Local News and Broadcast Media Preservation Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 5058 To repeal the limitations on multiple ownership of radio and television stations imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from limiting common ownership of daily newspapers and full-power broadcast stations, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES DECEMBER 17, 2020 Mr. PAUL introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To repeal the limitations on multiple ownership of radio and television stations imposed by the Federal Commu- nications Commission, to prohibit the Federal Commu- nications Commission from limiting common ownership of daily newspapers and full-power broadcast stations, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Local News and 4 Broadcast Media Preservation Act of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Jan 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5058.IS S5058 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 5058 IS SEC. 2. REGULATION OF BROADCAST OWNERSHIP BY THE 1 FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION. 2 (a) REPEAL OF MULTIPLE BROADCAST STATION 3 OWNERSHIP RULES.— 4 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Communica- 5 tions Commission may not impose any limitation on 6 the number of radio or television stations— 7 (A) that a person or entity may directly or 8 indirectly own, operate, or control; or 9 (B) in which a person or entity may have 10 a cognizable interest. 11 (2) REGULATIONS.—In accordance with para- 12 graph (1), the Federal Communications Commission 13 shall repeal section 73.3555 of title 47, Code of Fed- 14 eral Regulations. 15 (3) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND- 16 MENT.—Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act 17 of 1996 (Public Law 104–104; 110 Stat. 108) is 18 amended by striking subsections (a) through (d) and 19 (h). 20 (b) PROHIBITION ON LIMITATION OF NEWSPAPER 21 AND BROADCAST STATION CROSS-OWNERSHIP.—The 22 Federal Communications Commission may not impose any 23 limitation on the ability of a person or entity to own one 24 or more daily newspapers and one or more full-power 25 broadcast stations. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Jan 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5058.IS S5058 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 5058 IS SEC. 3. CLAYTON ACT. 1 Section 7 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 18) is 2 amended by adding at the end the following: 3 ‘‘For purposes of an acquisition described in this sec- 4 tion, the market share in any geographic market of the 5 television broadcasting market, the radio broadcasting 6 market, or the daily newspaper publication market (or any 7 relevant product market within such markets) of the ac- 8 quiring person as a result of the acquisition shall not be 9 considered to substantially lessen competition or to tend 10 to create a monopoly.’’. 11 SEC. 4. SAFE HARBOR FOR CERTAIN COLLECTIVE NEGO- 12 TIATIONS. 13 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 14 (1) ANTITRUST LAWS.—The term ‘‘antitrust 15 laws’’— 16 (A) has the meaning given the term in 17 subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton 18 Act (15 U.S.C. 12); and 19 (B) includes— 20 (i) section 5 of the Federal Trade 21 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the ex- 22 tent that section applies to unfair methods 23 of competition; and 24 (ii) any State law (including regula- 25 tions) that prohibits or penalizes the con- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Jan 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5058.IS S5058 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 5058 IS duct described in, or is otherwise incon- 1 sistent with, subsection (b). 2 (2) NEWS CONTENT CREATOR.—The term 3 ‘‘news content creator’’ means— 4 (A) any print or digital news organization 5 that— 6 (i) has a dedicated professional edi- 7 torial staff that creates and distributes 8 original news and related content con- 9 cerning local, national, or international 10 matters of public interest on at least a 11 weekly basis; and 12 (ii) is commercially marketed through 13 subscriptions, advertising, or sponsorship; 14 and 15 (B) provides original news and related con- 16 tent, with the editorial content consisting of not 17 less than 25 percent current news and related 18 content. 19 (3) ONLINE CONTENT DISTRIBUTOR.—The 20 term ‘‘online content distributor’’ means any entity 21 that— 22 (A) operates a website or other online serv- 23 ice that displays, distributes, or directs users to 24 news articles, works of journalism, or other con- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Jan 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5058.IS S5058 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 5058 IS tent on the internet that is generated by third- 1 party news content creators; and 2 (B) has not fewer than 1,000,000,000 3 monthly active users, in the aggregate, of all of 4 its websites or online services worldwide. 5 (b) LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.—A news content cre- 6 ator may not be held liable under the antitrust laws for 7 engaging in negotiations with any other news content cre- 8 ator during the 4-year period beginning on the date of en- 9 actment of this Act to collectively withhold content from, 10 or negotiate with, an online content distributor regarding 11 the terms on which the news content of the news content 12 creator may be distributed by the online content dis- 13 tributor, if— 14 (1) the negotiations with the online content dis- 15 tributor— 16 (A) are not limited to price; 17 (B) are nondiscriminatory as to similarly 18 situated news content creators; 19 (C) directly relate to the quality, accuracy, 20 attribution or branding, and interoperability of 21 news; and 22 (D) pertain to terms that would be avail- 23 able to all news content creators; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Jan 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5058.IS S5058 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 5058 IS (2) the coordination between the news content 1 creators is directly related to and reasonably nec- 2 essary for negotiations with an online content dis- 3 tributor that are otherwise consistent with this Act; 4 and 5 (3) the negotiations do not involve any person 6 that is not a news content creator or an online con- 7 tent distributor. 8 (c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Except as provided in 9 this Act, this Act shall not be construed to modify, impair, 10 or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Jan 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S5058.IS S5058 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS