, ii
Why Having a Statutory License Is Important
Most television broadcasts contain copyrighted programming.
Without a statutory license, a satellite carrier that scrambles
the signal of a broadcast station and retransmits the signal
to subscribers for a fee either has to negotiate licenses for all
copyrighted programming it retransmits or risk substantial
civil (or, in some cases, criminal) liability for multiple acts of
copyright infringement.
Who Can Use the Section 119 Statutory License
Under the statute, the retransmission of a non-network station
is subject to statutory licensing only if it is made by a satellite
carrier to the public for private home viewing or for viewing in
a commercial establishment and the carrier makes a direct or
indirect charge to the subscriber or to a distributor of the
non-network station.
e retransmission of a network station is subject to statu-
tory licensing under the same circumstances with the addition-
al requirement that the carrier must retransmit the network
station only to unserved households.
If a satellite carrier has contracted with a distributor to
market the carrier’s retransmission service to the viewing
public or otherwise act as an agent of the carrier, it is still the
responsibility of the satellite carrier (and not the distributor)
to obtain a statutory license for the retransmission service. If a
cable system engages in distributorship activities on behalf of a
satellite carrier, the cable system or distributor should segre-
gate the subscription fees collected on behalf of the satellite
carrier from those collected from cable subscribers pursuant to
the section 111 cable statutory license. e cable system should
only report in its section 111 statements of account the number
of cable subscribers served and the amount of gross receipts
collected pursuant to section 111 and should pay only royalties
pursuant to the requirements of section 111.
Definitions
• A satellite carrier is defined as “an entity that uses the facili-
ties of a satellite or satellite service licensed by the Federal
Communications Commission and operates in the Fixed
Satellite Service under part 25 of title 47 of the Code of
Federal Regulations or the Direct Broadcast Satellite Service
under part 100 of title 47 of the Code of Federal Regula-
tions, to establish and operate a channel of communications
for point-to-multipoint distribution of television station
signals, and that owns or leases a capacity or service on a
satellite in order to provide such point-to-multipoint distri-
bution, except to the extent that such entity provides such
distribution pursuant to tari under the Communications
Act of 1934, other than for private home viewing pursuant
to this Section [119].”
• A non-network station is defined as “a television station,
other than a network station, licensed by the Federal Com-
munications Commission that is secondarily transmitted by
a satellite carrier.”
• Private home viewing is defined as “the viewing, for private
use in a household by means of satellite reception equip-
ment which is operated by an individual in that household
and which serves only such household, of a secondary
transmission delivered by a satellite carrier of a primary
transmission of a television station licensed by the Federal
Communications Commission.”
• A commercial establishment means an “establishment used
for commercial purposes, such as a bar, restaurant, private
office, fitness club, oil rig, retail store, bank or other financial
institution, supermarket, automobile or boat dealership, or
any other establishment with a common business area;” and
“does not include a multiunit permanent or temporary
dwelling where private home viewing occurs, such as a hotel,
dormitory, hospital, apartment, condominium, or prison.”
• A subscriber is defined as “a person or entity that receives
a secondary transmission service from a satellite carrier
and pays a fee for the service, directly or indirectly, to the
satellite carrier or to a distributor.”
• Subscribe means to “elect to become a subscriber.”
• Per subscriber per month means “each subscriber subscribing
to the station in question, or to a package including such
station, on the last day of a given month.”
• A network station is defined as “(a) a television station
licensed by the Federal Communications Commission,
including any translator station or terrestrial satellite station
that rebroadcasts all or substantially all of the programming
broadcast by a network station, that is owned or operated by,
or affiliated with, one or more of the television networks in
the United States which oer an interconnected program
service on a regular basis for 15 or more hours per week to at
least 25 of its affiliated television licensees in 10 or more
States; or (b) a noncommercial educational broadcast
station (as defined in section 397 of the Communications
Act of 1934).”
• A distributor is defined as “an entity which contracts to
distribute secondary transmissions from a satellite carrier
and, either as a single channel or in a package with other
programming, provides the secondary transmission either
directly to individual subscribers or indirectly through
other program distribution entities in accordance with the
provisions of this Section [119].”
• e term unserved household, with respect to a particular
television network, means a household that
(A) cannot receive, through the use of an antenna, an over-
the-air signal containing the primary stream, or, on or
aer the qualifying date, the multicast stream, originat-
ing in that household’s local market and aliated with
that network of
(i) if the signal originates as an analog signal, Grade B
intensity as dened by the Federal Communications
Commission in section 73.683(a) of title 47, Code of
Federal Regulations, as in eect on January 1, 1999; or