Law Commons^™

Cable Television And The Freedom Of Expression, Daniel Brenner

Duke Law Journal

In 1973, cable television operators primarily carried broadcast signals that could not be received adequately over the air. That year, a Cabinet-level committee recommended that regulation of cable fundamentally change when the cable industry penetrated fifty percent of U.S. homes. Instead of selecting any of their program services, the cable operators would be treated as pure carriers, leaving others to program. 1 The United States recently passed that supposed milestone. 2 Yet the 1973 policy recommendation is about as likely to get a second hearing as the Articles of Confederation. By 1975, Home Box Office had launched cable's first satellite …