Protecting Community Television Act

The bill, titled the Protecting Community Television Act, would make a narrow change to how the federal law defines a “franchise fee” under the Communications Act of 1934. Specifically, it would replace the word “includes” with “means” in the existing definition and add the phrase “other monetary” before “assessment.” In practical terms, this alters how the term is defined in law (changing it from an illustrative list to a defined term) and broadens the language to cover additional monetary charges that could be treated as franchise fees. The overall aim appears to be to clarify and potentially influence the scope of charges that local governments may classify as franchise fees in relation to cable operators, with the bilingual title signaling a focus on protecting funding for community television—often associated with PEG (Public, Educational, and Government) access channels. Because the full statutory text of the surrounding definition isn’t included here, the exact legal effect depends on how the rest of 47 U.S.C. 542(g)(1) reads and how courts interpret “means” versus “includes.” The bill is a short, introductory measure introducing these definitional changes and does not include broader policy provisions beyond that adjustment.