Senate Commerce Members Seek Amendments to STELA Renewal Bill
Senate Commerce Committee members teed up at least 11 amendments to the Satellite Television Access Reauthorization Act (S-2789) for committee consideration during its Wednesday executive session, amid some lawmakers’ displeasure with the existing measure. S-2789 would extend the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act through 2024 (see 1911060043). The deadline for senators to submit amendments expired Friday. Communications lobbyists told us they continue hearing chatter about additional language. Some expect Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., to agree to a compromise manager's amendment Tuesday night that would include text from other senators' proposals. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. in G50 Dirksen.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
An amendment from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, would shorten the extension timeline, with a new sunset date of Dec. 31, 2021. Wicker earlier sought a shorter-term renewal as a compromise with STELA skeptics (see 1909250063). Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., filed language that appears to make STELA’s good-faith retransmission consent negotiations requirement permanent instead of requiring a new renewal of the provision in 2024.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., seeks to limit the scope of the distant-signal compulsory license to cover only households that aren’t receiving local station signals terrestrially. Tester is one of several lawmakers who raised concerns about the distant-signal provision in the context of the 12 markets where AT&T's DirecTV provides limited or no access to locally broadcasted networks' stations (see 1905310051). AT&T says the 12 markets have access to local stations' terrestrial signals.
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., is proposing three amendments. One would allow the distant-signal language to apply to a satellite carrier’s retransmission of broadcast signals of stations from an adjacent designated market area if “16 counties in a State were in a local market comprised principally of counties located in another State and within the top 120 markets” based on Nielsen’s 2019 rankings, as long as the adjacent DMA is “located in the same time zone.” It would let the FCC modify an orphan county’s market modification request based solely on whether the station provides programming specifically involving the orphan county's state.
A second Fischer amendment would limit retrans language to apply to satellite carriers that provide “local-into-local service to all DMAs.” A third would limit the compulsory license to apply only to satellite companies that provide “local-into-local service to all DMAs.”
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wants to add in language from two of his bills, including the Truth-in-Billing, Remedies and User Empowerment over Fees (True Fees) Act. S-510 would let customers end contracts with providers without early termination fees if the provider increases prices, and would prevent equipment fee increases unless providers improve the devices (see 1902140045). Markey wants to add in language from S-1655 to force Charter Communications to begin good-faith negotiations with Hearst to end blackouts of WCVB-TV Boston and WWLP Springfield in Massachusetts’ Berkshires. Markey and other members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation have raised concerns about the dispute (see 1805140073).
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., seeks to attach language from her Go Pack Go Act (S-2454), which would require cable, satellite and other video providers to give subscribers access to programming from TV stations in an in-state media market. A second Baldwin amendment seeks to clarify FCC media modification considerations for orphan counties.
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is leading an amendment with Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., that would require the FCC to complete its equal employment opportunity enforcement review proceeding (see 1904290176). It would substantially limit the FCC's ability to revise its rules on media ownership reports and the forms licensees use to report employment data. It would require the agency create a “public, searchable database” of media ownership and diversity information. House Commerce Committee Vice Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., pressed the FCC in May to begin collecting data on the broadcast workforce diversity (see 1905130065).
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wants to amend copyright for sound recordings to require radio stations to “obtain the express authority of the copyright owner of that sound recording for any such transmission.” It would cap annual royalties a copyright owner can collect from broadcasters that have annual revenue of less than $1 million at $500. It would limit royalties from public broadcasters, college radio stations and other noncommercial stations to $100.