro-
gramming services to other multichannel video service
providers. Current Federal Communications Commis-
sion rules have been inadequate in constraining cable
price increases.
(5) Direct-to-home satellite service has over 8
million subscribers and constitutes the most signifi-
cant competitive alternative to cable television service.
(6) Direct-to-home satellite service currently suf-
fers from a number of statutory, regulatory, and tech-
nical barriers that keep it from being an effective
competitor to cable television in the provision of mul-
tichannel video services.
(7) The most prominent of these barriers is the
inability to provide subscribers with local television
broadcast signals by satellite.
(8) Permitting providers of direct-to-home sat-
ellite service to retransmit local television signals to
their subscribers would greatly enhance the ability of
direct-to-home satellite service providers to compete
more effectively in the provision of multichannel video
services.
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(9) Due to capacity limitations and in the inter-
est of providing service in as many markets as pos-
sible, providers of direct-to-home satellite service, un-
like cable television systems, cannot at this time carry
all local television broadcast signals in all the local
television markets they seek to serve.
(10) It would be in the public interest for pro-
viders of direct-to-home satellite service to fully com-
ply with the mandatory signal carriage rules at the
earliest possible date. In the interim, requiring full
compliance with the mandatory signal carriage rules
would substantially limit the ability of direct-to-home
satellite service providers to compete in the provision
of multichannel video services and would not serve the
public interest.
(11) Maintaining the viability of free, local,
over-the-air television service is a matter of pre-
eminent public interest.
(12) All subscribers to multichannel video serv-
ices should be able to receive the signal of at least one
station affiliated with each of the major broadcast tel-
evision networks.
(13) Millions of subscribers to direct-to-home sat-
ellite service currently receive the signals of network-
affiliated stations not located in these subscribers’
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local television markets. Where conventional rooftop
antennas cannot provide satisfactory reception of
local stations, distant network signals may be these
subscribers’ only source of network television service.
(14) The widespread carriage of distant network
stations in local network affiliates’ markets could
harm the local stations’ ability to serve their local
community.
(15) Abrupt termination of satellite carriers’
provision of distant network signals could have a neg-
ative impact on the ability of direct-to-home satellite
service to compete effectively in the provision of mul-
tichannel video services.
(16) The public interest would be served by per-
mitting direct-to-home satellite service providers to
continue existing carriage of a distant network affil-
iate station’s signal where—
(A) there is no local network affiliate;
(B) the local network affiliate cannot be
adequately received off-air; or
(C) continued carriage would not harm the
local network station.
SEC. 203. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this title is to promote competition in
the provision of multichannel video services while protecting
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the availability of free, local, over-the-air television, par-
ticularly for the 22 percent of American television house-
holds that do not subscribe to any multichannel video pro-
gramming service.
SEC. 204. MUST-CARRY FOR SATELLITE CARRIERS RE-
TRANSMITTING TELEVISION BROADCAST SIG-
NALS.
Part I of title III of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end
thereof the following:
‘‘SEC. 338. CARRIAGE OF LOCAL TELEVISION STATIONS BY
SATELLITE CARRIERS.
‘‘(a) APPLICATION OF MANDATORY CARRIAGE TO SAT-
ELLITE CARRIERS.—The mandatory carriage provisions of
sections 614 and 615 of this Act will apply in a local mar-
ket no later than January 1, 2002, to satellite carriers re-
transmitting any television broadcast station in that local
market pursuant to the compulsory license provided by sec-
tion 122 of title 17, United States Code.
‘‘(b) GOOD SIGNAL REQUIRED.—
‘‘(1) COSTS.—A television broadcast station eli-
gible for carriage under subsection (a) may be re-
quired to bear the costs associated with delivering a
good quality signal to the designated local receive fa-
cility of the satellite carrier. The selection of a local
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receive facility by a satellite carrier shall not be made
in a manner that frustrates the purposes of this Act.
The Commission shall implement the requirements of
this section without imposing any undue economic
burden on any party.
‘‘(2) RULEMAKING REQUIRED.—The Commission
shall adopt rules implementing paragraph (1) within
180 days after the date of enactment of the Satellite
Television Act of 1999.
‘‘(c) CABLE TELEVISION SYSTEM DIGITAL SIGNAL
CARRIAGE NOT COVERED.—Nothing in this section applies
to the carriage of the digital signals of television broadcast
stations by cable television systems.
‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
‘‘(1) TELEVISION
BROADCAST
STATION.—The
term ‘television broadcast station’ means a full power
local television broadcast station, but does not include
a low-power or translator television broadcast station.
‘‘(2) NETWORK
STATION.—The term ‘network
station’ means a television broadcast station that is
owned or operated by, or affiliated with, a broad-
casting network.
‘‘(3) 
BROADCASTING
NETWORK.—The 
term
‘broadcasting network’ means a television network in
the United States which offers an interconnected pro-
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gram service on a regular basis for 15 or more hours
per week to at least 25 affiliated broadcast stations in
10 or more States.
‘‘(4) DISTANT TELEVISION STATION.—The term
‘distant television station’ means any television
broadcast station that is not licensed and operating
on a channel regularly assigned to the local television
market in which a subscriber to a direct-to-home sat-
ellite service is located.
‘‘(5) LOCAL MARKET.—The term ‘local market’
means the designated market area in which a station
is located. For a noncommercial educational tele-
vision broadcast station, the local market includes
any station that is licensed to a community within
the same designated market area as the noncommer-
cial educational television broadcast station.
‘‘(6) SATELLITE CARRIER.—The term ‘satellite
carrier’ has the meaning given it by section 119(d) of
title 17, United States Code.
‘‘SEC. 339. CARRIAGE OF DISTANT TELEVISION STATIONS
BY SATELLITE CARRIERS.
‘‘(a) PROVISIONS RELATING TO NEW SUBSCRIBERS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in sub-
section (d), direct-to-home satellite service providers
shall be permitted to provide the signals of 1 affiliate
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of each television network to any household that ini-
tially subscribed to direct-to-home satellite service on
or after July 10, 1998.
‘‘(2) ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION.—The deter-
mination of a new subscriber’s eligibility to receive
the signals of one or more distant network stations as
a component of the service provided pursuant to
paragraph (a) shall be made by ascertaining whether
the subscriber resides within the predicted Grade B
service area of a local network station. The Individual
Location Longley-Rice methodology described by the
Commission in Docket 98-201 shall be used to make
this determination. A direct-to-home satellite service
provider may provide the signal of a distant network
station to any subscriber determined by this method
to be unserved by a local station affiliated with that
network.
‘‘(3) RULEMAKING REQUIRED.—
‘‘(A) Within 90 days after the date of enact-
ment of the Satellite Television Act of 1999, the
Commission shall adopt procedures that shall be
used by any direct-to-home satellite service sub-
scriber requesting a waiver to receive one or
more distant network signals. The waiver proce-
dures adopted by the Commission shall—
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‘‘(i) impose no unnecessary burden on
the subscriber seeking the waiver;
‘‘(ii) allocate responsibilities fairly be-
tween direct-to-home satellite service pro-
viders and local stations;
‘‘(iii) prescribe mandatory time limits
within which direct-to-home satellite service
providers and local stations shall carry out
the obligations imposed upon them; and
‘‘(iv) prescribe that all costs of con-
ducting any measurement or testing shall be
borne by the direct-to-home satellite service
provider, if the local station’s signal meets
the prescribed minimum standards, or by
the local station, if its signal fails to meet
the prescribed minimum standards.
‘‘(4) PENALTY FOR VIOLATION.—Any direct-to-
home satellite service provider that knowingly and
willfully provides the signals of 1 or more distant tel-
evision stations to subscribers in violation of this sec-
tion shall be liable for forfeiture in the amount of
$50,000 per day per violation.
‘‘(b) PROVISIONS
RELATING
TO
EXISTING
SUB-
SCRIBERS.—
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‘‘(1) MORATORIUM ON TERMINATION.—Until De-
cember 31, 1999, any direct-to-home satellite service
may continue to provide the signals of distant tele-
vision stations to any subscriber located within pre-
dicted Grade A and Grade B contours of a local net-
work station who received those distant network sig-
nals before July 11, 1998.
‘‘(2) CONTINUED CARRIAGE.—Direct-to-home sat-
ellite service providers may continue to provide the
signals of distant television stations to subscribers lo-
cated between the outside limits of the predicted
Grade A contour and the predicted Grade B contour
of the corresponding local network stations after De-
cember 31, 1999, subject to any limitations adopted
by the Commission under paragraph (3).
‘‘(3) RULEMAKING REQUIRED.—
‘‘(A) Within 180 days after the date of en-
actment of the Satellite Television Act of 1999,
the Commission shall conclude a single rule-
making, compliant with subchapter II of chapter
5 of title 5, United States Code, to examine the
extent to which any existing program exclusivity
rules should be imposed on distant network sta-
tions provided to subscribers under paragraph
(2).
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‘‘(B) The Commission shall not impose any
program exclusivity rules on direct-to-home sat-
ellite service providers pursuant to subparagraph
(A) unless it finds that it would be both tech-
nically and economically feasible and otherwise
in the public interest to do so.
‘‘(c) WAIVERS NOT PRECLUDED.—Notwithstanding
any other provision in this section, nothing shall preclude
any network stations from authorizing the continued provi-
sion of distant network signals in unaltered form to any
direct-to-home satellite service subscriber currently receiv-
ing them.
‘‘(d) CERTAIN SIGNALS.—Providers of direct-to-home
satellite service may continue to carry the signals of distant
network stations without regard to subsections (a) and (b)
in any situation in which—
‘‘(1) a subscriber is unserved by the local station
affiliated with that network;
‘‘(2) a waiver is otherwise granted by the local
station under subsection (c); or
‘‘(3) if the carriage would otherwise be consistent
with rules adopted by the Commission in CS Docket
98-201.
‘‘(e) REPORT REQUIRED.—Within 180 days after the
date of enactment of the Satellite Television Act of 1999,
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the Commission shall report to Congress on methods of fa-
cilitating the delivery of local signals in local markets, espe-
cially smaller markets.’’.
SEC. 205. RETRANSMISSION CONSENT.
(a) AMENDMENT OF SECTION 325(b).—Section 325(b)
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)) is
amended by striking the subsection designation and para-
graphs (1) and (2) and inserting the following:
‘‘(b)(1) No cable system or other multichannel video
programming distributor shall retransmit the signal of a
broadcasting station, or any part thereof, except—
‘‘(A) with the express authority of the station; or
‘‘(B) pursuant to section 614 or section 615, in
the case of a station electing, in accordance with this
subsection, to assert the right to carriage under that
section.
‘‘(2) The provisions of this subsection shall not apply
to—
‘‘(A) retransmission of the signal of a television
broadcast station outside the station’s local market by
a satellite carrier directly to subscribers if—
‘‘(i) that station was a superstation on May
1, 1991;
‘‘(ii) as of July 1, 1998, such station’s sig-
nal was transmitted under the compulsory li-
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cense of section 119 of title 17, United States
Code, by satellite carriers directly to at least
250,000 subscribers; and
‘‘(iii) the satellite carrier complies with any
program exclusivity rules that may be adopted
by the Federal Communications Commission
pursuant to section 338.
‘‘(B) retransmission of the distant signal of a
broadcasting station that is owned or operated by, or
affiliated with, a broadcasting network directly to a
home satellite antenna, if the subscriber resides in an
unserved household; or
‘‘(C) retransmission by a cable operator or other
multichannel video programming distributor (other
than by a satellite carrier direct to its subscribers) of
the signal of a television broadcast station outside the
station’s local market, if that signal was obtained
from a satellite carrier and—
‘‘(i) the originating station was a supersta-
tion on May 1, 1991; and
‘‘(ii) the originating station was a network
station on December 31, 1997, and its signal was
retransmitted by a satellite carrier directly to
subscribers.
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‘‘(3) Any term used in this subsection that is defined
in section 337(d) of this Act has the meaning given to it
by that section.’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by sub-
section (a) take effect on January 1, 1999.
SEC. 206. DESIGNATED MARKET AREAS.
Nothing in this title, or in the amendments made by
this title, prevents the Federal Communications Commis-
sion from revising the listing of designated market areas
or reassigning those areas if the revision or reassignment
is done in the same manner and to the same extent as the
Commission’s cable television mandatory carriage rules
provide.
SEC. 207. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this title or section 325(b) or 337
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b) or
337, respectively), or the application of that provision to
any person or circumstance, is held by a court of competent
jurisdiction to violate any provision of the Constitution of
the United States, then the other provisions of that section,
and the application of that provision to other persons and
circumstances, shall not be affected.
SEC. 208. DEFINITIONS.
In this title:
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(1) TERMS DEFINED IN COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF
1934.—Any term used in this title that is defined in
section 337(d) of the Communications Act of 1934, as
added by section 204 of this title, has the meaning
given to it by that section.
(2) DESIGNATED MARKET AREA.—The term ‘‘des-
ignated market area’’ means a designated market
area, as determined by Nielsen Media Research and
published in the DMA Market and Demographic Re-
port.
Attest:
Secretary.