830
Opinion of Thomas, J.
it is often the operator who must accept and schedule an access programmer's request for time on a channel.12 And,
in many places, the operator is actually obligated to provide production facilities and production assistance to persons seeking to produce access programming.13 Moreover, unlike a park picketer, an access programmer cannot transmit its own message. Instead, it is the operator who must transmit, or "speak," the access programmer's message. That the speech may be considered the operator's is driven home by 47 U. S. C. § 559, which authorizes a fine of up to $10,000 and two years' imprisonment for any person who "transmits over any cable system any matter which is obscene." See also
12 See D. Brenner, M. Price, & M. Meyerson, Cable Television and Other Nonbroadcast Video § 6.04[7] (1996) (hereinafter Brenner). Some States and local governments have formed nonprofit organizations to perform some of these functions. See D. C. Code Ann. § 43-1829(a) (1990 and Supp. 1996) (establishing Public Access Corporation "for the purpose of facilitating and governing nondiscriminatory use" of public access channels).
13 See, e. g., 47 U. S. C. § 541(a)(4)(B) (authorizing franchise authorities to "require adequate assurance that the cable operator will provide adequate public, educational, and governmental access channel capacity, facilities, or financial support"); Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-331c (1995) (requiring cable operators to contribute money or resources to cable advisory councils that monitor compliance with public access standards); § 16-333(c) (requiring the department of public utility control to adopt regulations "establishing minimum standards for the equipment supplied . . . for the community access programming"); D. C. Code Ann. § 43-1829.1(c) (1990) ("For public access channel users, the franchisee shall provide use of the production facilities and production assistance at an amount set forth in the request for proposal"); Minn. Stat. § 238.084.3(b) (1994) (requiring cable operators to "make readily available for public use at least the minimal equipment necessary for the production of programming and playback of prerecorded programs"). That these activities are "partly financed with public funds," ante, at 762, does not diminish the fact that these activities are also "partly financed" with the operator's money. See Brenner § 6.04[7], at 6-48 ("Frequently, access centers receive money and equipment from the cable operator"); id., § 6.04[3][c], at 6-41 (discussing cable operator financing of public access channels and questioning its constitutionality as "forced subsidization of speech").
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