Cable TV Firms Must Carry All Local Stations, Court Decides

Ending a five-year legal battle over the future of local television, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that cable TV operators can be forced to carry the signals of all the TV broadcasters in their area.

The 5-4 ruling rejects the cable industry’s claim that its local owners had a free-press right, rather like newspaper publishers, to decide which stations they would carry.

Instead, the majority stressed the First Amendment also protects the public’s access to a “rich mix of over-the-air programming.”

The ruling probably spares the life of many small, independent stations, educational channels and foreign language broadcasters who were in danger of being dropped from the cable lineup and replaced by another “pay-per-view” channel.

That loss would cost them most of their viewers, and probably drive them out of business.

Casting the deciding vote, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said he was swayed by the effect on the nearly 40 percent of American households that do not buy cable TV. If the “must carry” law were struck down and those stations went off the air, he said, these non-cable households would soon face a steadily shrinking number of free TV stations.

“I believe that this purpose - to assure the over-the-air public access to a multiplicity of information sources - provides sufficient basis for rejecting the (cable industry’s) First Amendment claim,” said Breyer, who joined a court that was split 4-4 on the issue.

Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg voted to strike down the 1992 law.