Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 896.0

529US3

Unit: $U60

[09-26-01 12:39:04] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 803 (2000)

821

Opinion of the Court

709. The ﬁnding is not clearly erroneous; indeed it is all
but required.

Once § 505 went into effect, of course, a signiﬁcant percent-
age of cable operators felt it necessary to time channel their
sexually explicit programmers.
Id., at 711, and n. 14. This
is an indication that scrambling technology is not yet per-
fected. That is not to say, however, that scrambling is
completely ineffective. Different cable systems use differ-
ent scrambling systems, which vary in their dependability.
“The severity of the problem varies from time to time and
place to place, depending on the weather, the quality of the
equipment, its installation, and maintenance.”
Id., at 708.
At even the good end of the spectrum a system might bleed
to an extent sufﬁcient to trigger the time-channeling require-
ment for a cautious cable operator.
(The statute requires
the signal to be “fully block[ed].”
47 U. S. C. § 561(a) (1994
ed., Supp. III) (emphasis added).) A rational cable operator,
faced with the possibility of sanctions for intermittent bleed-
ing, could well choose to time channel even if the bleeding is
too momentary to pose any concern to most households. To
afﬁrm that the Government failed to prove the existence of
a problem, while at the same time observing that the statute
imposes a severe burden on speech, is consistent with the
analysis our cases require. Here, there is no probative evi-
dence in the record which differentiates among the extent of
bleed at individual households and no evidence which other-
wise quantiﬁes the signal bleed problem.

In addition, market-based solutions such as programmable
televisions, VCR’s, and mapping systems (which display a
blue screen when tuned to a scrambled signal) may eliminate
signal bleed at the consumer end of the cable. 30 F. Supp.
2d, at 708. Playboy made the point at trial that the Govern-
ment’s estimate failed to account for these factors.
Id., at
708–709. Without some sort of ﬁeld survey, it is impossible
to know how widespread the problem in fact is, and the only
indicator in the record is a handful of complaints. Cf.