Cite as: 508 U. S. 307 (1993)
Stevens, J., concurring in judgment
use of that improvement. But if government permits the installation, it can surely allow the owner to use the electricity that it generates for whichever appliances on the property that he selects. However, if the owner elects to sell electricity to his neighbors, a justification for regulation that did not previously exist might arise. For he would be seeking access to an already regulated market.
A television antenna, like a windmill, is a somewhat un-sightly species of improvement. Nonetheless, the same analysis applies. Government may reasonably decide to regulate the distribution of electricity or television programs to paying customers in the open market without also regulating the way in which the owner of the antenna, or the windmill, distributes its benefits within the confines of his own property. In my opinion the interest in the free use of one's own property provides adequate support for an exception from burdensome regulation and franchising requirements even when the property is occupied not only by family members and guests, but by lessees and co-owners as well, and even when the property complex encompasses multiple buildings.
The master antenna serving multiple units in an apartment building is less unsightly than a forest of individual antennas, each serving a separate apartment. It was surely sensible to allow owners to make use of such an improvement without incurring the costs of franchising and economic regulation. Even though regulation might have been justified— indeed, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) at one time considered imposing such regulation, see Cable Television Systems, 63 F. C. C. 2d 956, 996-998 (1977)—a justification for nonregulation would nevertheless remain: Whenever possible, property owners should be free to use improvements to their property as they see fit.
That brings us to the "private cable" exemption as applied to satellite master antenna television (SMATV) systems. A justification for the "private cable" exemption that rests on
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