118 STAT. 3430 PUBLIC LAW 108–447—DEC. 8, 2004 located in any local market within a State that is not part of the contiguous United States, and (B) within 30 months after such date of enactment retransmit the signals originating as digital signals of each such station. The retransmissions of such stations shall be made available to substantially all of the satellite carrier’s subscribers in each station’s local market, and the retransmissions of the stations in at least one market in the State shall be made available to substantially all of the satellite carrier’s subscribers in areas of the State that are not within a designated market area. The cost to subscribers of such retransmissions shall not exceed the cost of retransmissions of local television stations in other States. Within 1 year after the date of enactment of that Act, the Commission shall promulgate regulations concerning elections by television stations in such State between mandatory carriage pursuant to this section and retransmission consent pursuant to section 325(b), which shall take into account the schedule on which local television stations are made available to viewers in such State.’’. SEC. 211. CARRIAGE OF TELEVISION SIGNALS TO CERTAIN SUB SCRIBERS. Part I of title III of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 339 the following: ‘‘SEC. 341. CARRIAGE OF TELEVISION SIGNALS TO CERTAIN SUB SCRIBERS. ‘‘(a)(1) IN GENERAL.—A cable operator or satellite carrier may elect to retransmit, to subscribers in an eligible county.— ‘‘(A) any television broadcast stations that are located in the State in which the county is located and that any cable operator or satellite carrier was retransmitting to subscribers in the county on January 1, 2004; or ‘‘(B) up to 2 television broadcast stations located in the State in which the county is located, if the number of television broadcast stations that the cable operator or satellite carrier is authorized to carry under paragraph (1) is less than 3. ‘‘(2) DEEMED SIGNIFICANTLY VIEWED.—A station described in subsection (a) is deemed to be significantly viewed in the eligible county within the meaning of section 76.54 of the Commission’s regulations (47 CFR 76.54). ‘‘(3) DEFINITION OF ELIGIBLE COUNTY.—For purposes of this section, the term ‘eligible county’ means any 1 of 4 counties that— ‘‘(A) are all in a single State; ‘‘(B) on January 1, 2004, were each in designated market areas in which the majority of counties were located in another State or States; and ‘‘(C) as a group had a combined total of 41,340 television households according to the U.S. Television Household Esti mates by Nielsen Media Research for 2003–2004. ‘‘(4) LIMITATION.—Carriage of a station under this section shall be at the option of the cable operator or satellite carrier. ‘‘(b) CERTAIN MARKETS .—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a satellite carrier may not carry the signal of a television station into an adjacent local market that is comprised of only a portion of a county, other than to unserved households located in that county.’’. 47 USC 341. Regulations.
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