Modern Television Act of 2019
Latest action · Aug 28, 2019 Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJul 25, 2019
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Modern Television Act of 2019
This bill establishes measures to prevent blackouts of television broadcast stations, including requiring good-faith negotiations in broadcast agreements and providing for outside arbitration of certain negotiation disputes.
Specifically, the bill requires a station and a cable or satellite service to negotiate in good faith when attempting to reach a marketplace agreement, and it requires the cable or satellite service to retransmit the signal of a station for up to 60 days while the parties renegotiate an expired agreement. The Federal Communications Commission may require a station and a cable or satellite service to submit to binding arbitration to resolve any dispute that may arise (the parties must be retroactively paid for content aired during this time). Further, a station is prohibited from requiring payment from a cable or satellite service for customers of the cable or satellite service who do not receive the signals of the station from that service.
Additionally, the bill repeals specified provisions, including those related to retransmission consent and compulsory copyright licenses. The bill also disallows federal, state, and local authorities from regulating the rates of a cable or satellite service.
The Government Accountability Office must assess the impact of the bill.
Cosponsors 1
Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Jul 25, 2019.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-CA | Anna G. Eshoo | Original | Jul 25, 2019 |
Actions 5
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Aug 28, 2019Referred to the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law.
- Aug 28, 2019Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.
- Jul 26, 2019Referred to the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.
- Jul 25, 2019Introduced in House
- Jul 25, 2019Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications.
- Administrative law and regulatory procedures
- Administrative remedies
- Alternative dispute resolution, mediation, arbitration
- Broadcasting, cable, digital technologies
- Competition and antitrust
- Congressional oversight
- Consumer affairs
- Contracts and agency
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
- Government studies and investigations
- Inflation and prices
- Intellectual property
- Licensing and registrations
- Science, Technology, Communications
- Telecommunication rates and fees
- Television and film
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jul 25, 2019Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.