Independent Programmers Tax Incentive Act

This bill creates a new tax credit, the Carriage of Independent Programmers Credit, aimed at encouraging multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and virtual MVPDs to carry independent programmers. For each qualifying carriage agreement, an eligible distributor can claim a credit equal to the lesser of the net license fees paid or incurred under the agreement or $0.10 times the distributor’s average monthly subscribers for the year. The total credit for any eligible distributor cannot exceed $0.30 times the average monthly subscribers for the year. The credit becomes part of the general business credit and applies to expenses paid or incurred after enactment for taxable years ending after enactment. The bill also mandates biennial FCC reports to Congress on the state of independent programming carriage and allows the IRS to disclose certain return information to the FCC solely for preparing those reports, with privacy limits. Key definitions include: who qualifies as an eligible distributor (MVPDs or virtual MVPDs), what constitutes a qualifying carriage agreement (written, expands carriage of one or more linear streams to at least 40% of the distributor’s subscribers and requires license fees), and who counts as a qualified independent programmer (a US-based producer/distributor not publicly traded and not controlled by certain listed entities). The bill also requires protections against double benefits (no deduction for amounts already credited) and imposes an ongoing reporting/monitoring role for the FCC.