Sponsors (20)
Introduced March 18, 2025 by W. Greg Steube · Last progress March 18, 2025
The bill aims to expand carriage and visibility for U.S. independent (non‑public) programmers and improve oversight, but does so by subsidizing distributors through a tax credit that reduces federal revenue, creates privacy and compliance risks, and may not deliver lower costs to consumers.
Independent U.S.-based (non‑public) programmers are more likely to gain carriage on major distributors because distributors receive a per‑subscriber tax credit, increasing distribution opportunities and supporting domestic creative-sector jobs.
Subscribers (especially middle‑class households) can access broader and more diverse programming because eligible distributors face lower net costs for licensing independent programmers, which can expand consumer choice.
The FCC will publish counts, duration metrics, and recommendations (with Treasury sharing tax‑credit data) to improve transparency and policy oversight about independent programmer carriage, enabling more informed policymaking to boost independent content availability.
Taxpayers bear an indirect cost because the per‑subscriber credit reduces federal revenue, which could limit funding for other public services.
Large distributors could capture the credit without passing savings to consumers, meaning subscription prices may not fall and many viewers won't see lower bills despite the subsidy.
Allowing Treasury/IRS tax‑credit data sharing with the FCC increases the risk that sensitive taxpayer information could be exposed, even if direct identifiers are restricted.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates a tax credit for MVPDs and vMVPDs that pay license fees to qualifying U.S.-based independent programmers and requires FCC reporting on their carriage.
Creates a new tax credit for multichannel and virtual multichannel video programming distributors that pay license fees to qualifying U.S.-based independent programmers, with per-agreement and annual caps tied to the distributor's subscriber base. It also requires the FCC to report on how many independent programmers receive linear carriage and for how long, and permits limited Treasury-to-FCC sharing of tax return information to prepare those reports under strict use limits.