The new bill, which legislators plan to introduce on Monday, would make that much harder.

Under the law, New York’s Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities including cable, water and natural gas, would decide what qualified as local news. It would also dictate how long and how often each channel was required to show it; smaller companies could have less stringent requirements, said Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, the bill’s other sponsor.

Mr. Abinanti and Mr. Thomas said they were also considering whether to include online-only content providers, such as Hulu or Amazon Prime, in the rule.

There are legal and technical issues still to be worked out. The federal and state governments share oversight of telecommunications companies, which could limit the state’s ability to act alone. Cable companies could also seek to pass the cost of producing news on to customers.

“Requiring a cable company to run and staff a local news operation is a pretty audacious request,” said Jerry Ellig, a former chief economist at the Federal Communications Commission who now teaches at George Washington University. “This is pretty much a tax. It may not show up on your cable bill as a line item or anything, but if it’s a cost of doing business, they will certainly pass it on.”

Media experts also warned that such a law could effectively make the government an arbiter of news.

But supporters of the measure say that the bill is a direct response to the excessive deregulation of telecommunications companies and a declaration that companies can and should give back in exchange for the state’s permission to operate in New York.

Mr. Abinanti emphasized that while the Public Service Commission would ensure companies’ compliance with the local news requirement, it would not control the content of that news.