Requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to prescribe regulations to implement provisions for the application and granting of new class A television licenses in accordance with the Community Broadcasters Protection Act of 1999. Directs the FCC to consider whether the treatment of a low-power station as a class A station would meet the public interest, convenience, and necessity.
Requires prompt FCC review and determination with respect to applications of advanced television services.
[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1626 Introduced in House (IH)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1626
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure equity for all full-
service television broadcasters and ensure the benefits of local
programming for communities served by class A television broadcast
stations by providing cable carriage rights for qualified class A
television stations, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 3, 2003
Mr. Peterson of Minnesota (for himself, Mr. Gonzalez, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen,
Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida, and Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart of
Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure equity for all full-
service television broadcasters and ensure the benefits of local
programming for communities served by class A television broadcast
stations by providing cable carriage rights for qualified class A
television stations, 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 ``Local Voices on TV Act of 2003''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The newly created class A television service provides
valuable local and specialized television service to unserved
and underserved audiences throughout the United States, and for
that reason Congress enacted the Community Broadcasters
Protection Act of 1999 to provide permanent broadcast licenses
to television stations providing such service.
(2) It was the purpose of the Community Broadcasters
Protection Act of 1999 to provide continuing opportunities for
low power television broadcast stations to qualify for and be
granted class A licenses, especially where those licenses could
provide local programming and local voices to underserved urban
and rural communities.
(3) This new television service was created seven years
after the enactment of the Cable Television Consumer Protection
and Competition Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-385), and while
that Act includes licenses for class A television service under
the provisions relating to low power broadcast television, it
does not reflect the fact that such stations operate as full-
service, commercial broadcast television stations under part 73
of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations (the rules of the
Federal Communications Commission for full power television
stations) and provide significant local programming to their
underserved communities often equaling in duration that
provided by the major networks in other small markets.
(4) Thirteen of the largest 25 Hispanic markets in the
United States receive Spanish language network programming
through low power television stations. The provisions of the
Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of
1992 that exclude from mandatory carriage on cable television
any low power television broadcast station within the largest
160 Metropolitan Statistical Areas deny equitable cable
carriage opportunities for such television stations and other
television stations serving specialized and other underserved
urban communities.
(5) In 1992, Congress believed that requirements for
mandatory carriage on cable television were necessary to ensure
the benefits of the local origination of programming. Today,
such provisions are also necessary to ensure the benefits of
the local programming provided by qualified class A television
stations.
(6) Must-carry rights are often challenged on issues of
signal quality and strength. If qualified class A television
broadcast stations and other low power television stations use
industry standard equipment in delivering signals to the cable
headends, cable operators should accept any equipment provided
and paid for by such television stations so long as acceptance
of such equipment does not negatively impact the operation of
cable systems.
SEC. 3. CABLE TELEVISION CARRIAGE REQUIREMENTS REGARDING CLASS A LOCAL
TELEVISION SERVICE.
(a) In General.--Section 614 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 534) is amended--
(1) in subsection (b)(2)(A)--
(A) by inserting ``or qualified class A station''
after ``qualified low power station''; and
(B) by inserting ``full power analog or digital''
after ``in lieu of a'';
(2) in subsection (b)(4), by inserting ``and qualified low
power stations'' after ``local commercial television stations''
each place it appears in subparagraphs (A) and (B);
(3) in subsection (c)(1)--
(A) in subparagraph (A)--
(i) by inserting ``or one qualified class A
station'' after ``qualified low power
station''; and
(ii) by striking ``and'' at the end;
(B) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting the
following new subparagraphs (B) and (C):
``(B) a cable operator of a cable system with a
capacity of more than 35 usable activated 6 mHz
channels, but fewer than 72 such channels, shall be
required to carry two stations that are either
qualified class A stations or other qualified low power
stations; and
``(C) a cable operator of a cable system with a
capacity of 72 or more usable activated 6 mHz channels
shall be required to carry three stations that are
either qualified class A stations or other qualified
low power stations.''; and
(iii) by adding after subparagraph (C), as
so added, the following new flush matter:
``If there are three or fewer commercial full power stations
serving a designated market area that do not substantially
retransmit the signal of another broadcast station, all
qualified class A stations in the designated market area shall
be granted carriage rights, except that the number of class A
stations that a cable operator is required to carry under this
sentence shall not exceed the national average number of
broadcast stations that a cable operator is required to carry
in television markets in the United States.''; and
(4) in subsection (h)--
(A) in paragraph (1)--
(i) in subparagraph (A)--
(I) by inserting ``or qualified
class A station'' after ``full power
television broadcast station''; and
(II) by inserting ``or granted''
after ``assigned to its community'';
and
(ii) in subparagraph (B)--
(I) in clause (i), by inserting
``(other than qualified class A
stations)'' after ``low power
television stations''; and
(II) in clauses (ii) and (iii), by
inserting ``or qualified low power
station'' after ``television broadcast
station''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following new
paragraph:
``(3) Qualified class a station.--
``(A) In general.--The term `qualified class A
station' means a class A television station, or a
station certified as a class A television station under
section 336(f)(1)(B), that--
``(i) operates in accordance with part 73
of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, as
prescribed for class A licensed stations;
``(ii) regularly broadcasts--
``(I) a minimum of 3 hours per week
in the first year after the date of
enactment of the Local Voices on TV Act
of 2003, 5 hours per week in the second
year after such date of enactment, and
8 hours per week in the third year
after such date of enactment and
thereafter, of local programming
produced within the Grade B contour of
such station; or
``(II) for a group of commonly
controlled class A stations, a minimum
of 3 hours per week in the first year
after such date of enactment, 5 hours
per week in the second year after such
date of enactment, and 8 hours per week
in the third year after such date of
enactment and thereafter, of local
programming produced within the grade B
contour of the stations in such a
group, but not to exceed the designated
market area of the main studio of such
a group;
``(iii) meets all obligations and
requirements applicable to television broadcast
stations under part 73 of title 47, Code of
Federal Regulations, with respect to the
broadcast of nonentertainment programming;
programming and rates involving political
candidates, election issues, controversial
issues of public importance, editorials, and
personal attacks; programming for children; and
equal employment opportunity; and
``(iv) maintains a fully operational amber
alert system, as part of a national missing
person broadcast emergency response.
``(B) Main studio.--For purposes of subparagraph
(A), the main studio of a qualified class A station, or
group of stations, shall be located within the grade B
contour of the qualified class A station, or group of
stations, or within 15 miles of the city or cities of
license, whichever is greater.
``(C) Market determinations.--For purposes of
subparagraph (A), the market of a qualified class A
station shall be determined by the grade B contour of
such station or 35 miles from the cable system's
headend, whichever is greater. However, the market of
such a station shall be further adjusted to ensure
cable carriage rights where 15 percent or more of the
station's grade B contour is on a cable system's
headend outside the grade B contour of that station or
where previous service to a community was lost through
digital television displacements or other spectrum
reallocations since January 1, 1996.''.
(b) Construction.--Nothing in the amendments to section 614 of the
Communications Act of 1934 made by subsection (a) of this section shall
diminish the must-carry rights of any class A or other low power
television broadcast station outside the largest 160 Metropolitan
Statistical Areas of the United States as of June 30, 1990.
SEC. 4. IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNITY BROADCASTERS PROTECTION ACT OF
1999.
(a) Regulations for Treatment of Low-Power Television Broadcast
Stations as Class A Stations.--
(1) Deadline for regulations.--Not later than 12 months
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal
Communications Commission shall prescribe regulations to
implement the provisions of section 336(f)(2)(B) of the
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 336(f)(2)(B)) that
provide for the application and granting of new class A
television licenses. Such regulations shall provide class A
eligibility standards for low power stations that had valid
licenses for such stations on December 29, 1999.
(2) Satisfaction of public interest, convenience, and
necessity.--The regulations under paragraph (1) shall require
that the Commission consider, in determining whether the
treatment of a low-power television station as a class A
station would meet the public interest, convenience, and
necessity, the extent to which the low-power television station
would--
(A) advance the benefits of free over-the-air
broadcast television; and
(B) promote the widespread dissemination of
information from a multiplicity of sources.
(b) Acceptance of Applications of Advanced Television Services.--
Section 336(f)(4) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.
336(f)(4)) is amended by inserting after the first sentence the
following new sentence: ``The Commission shall promptly review each
such license application, and if the Commission determines that the
proposed facilities meet the requirements of the preceding sentence
shall grant such license application not later than 60 days after the
date of such determination.''.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
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