Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 882

529US3

Unit: $U60

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

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

807

Opinion of the Court

eliminate altogether the transmission of the targeted pro-
gramming outside the safe harbor period in affected cable
service areas.
In other words, for two-thirds of the day no
household in those service areas could receive the program-
ming, whether or not the household or the viewer wanted to
do so.

Appellee Playboy Entertainment Group, Inc., challenged
the statute as unnecessarily restrictive content-based legis-
lation violative of the First Amendment. After a trial, a
three-judge District Court concluded that a regime in which
viewers could order signal blocking on a household-by-
household basis presented an effective, less restrictive alter-
30 F. Supp. 2d 702, 719 (Del. 1998). Finding
native to § 505.
no error in this conclusion, we afﬁrm.

I

Playboy Entertainment Group owns and prepares pro-
grams for adult television networks, including Playboy Tele-
vision and Spice. Playboy transmits its programming to
cable television operators, who retransmit it to their sub-
scribers, either through monthly subscriptions to premium
channels or on a so-called “pay-per-view” basis. Cable oper-
ators transmit Playboy’s signal, like other premium channel
in scrambled form. The operators then provide
signals,
paying subscribers with an “addressable converter,” a box
placed on the home television set. The converter permits
the viewer to see and hear the descrambled signal.
It is
conceded that almost all of Playboy’s programming consists
of sexually explicit material as deﬁned by the statute.

The statute was enacted because not all scrambling tech-
nology is perfect. Analog cable television systems may use
either “RF” or “baseband” scrambling systems, which may
not prevent signal bleed, so discernible pictures may ap-
pear from time to time on the scrambled screen. Further-
more, the listener might hear the audio portion of the
program.