Cite as: 512 U. S. 622 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
gramming each group offers. The answer, as we explained, supra, at 643-652, is no. Congress granted must-carry privileges to broadcast stations on the belief that the broadcast television industry is in economic peril due to the physical characteristics of cable transmission and the economic incentives facing the cable industry. Thus, the fact that the provisions benefit broadcasters and not cable programmers does not call for strict scrutiny under our precedents.
3
Finally, appellants maintain that strict scrutiny applies because the must-carry provisions single out certain members of the press—here, cable operators—for disfavored treatment. See, e. g., Brief for Appellant Time Warner Entertainment Co. 28-30. In support, appellants point out that Congress has required cable operators to provide carriage to broadcast stations, but has not imposed like burdens on analogous video delivery systems, such as multichannel multipoint distribution (MMDS) systems and satellite master antenna television (SMATV) systems. Relying upon our precedents invalidating discriminatory taxation of the press, see, e. g., Arkansas Writers' Project, Inc. v. Ragland, 481 U. S. 221 (1987); Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co. v. Minnesota Comm'r of Revenue, 460 U. S. 575 (1983); Grosjean v. American Press Co., 297 U. S. 233 (1936), appellants contend that this sort of differential treatment poses a particular danger of abuse by the Government and should be presumed invalid.
Regulations that discriminate among media, or among different speakers within a single medium, often present serious First Amendment concerns. Minneapolis Star, for example, considered a use tax imposed on the paper and ink used in the production of newspapers. We subjected the tax to strict scrutiny for two reasons: first, because it applied only to the press; and, second, because in practical application it fell upon only a small number of newspapers. Minne-
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