Muncal, Vince Andrew R.

2014063423

Turner Broadcasting Co. v. F.C.C., 520 U.S. 180 (1997)

Is a cable television operator more like a newspaper publisher or more like a telephone company
for purposes of “must carry” regulations?

Answer:

Must-carry rules, first instituted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1965,

require cable systems to carry local broadcast television stations. These rules were originally
designed to protect the local stations, which were competing with cable networks for a limited
number of cable channels, from losing market shares. The First Amendment of the US
Constitution was aimed at protecting newspaper publishers and publishers of flyers and
handbills

Problem: As cable networks proliferated, cable operators found must-carry rules to be

increasingly burdensome because the operators were being forced to carry local broadcast
stations in preference to the more popular and lucrative cable network channels.

This Court decided in Turner, 512 U. S., at 662, and now reaffirms, that must-carry was designed
to serve three interrelated, important governmental interests: (1) preserving the benefits of free,
over-the-air local broadcast television, (2) promoting the widespread dissemination of
information from a multiplicity of sources, and (3) promoting fair competition in the television
programming market. – Justice Kennedy

Cable television looks more like a newspaper publishing than it does in telephone service. It is a
one to many operations aimed at disseminating information rather than providing channels for
interactive communication on a one to one basis. People expect broadcasters to select and
organize content that they, the people, receive more or less passively. They do not view
broadcasting as simply as a channel for them to organize communication with someone else.