# Key Satellite Legislation Debuts on Hill



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has introduced the Satellite Home Viewer Extension Act of 2004, getting Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy - the committee's ranking Democrat - as well as Sens. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) to cosponsor the measure.

As expected, the bill provides for a five-year extension of the statutory license allowing satellite TV services to deliver secondary transmissions of distant network and superstation programming, which is in the Copyright Act. The current license permits satellite TV companies to provide subscribers residing in unserved households with network programming from distant TV markets. This section is set to expire at the end of 2004.

The limited extension recognizes that satellite TV is still making local channels available to subscribers, especially in rural areas, which Hatch said is "an important development for viewers and local broadcasters, as well as for the satellite carriers themselves."

The Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA), which became law in 1999, authorized for the first time the retransmission of local signals via satellite to subscribers. Local TV delivery via satellite has a permanent copyright license, and isn't part of the satellite extension act.

Edward Fritts, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, said the organization supports the legislation's introduction and will work towards passage of a bill re-authorizing SHVIA. However, he said, "Our ultimate goal is to see 'local-to-local' extended to all television stations in all 210 markets, and we strongly oppose attempts by satellite providers to bypass carriage of local stations."

http://www.skyreport.com (Used with permission)


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

> "Our ultimate goal is to see 'local-to-local' extended to all television stations in all 210 markets, and we strongly oppose attempts by satellite providers to bypass carriage of local stations."


Am I missing something??? What "attempts...to bypass carriage" is he referring to?


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## Cyclone (Jul 1, 2002)

He was talking about dbs trying not to carry "all" the locals in a market (Home Shopping, Religious, extra PBSs) in some markets.


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## Mike123abc (Jul 19, 2002)

Or the whole concept of Distant markets. NAB would probably like each of the 210 markets to get LIL and not be allowed access to distant markets unless the local DMA was missing a major network, and then probably only recieve an ajacent market network station.


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## tampa8 (Mar 30, 2002)

This is very good news. We all know there is a better way to do this, and getting distants should be easier, but considering the possible changes (no distants if you get locals on DBS) keeping it the same for distants and supers is pretty good.


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## lee635 (Apr 17, 2002)

Guess those predictions that the superstations would go away very soon....well pushed out another 5 years.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

According to http://thomas.loc.gov, this is senate bill S.2013 . You can find out who your representatives are AND their snail mail addresses through http://www.vote-smart.org/ .


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2004)

Satellite Home Viewer Extension Act of 2004 (Introduced in Senate)

S 2013 IS 


108th CONGRESS

2d Session

S. 2013
To amend section 119 of title 17, United States Code, to extend satellite home viewer provisions. 


IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

January 21, 2004
Mr. HATCH (for himself, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. DEWINE, and Mr. KOHL) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A BILL
To amend section 119 of title 17, United States Code, to extend satellite home viewer provisions. 


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 `Satellite Home Viewer Extension Act of 2004'.

SEC. 2. EXTENSION.

(a) IN GENERAL- Section 119 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(f) This section shall cease to be effective after December 31, 2009.'.

(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT- Section 4 of the Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1994 (17 U.S.C. 119 note) is amended by striking subsection (a).


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