{ "id": "R46023", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R46023", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 613339, "date": "2020-01-13", "retrieved": "2020-01-14T23:14:28.149452", "title": "Copyright Act and Communications Act Changes in 2019 Related to Television", "summary": "On December 20, 2019, President Donald J. Trump signed the Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019, and the Television Viewer Protection Act of 2019 (Titles XI and X of Division P, respectively, of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, P.L. 116-94). The act permanently extends some legal provisions governing the retransmission of distant network broadcast signals, while repealing others. In addition, the act permanently extends and changes rules for retransmission consent negotiations between television station owners and operators of satellite and cable systems. \nCongress enacted the new laws to prevent the expiration at the end of 2019 of provisions of communications and copyright laws related to the retransmission of broadcast television signals by cable operators, telephone companies (telcos), and satellite operators, pursuant to the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-200). (STELA stands for the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act.) Congress had repeatedly reenacted several of these temporary provisions over several decades. \nCopyright Act Provisions\nGenerally, copyright owners have exclusive legal rights to license their works. The Copyright Act limits these rights for owners of copyrights to programming carried by retransmitted broadcast television signals. The act provides for statutory licenses that allow cable, telco, and satellite operators to retransmit television broadcast station signals under certain circumstances, even if one or more owners of the copyrights to the programs carried by those signals do not agree. Section 119 of the Copyright Act, which was due to expire at the end of 2019, allows satellite operators to avoid negotiating with copyright holders of programming that they transmit from outside a subscriber\u2019s local area and instead pay a royalty fee to the U.S. Copyright Office. The Copyright Office in turn pays the rights holders. The Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019 permanently extends Section 119 of the Copyright Act, but limits the types of \u201cunserved households\u201d eligible to receive the distant signals. It also requires DIRECTV, a satellite operator, to retransmit local broadcast signals in all 210 U.S. television markets in order to continue using the compulsory copyright license described in this section.\nCommunications Act Provisions\nGenerally, commercial broadcast television stations may either require cable, telco, and satellite operators to carry their signals within the stations\u2019 local markets for no fee or demand that the operators negotiate for the right to retransmit the stations\u2019 signals within those markets in exchange for a fee. The Television Viewer Protection Act of 2019 made permanent three provisions of the Communications Act. One of the newly permanent provisions permits a satellite operator to retransmit broadcast station signals outside of the stations\u2019 local markets without the consent of those stations, if the satellite operator is retransmitting the signals pursuant to Section 119 of the Copyright Act. A second prohibits broadcast stations from entering into exclusive contracts with cable, satellite, or telco operators. \nThe third newly permanent provision of the Communications Act requires all parties to negotiate retransmission consent in \u201cgood faith\u201d and assigns the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a mediation role in the event any party accuses another of failing to negotiate in good faith. However, the act specifies that collective negotiation by smaller cable, telco, and/or satellite operators with large station group owners is not a violation of good faith. On the other hand, the Communications Act specifies that joint retransmission consent negotiations by separately owned (as defined by the FCC) broadcasters within the same market is a violation of good faith. In December 2019, the FCC reinstated rules related to the enforcement of its local ownership limits. If a television company that owns a station in a market sells advertising for another station in the same market under an agreement with that station\u2019s owner, the FCC attributes ownership of both stations to that company.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R46023", "sha1": "458c83d743326c354198281b195d0227cbb27e44", "filename": "files/20200113_R46023_458c83d743326c354198281b195d0227cbb27e44.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46023_files&id=/0.png": "files/20200113_R46023_images_8b12b127f2dd662a20070f2edf4d6b051bbe2293.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46023_files&id=/1.png": "files/20200113_R46023_images_379815a67c112dac0016c3b242c0774c1420bc7c.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46023_files&id=/2.png": "files/20200113_R46023_images_658167ba29259dbcd0d35d92b8f0ed317c2f1f4f.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R46023", "sha1": "756de2b81f234bbc3101da171981962aa4ea165b", "filename": "files/20200113_R46023_756de2b81f234bbc3101da171981962aa4ea165b.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 608706, "date": "2019-11-22", "retrieved": "2019-12-13T15:15:02.279839", "title": "Broadcast Television Carriage Issues in the STELA Reauthorization Act", "summary": "Several provisions of communications and copyright laws related to the retransmission of broadcast television signals by cable operators, telephone companies (telcos), and satellite operators are set to expire at the end of 2019, pursuant to the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-200). (STELA stands for the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act.) If these provisions expire, about 870,000 households subscribing to satellite services might lose access to some broadcast television programming. In addition, about 87.4 million households subscribing to cable, telco, and satellite services may be more likely to see their viewing disrupted by disputes between these operators and television broadcasters, than they would absent these expiring provisions. In November 2019, Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman Roger Wicker introduced a bill (Satellite Television Access Reauthorization Act of 2019; S. 2789) that would reauthorize the expiring provisions of both the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended, and Communications Act of 1934, as amended, for five years. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, however, has explored letting the copyright provisions expire with a one-year transition period. Also in November 2019, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce ordered to be reported H.R. 5035, the Television Viewer Protection Act of 2019, which would reauthorize the expiring some provisions of the Communications Act permanently, while tying others to the expiration date of the Copyright Act provisions. The House Committee on the Judiciary ordered to be reported H.R. 5140, the Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019. H.R. 5140 would permanently extend Section 119 of the Copyright Act, but limit the scope of \u201cunserved households\u201d eligible to receive the distant signals. It would also require DIRECTV to retransmit local broadcast signals in all 210 television markets in order to continue using the compulsory copyright license described in this section.\nCopyright Act Provisions\nGenerally, copyright owners have exclusive legal rights to license their works. The Copyright Act limits these rights for owners of copyrights to programming carried by retransmitted broadcast television signals. The act provides for statutory licenses that allow cable, telco, and satellite operators to retransmit television broadcast station signals under certain circumstances, even if one or more owners of the copyrights to the programs carried by those signals do not agree. Section 119 of the Copyright Act, which is due to expire at the end of 2019, allows satellite operators to avoid negotiating with copyright holders of programming that they transmit from outside a subscriber\u2019s local area and instead pay a royalty fee to the U.S. Copyright Office. The Copyright Office in turn pays the rights holders. If Congress does not renew Section 119, households subscribing to satellite services might be unable to watch certain broadcast programs.\nCommunications Act Provisions\nGenerally, commercial broadcast television stations may either require cable, telco, and satellite operators to carry their signals within the stations\u2019 local markets for no fee or demand that the operators negotiate for the right to retransmit the stations\u2019 signals within those markets in exchange for a fee. Typically, such negotiations occur at the corporate level, between a station owner and a cable or satellite company. An expiring provision of the Communications Act requires all parties to negotiate retransmission consent in \u201cgood faith\u201d and assigns the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a mediation role in the event any party accuses another of failing to negotiate in good faith. In addition, broadcast stations may not enter into exclusive contracts with cable, satellite, or telco operators. A third expiring provision permits a satellite operator to retransmit broadcast station signals outside of the station\u2019s local markets without retransmission consent from those stations, if the operator is retransmitting the signals pursuant to Section 119 of the Copyright Act. H.R. 5035 would amend the Communications Act to allow smaller cable, telco, and/or satellite operators to negotiate collectively with large station group owners until January 1, 2025.\nIf both the Copyright and Communications Act provisions of the STELA Reauthorization Act expire, broadcast station owners would likely have greater advantage in negotiating with cable, telco and satellite operators than they do currently. When broadcast station owners and cable, telco and/or satellite operators do not reach retransmission consent agreements, the station owners may \u201cblack out\u201d their signals. If Congress does not renew the FCC\u2019s mediation role and retransmission consent disputes were to become more frequent, cable, telco, and satellite subscribers could experience more interruptions of broadcast television programming.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R46023", "sha1": "0f82d6e40754aea3a885bdf448ada7f8eb71c468", "filename": "files/20191122_R46023_0f82d6e40754aea3a885bdf448ada7f8eb71c468.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46023_files&id=/0.png": "files/20191122_R46023_images_8b12b127f2dd662a20070f2edf4d6b051bbe2293.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46023_files&id=/1.png": "files/20191122_R46023_images_379815a67c112dac0016c3b242c0774c1420bc7c.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46023_files&id=/2.png": "files/20191122_R46023_images_658167ba29259dbcd0d35d92b8f0ed317c2f1f4f.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R46023", "sha1": "1c97c8c5c04bd06b458ea8d59ac16bee7ec6b8b3", "filename": "files/20191122_R46023_1c97c8c5c04bd06b458ea8d59ac16bee7ec6b8b3.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Appropriations", "Internet and Telecommunications Policy" ] }