Television Freedom Act of 2007

This bill seeks to amend Section 122 of Title 17, United States Code, and the Communications Act of 1934 to allow satellite carriers and cable operators to re-transmit the signals of local television broadcast stations to their adjacent markets, and for other purposes.

The highlight of this proposed legislation is the imposition of a requirement of statutory licensing for a satellite carrier’s secondary transmission into a television broadcast station’s adjacent market if the satellite carrier also makes secondary transmissions into that adjacent market of the adjacent market’s television broadcast stations.  For this purpose, the term “adjacent market,” for both commercial and non-commercial television broadcast stations, is defined in the bill as “any designated market area adjacent to, and at least partially in the same State as, the designated market area in which the station is located.”

In order to put into effect the legislation’s objective of permitting such secondary transmissions, the bill provides for amendments to the Communications Act of 1934.  Further, it directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to amend related regulations regarding network non-duplication protection, syndicated exclusivity protection, and sports black-out protection as part of its legislative intent to implement such re-transmissions.

House Rep. Mike Ross (Ar.) sponsored this bill, and co-sponsored by 16 other members of the House.

Rep. Ross introduced this bill on June 21, 2007, after which the House referred the same to the Committee on the Judiciary and to the Committee on Energy and Commerce for consideration of such provisions that may fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Also See:

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FCC Modernizes Broadcast Television Public Inspection Files to Give the Public Online Access to Information Previously Available Only at TV Stations

Copyright Office Conducts Proceedings on Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems

Legislation to Deregulate Television Market Introduced in House and Senate

Copyright Office Proposes New Fee Schedule