SHVERA Report

SHVERA § 110 Report

Notice of inquiry

The Copyright Office has completed its report examining certain provisions of the section 119 statutory license that allows satellite carriers to retransmit over-the-air broadcast signals. The text of the full report, including the executive summary and appendices, may be downloaded from this page.

Background

On December 8, 2004, the President signed the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004 (“SHVERA”), a part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-447. In addition to extending for an additional five years the statutory license for satellite carriers retransmitting over-the-air television broadcast stations to their subscribers and making a number of amendments to the existing section 119 of the Copyright Act, SHVERA directs the Copyright Office to conduct two studies and report its findings to the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate.

Section 109 of SHVERA requires the Copyright Office to examine and compare the statutory licensing systems for the cable and satellite television industries under sections 111, 119 and 122 of the Copyright Act and recommend any necessary legislative changes no later than June 8, 2008.

Section 110 provides for the current study and directs the Office to examine: (1) the extent to which the unserved household limitation for network stations contained in section 119 of title 17, United States Code, has operated efficiently and effectively, and (2) the extent to which secondary transmissions of primary transmissions of network stations and superstations under section 119 harm copyright owners of broadcast programming and the effect, if any, of the statutory license under section 122 of title 17, United States Code, which provides for the retransmission of local network stations into their local TV markets, in reducing such harm.

To assist in the preparation of this study, the Office published a Notice of Inquiry seeking comments on questions posed regarding various aspects of the study. See 70 FR 39343 (July 7, 2005). Pursuant to a request to extend the original filing dates, the Office extended the due dates for filing comments and reply comments. See 70 FR 47857 ( August 15, 2005). As a result, initial comments were due on September 1, 2005 and reply comments were due on September 22, 2005.