Cite as: 520 U. S. 180 (1997)
Opinion of Kennedy, J.
broadcast stations carried on cable are correlated with significant decreases in advertising revenue to cable systems. Dertouzos Declaration ¶¶ 20, 25-28 (App. 966, 969-971); see also Reply Comment of FTC, at 18 (App. 175). Empirical evidence also indicates that demand for premium cable services (such as pay-per-view) is reduced when a cable system carries more independent broadcasters. Hearing on Competitive Problems in the Cable Television Industry, at 323 (statement of Michael O. Wirth). Thus, operators stand to benefit by dropping broadcast stations. Dertouzos Declaration ¶ 6b (App. 959).
Cable systems also have more systemic reasons for seeking to disadvantage broadcast stations: Simply stated, cable has little interest in assisting, through carriage, a competing medium of communication. As one cable-industry executive put it, " 'our job is to promote cable television, not broadcast television.' " Hearing on Competitive Issues, at 658 (quoting Multichannel News, Channel Realignments: United Cable Eyes Plan to Bump Network Affils to Upper Channels, Nov. 3, 1986, p. 39); see also Hearing on Competitive Issues, at 661 (" 'Shouldn't we give more . . . shelf space to cable? Why have people trained to view UHF?' ") (vice president of operations at Comcast, an MSO, quoted in Multichannel News, Cable Operators begin to Shuffle Channel Lineups, Sept. 8, 1986, p. 38). The incentive to subscribe to cable is lower in markets with many over-the-air viewing options. See JSCR ¶ 275 (App. 1369); Dertouzos Declaration ¶¶ 27, 32 (App. 970, 972). Evidence adduced on remand indicated cable systems have little incentive to carry, and a significant incentive to drop, broadcast stations that will only be strengthened by access to the 60 percent of the television market that cable typically controls. Dertouzos Declaration
¶¶ 29, 35 (App. 971, 973); Noll Declaration ¶ 43 (App. 1029). Congress could therefore reasonably conclude that cable systems would drop broadcasters in favor of programmers— even unaffiliated ones—less likely to compete with them for
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