226
Breyer, J., concurring in part
O'Brien, 391 U. S. 367, 377 (1968)). I also agree that the statute satisfies this standard. My conclusion rests, however, not upon the principal opinion's analysis of the statute's efforts to "promot[e] fair competition," see post, at 230-232, 237-240, but rather upon its discussion of the statute's other objectives, namely, " '(1) preserving the benefits of free, over-the-air local broadcast television,' " and " '(2) promoting the widespread dissemination of information from a multiplicity of sources,' " ante, at 189 (quoting Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 512 U. S. 622, 662 (1994) (Turner)). Whether or not the statute does or does not sensibly compensate for some significant market defect, it undoubtedly seeks to provide over-the-air viewers who lack cable with a rich mix of over-the-air programming by guaranteeing the over-the-air stations that provide such programming with the extra dollars that an additional cable audience will generate. I believe that this purpose—to assure the over-the-air public "access to a multiplicity of information sources," id., at 663—provides sufficient basis for rejecting appellants' First Amendment claim.
I do not deny that the compulsory carriage that creates the "guarantee" extracts a serious First Amendment price. It interferes with the protected interests of the cable operators to choose their own programming; it prevents displaced cable program providers from obtaining an audience; and it will sometimes prevent some cable viewers from watching what, in its absence, would have been their preferred set of programs. Ante, at 214; post, at 250. This "price" amounts to a "suppression of speech."
But there are important First Amendment interests on the other side as well. The statute's basic noneconomic purpose is to prevent too precipitous a decline in the quality and quantity of programming choice for an ever-shrinking non-cable-subscribing segment of the public. Ante, at 190, 191-194. This purpose reflects what "has long been a basic tenet of national communications policy," namely, that "the
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