Senate Communications Subcommittee to Take Up Satellite Compulsory License Extension

License allows operators to import distant network signals

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/30/2009 4:22:29 PM

The Senate Communications Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, Oct. 7 to take up extension of the satellite compulsory license.

That is the license that allows satellite operators to import distant network signals. The law establishing that license sunsets at the end of the year unless reauthorized.

The Senate Judiciary Committee last week approved a version of the extension, now called the Satellite TV Modernization Act, but the two committees share jurisdiction over the issue since it implicates both communications and copyright.