June 21, 2021
The Honorable Patrick Leahy
Chairman
Senate Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate
437 Russell Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Richard Shelby
Vice-Chairman
Senate Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate
304 Russell Building,
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Chair
House Committee on Appropriations
United States House of Representatives
2413 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Kay Granger
Ranking Member
House Committee on Appropriations
United States House of Representatives
1026 Longworth Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Leahy, Chair DeLauro, Vice-Chairman Shelby, and Ranking Member Granger:
I am pleased to deliver a letter describing the results of the Copyright Office’s study on
the market effects of the Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019
(“STCPPA”).
In December of 2019, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees asked the
Copyright Office to conduct a study of the effects on the satellite television market of the
anticipated expiration of the distant signal compulsory license contained in section 119 of the
Copyright Act. Members of Congress were concerned that the section 119 subsidy of the
carriage of distant broadcast network signals was undercutting the incentive for satellite
companies to provide local broadcast network signals. In the end, the section 119 license did
not expire entirely, as scheduled. Instead, Congress enacted the STCPPA, which, allowed
certain uses of the section 119 license to sunset, but made others permanent.
Hence, in the present study, the Office sought information on the effects of the STCPPA,
which went into full effect on June 1, 2020, as experienced by satellite companies, satellite
subscribers, and network broadcasters. As described in more detail in the attached letter, we
found that use of the section 119 license has sharply declined, accelerating an existing decrease
in use over time. We are not able, however, to disaggregate the impact of STCPPA from other,