Public TV Coalition Urges Copyright Office to Apply Statutory Licenses to Digital Signals

The Public Television Coalition (PTC) supported the statutory Copyright Act licenses promoting universal access to Public Television.

The coalition, consisting of APTS, PBS and the WGBH Educational Foundation, urged that the Copyright Office apply the statutory licenses to digital transmissions.

In a July 2 comment to the Copyright Office’s Notice of Inquiry, PTC said: “While there is little doubt that the statutory licenses for both cable and satellite systems apply to digital broadcast signals, the Copyright Office should remove any lingering uncertainty in the marketplace by formally clarifying such applicability.”

PTC otherwise recommended that Congress maintain the three statutory licenses in the Copyright Act that govern the retransmission of broadcast television signals, and continue to enforce the universal carriage of Public Television stations on cable and satellite systems.

The statutory licenses enable Public Television to avoid time-consuming negotiations with individual content copyright holders that would otherwise be required to obtain necessary clearances for retransmission.

Click here to view the full PTC comment