Title: Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019
Policy area: Commerce

Summary:
Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019
This bill permanently reauthorizes a provision that allows satellite television providers to retransmit distant television signals to unserved households under a statutory license. (A statutory license allows a satellite provider to rebroadcast the signals by paying set fees and without negotiating with the relevant copyright holders.) The bill also limits what constitutes an unserved household under this provision.
Under the bill, an unserved household is (1) a household in a local market where any of the four most widely viewed television networks nationwide is not transmitted by any network television station in that market, or (2) a recreational vehicle or commercial truck. The bill removes several categories of households that currently qualify as unserved, such as households that can receive a local broadcast signal but received satellite retransmissions on certain dates.
To take advantage of the statutory license, a satellite provider must provide retransmissions of local television stations in all designated market areas.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5140 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5140

   To amend title 17, United States Code, to narrow the category of 
households eligible to receive signals under a distant-signal satellite 
                    license, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 18, 2019

  Mr. Nadler introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 17, United States Code, to narrow the category of 
households eligible to receive signals under a distant-signal satellite 
                    license, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Satellite Television Community 
Protection and Promotion Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. ELIGIBILITY TO RECEIVE SIGNALS UNDER A DISTANT-SIGNAL SATELLITE 
              LICENSE.

    (a) In General.--Section 119 of title 17, United States Code, is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (2)--
                            (i) in subparagraph (A)--
                                    (I) by striking ``signals, and'' 
                                and inserting ``signals,''; and
                                    (II) by inserting ``, and the 
                                carrier provides local-into-local 
                                service to all DMAs'' after ``receiving 
                                the secondary transmission''; and
                            (ii) in subparagraph (B)--
                                    (I) by striking clauses (ii) and 
                                (iii); and
                                    (II) by adding at the end the 
                                following:
                            ``(ii) Short markets.--In the case of 
                        secondary transmissions to households located 
                        in short markets, subject to clause (i), the 
                        statutory license shall be further limited to 
                        secondary transmissions of only those primary 
                        transmissions of network stations that embody 
                        the programming of networks not offered on the 
                        primary stream or the multicast stream 
                        transmitted by any network station in that 
                        market.'';
                    (B) by striking paragraphs (3), (6)(E), (9), (10), 
                and (13); and
                    (C) by redesignating paragraphs (4), (5), (6), (7), 
                (8), (11), (12), and (14) as paragraphs (3) through 
                (10), respectively;
            (2) in subsection (c)(1)(E)--
                    (A) by striking the comma after ``in the 
                agreement'';
                    (B) by striking ``until December 31, 2019, or''; 
                and
                    (C) by striking ``, whichever is later'' and 
                inserting ``until the subscriber for which the royalty 
                is payable is no longer eligible to receive a secondary 
                transmission pursuant to the license under this 
                section'';
            (3) in subsection (d)--
                    (A) in paragraph (10)--
                            (i) in subparagraph (D), by striking 
                        ``subsection (a)(11)'' and inserting 
                        ``subsection (a)(8)'';
                            (ii) by striking subparagraphs (A), (B), 
                        (C), and (E);
                            (iii) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as 
                        subparagraph (A); and
                            (iv) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(B) is a subscriber located in a short market.'';
                    (B) by striking paragraph (13);
                    (C) by redesignating paragraphs (14) and (15) as 
                paragraphs (13) and (14), respectively; and
                    (D) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(15) Local-into-local service to all dmas.--The term 
        `local-into-local service to all DMAs' has the meaning given 
        such term in subsection (f)(7).
            ``(16) Short market.--The term `short market' means a local 
        market in which programming of one or more of the four most 
        widely viewed television networks nationwide is not offered on 
        either the primary stream or multicast stream transmitted by 
        any network station in that market.'';
            (4) by striking subsections (e) and (h); and
            (5) by redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as subsections 
        (e) and (f).
    (b) Previously Covered Subscribers Under the STELA Reauthorization 
Act of 2014.--
            (1) In general.--A subscriber of a satellite carrier who 
        receives the secondary transmission of a network station under 
        the statutory license in section 119 of title 17, United States 
        Code, as in effect on the day before the date of the enactment 
        of this Act, and to whom subsection (a)(2)(B) of such section, 
        as amended by subsection (a), does not apply, shall continue to 
        be eligible to receive that secondary transmission from such 
        carrier under such license, and at the royalty rate established 
        for such license by the Copyright Royalty Board or voluntary 
        agreement, as applicable, until the date that is the earlier 
        of--
                    (A) 120 days after the date of the enactment of 
                this Act; or
                    (B) the date on which such carrier provides local-
                into-local service to all DMAs.
            (2) Definitions.--In this subsection, the terms ``satellite 
        carrier'', ``subscriber'', ``secondary transmission'', 
        ``network station'', and ``local-into-local service to all 
        DMAs'' have the meaning given those terms in section 119 of 
        title 17, United States Code.
    (c) Conforming Amendments.--Title 17, United States Code, is 
further amended--
            (1) in section 119, as amended by subsection (a)--
                    (A) in subsection (a)--
                            (i) in paragraph (1), by striking 
                        ``paragraphs (4), (5), and (7)'' and inserting 
                        ``paragraphs (3), (4), and (6)''; and
                            (ii) in paragraph (2), by striking 
                        ``paragraphs (4), (5), (6), and (7)'' and 
                        inserting ``paragraphs (3), (4), (5), and 
                        (6)''; and
                    (B) in subsection (g), by striking ``subsection 
                (a)(7)(B)'' each place it appears and inserting 
                ``subsection (a)(5)(B)''; and
            (2) in section 501(e), by striking ``section 119(a)(5)'' 
        and inserting ``section 119(a)(3)''.
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