House Commerce Clears STELA Reauth Bill After Doyle, Walden Reach Deal

The HR-5035 deal came Tuesday, after earlier hiccups in negotiations (see 1911180049), lawmakers and lobbyists told us. The underlying measure would extend until the end of 2024 STELA's good-faith requirement and continue to allow import of distant signals under the compulsory license. The measure incorporates language from the Truth-in-Billing, Remedies and User Empowerment over Fees (True Fees) Act (HR-1220) and would let MVPDs collectively negotiate for retransmission consent using a qualified buying group.

There also appeared to be bipartisan House Judiciary support for the Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act (HR-5140) before that committee's markup. That bill, led by House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., would make permanent the distant-signal license but limit its scope to cover only trucks, RVs and households in short markets. It would provide a limited extension of the distant-signal license for 120 days for all other currently covered subscribers and would require satellite providers using the distant-signal license to serve all 210 designated market areas (see 1911180014).

The Doyle/Walden HR-5035 amendment narrows the scope of the HR-1220 language included in the measure and would make STELA’s good-faith retransmission consent negotiations requirement permanent instead of requiring a new renewal of the provision in 2024, as expected (see 1911180049). The amendment would also increase the threshold for MVPDs to participate in collective negotiations for retransmission consent using a qualified buying group. Only MVPDs with fewer than 500,000 subscribers would now be allowed to engage in collective negotiations, rather than the 1 million-subscriber limit previously included in the measure.

'Not Perfect' Deal

“I think we ended up at a fairly good point” with the deal, Walden told us just before the HR-5035 vote. “The big issue” was the MVPD collective negotiations language, but “in the changing marketplace it made sense to have a buyer group” provided it didn't include larger distributors. “I would say if it had been an open, public process we might have gotten there sooner and better, but it is what it is,” Walden said. He noted during the markup he's still “not convinced” STELA needs to be renewed and believes the agreement's “not perfect,” but “everybody's going to have to give a little bit” to reach a solution.

The agreement includes many “important provisions and I believe it's important that we make them permanent,” Doyle said during the markup. Walden and he “believe it's important for this to be the last STELA bill.” He noted in a news release announcing the deal that it also “enables [House Judiciary] to extend” STELA's distant-signal compulsory license language. House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said he believes the final HR-5035 text is “both pro-consumer and pro-competition.”

NAB CEO Gordon Smith and America's Communications Association President Matthew Polka praised House Commerce for advancing HR-5035, though both said they continue to have concerns with the bill. NAB questions the need to renew the statute, but “a 'permanent good faith' requirement is far preferable to the current five-year STELAR renewal cycle that has incentivized pay-TV companies to force broadcast TV programming disruptions that harm consumers,” Smith said. ACA's “pleased that the buying group provision in the bill adopted today includes a framework for providing good faith protections to buying groups,” Polka said. “But we are disappointed in the metrics that limit the number of subscribers who can benefit and reduce the large station groups that are covered.”

House Commerce needed to consider nine other tech and telecom bills, including the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Broadband Data) Act broadband mapping legislative package (HR-4229). HR-2881 and Senate version S-893 would require the president develop a strategy for ensuring security of 5G networks and infrastructure (see 1903270065).

Also on the docket: H. Res. 575, the Secure 5G and Beyond Act (HR-2881), the Mapping Accuracy Promotes Services Act (HR-4227), the Network Security Information Sharing Act (HR-4461), the Promoting United States Wireless Leadership Act (HR-4500), legislation to renew the Undertaking Spam, Spyware and Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers Beyond Borders Act (HR-4779), the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998) and the Studying How to Harness Airwave Resources Efficiently (Share) Act (HR-5000).

Nadler Bill

Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., appeared to favor supporting HR-5140 before the committee's markup of the measure. Judiciary temporarily adjourned the markup Wednesday but intended to return that night. Communications sector lobbyists told us Collins' support for HR-5140 would likely mean bipartisan Judiciary support for the measure.

STELA “needs to expire" and what Nadler “is providing [in HR-5140] is not the best solution, but it is a positive one” that will ensure a significant portion of the consumers currently covered by the law's distant-signal license will be “phased out” after the proposed 120-day transition period, Collins told us. “It at least puts us on the record of saying this is what we believe, because this has still got to go through” Senate consideration. “I wish we had done more” on the issue earlier this year “but at least we are claiming our jurisdiction” now, he said. Earlier talks on STELA might have resulted in “us letting [the law] go.”

NAB and the Copyright Alliance urged House Judiciary to advance HR-5140, but Consumer Action and Public Knowledge said they're concerned about the bill's language. “This narrowly-tailored legislation would ensure tens of thousands of [DirecTV] customers in 12 neglected markets are finally provided with their local television signals,” NAB's Smith said in a statement. Lawmakers raised concerns about the 12 markets where AT&T's DirecTV provides limited or no access to locally broadcasted networks' stations. AT&T said the 12 markets have access to local stations' terrestrial signals. The Copyright Alliance “strongly supports [HR-5140] to narrow and make permanent the remaining license,” said CEO Keith Kupferschmid.

Consumer Action believes HR-5140 “basically takes aim at one company and doesn't help close the digital divide,” said Executive Director Ken McEldowney: “Rural consumers deserve the opportunity to benefit from healthy competition when choosing a satellite provider. Yet, this bill effectively hands that choice over to Congress by allowing them to pick winners and losers in the marketplace.” There “is no guarantee or requirement in this bill for DirecTV to enter the markets where the company does not currently provide local broadcast stations,” said Public Knowledge Senior Policy Counsel Jenna Leventoff. “Instead, this legislation risks having hundreds of thousands of residents lose access to at least one network station that they rely on for news, sports, and entertainment.”