Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Four Corners Television Access Act of 2012.
Section 2. Satellite carriage of certain television broadcast signals
Section 122(a)(4)(C) of title 17, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by redesignating clauses (i) and (ii) as subclauses (I) and (II), respectively, and moving such clauses 2 ems to the right;
(2) by striking (C) Additional stations.—In the case of that State and inserting the following:
(i) Certain small counties
In the case of that State in which are located 2 counties that— the statutory license provided under this paragraph shall apply to secondary transmissions by a satellite carrier to subscribers in any such county of the primary transmissions of any network station located in that State, if the satellite carrier was making such secondary transmissions to any subscribers in that county on January 1, 2008.
(I) are located in the 46th largest designated market area for the year 2005 according to Nielsen Media Research; and
(II) the total number of television households in the 2 counties combined did not exceed 30,000 for the year 2005 according to Nielsen Media Research,
(ii) Other counties
In the case of a State—.
Section 3. Cable carriage of certain television broadcast signal
Section 341 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 341) is amended by adding at the end the following:
(1) Significantly viewed
Each television broadcast station broadcasting in the designated market area of a State capital is deemed significantly viewed in a covered county within the meaning of section 76.54 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, for purposes of the carriage and retransmission of the signals of such broadcast station by a cable system, translator, or other multichannel video programming distributor.
(2) Retransmission permitted
Notwithstanding the provisions of section 325(b), a cable system, translator, or other multichannel video programming distributor may retransmit the signal of any television broadcast station described in paragraph (1) within a covered county.
(3) Definition of covered county
For purposes of this subsection, a county is a covered county if—
(A) it is 1 of 2 counties located in the 46th largest designated market area for the year 2005 according to Nielsen Media Research; and
(B) the total number of television households in the 2 counties combined did not exceed 30,000 for the year 2005 according to Nielsen Media Research.