[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 771 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 771

  To provide certain counties with the ability to receive television 
                   broadcast signals of their choice.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 1, 2009

   Mr. Bennet (for himself and Mr. Udall of Colorado) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                 Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide certain counties with the ability to receive television 
                   broadcast signals of their choice.

    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 ``Four Corners Television Access Act 
of 2009''.

SEC. 2. SATELLITE CARRIAGE OF CERTAIN TELEVISION BROADCAST SIGNALS.

    Section 119(a)(2)(C)(iv) of title 17, United States Code, is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating subclauses (I) and (II) as items (aa) 
        and (bb) and inserting ``(I)'' before ``(aa)''; and
            (2) in item (bb), as so redesignated by paragraph (1), 
        after ``Nielsen Media Research'' insert the following: ``; or
                                    ``(II)(aa) the 2 counties are 
                                located in the 46th largest designated 
                                market area for the year 2005 according 
                                to Nielsen Media Research; and
                                    ``(bb) the total number of 
                                television households in the 2 counties 
                                combined did not exceed 30,000 for the 
                                year 2005 according to Nielsen Media 
                                Research''.

SEC. 3. CABLE CARRIAGE OF CERTAIN TELEVISION BROADCAST SIGNAL.

    Section 341 of Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 341) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(c) Rule of Construction.--
            ``(1) Significantly viewed.--Each television broadcast 
        station broadcasting in the designated market area of a State 
        capital is deemed significantly viewed within the meaning of 
        section 76.54 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, for 
        purposes of the carriage and retransmission of the signals of 
        such broadcast station by a cable system, translator, or other 
        multichannel video programming distributor.
            ``(2) Retransmission permitted.--Notwithstanding the 
        provisions of section 325(b), a cable system, translator, or 
        other multichannel video programming distributor may retransmit 
        the signal of any television broadcast station described in 
        paragraph (1) within a covered county.
            ``(3) Definition of covered county.--For purposes of this 
        subsection, a county is a covered county if--
                    ``(A) it is 1 of 2 counties located in the 46th 
                largest designated market area for the year 2005 
                according to Nielsen Media Research; and
                    ``(B) the total number of television households in 
                the 2 counties combined did not exceed 30,000 for the 
                year 2005 according to Nielsen Media Research.''.
                                 <all>