Statutory license of television programming

Overview
Sections 111, 119, and 122 of the Copyright Act are statutory licenses that have allowed cable operators and satellite carriers to retransmit local and distant broadcast station signals to paying subscribers for decades. By operation of these provisions, television programming is automatically licensed to cable operators and satellite carriers at government determined rates and under government determined terms and conditions, thus eliminating the transaction costs associated with negotiating thousands of licenses with a multitude of copyright owners.

Source

 * Section 302 Report