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2  MANHATTAN COMMUNITY ACCESS CORP. v. HALLECK 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

pany by a local government.  See 47 U. S. C. §§522(9)–(10), 
541(a)(2), (b)(1); Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 
512 U. S. 622, 628 (1994).  A private company cannot enter 
a local cable market without one.  §541(b)(1). 
  Cable  companies  transmit  content  through  wires  that 
stretch “between a transmission facility and the television 
sets of individual subscribers.”  Id., at 627–628.  Creating 
this  network  of  wires  is  a  disruptive  undertaking  that 
“entails  the  use  of  public  rights-of-way  and  easements.”  
Id., at 628. 
  New York State authorizes municipalities to grant cable 
franchises to cable companies of a certain size only if those 
companies  agree  to  set  aside  at  least  one  public  access 
channel.    16  N. Y.  Codes,  Rules  &  Regs.  §§895.1(f ), 
895.4(b)(1)  (2016).    New  York  then  requires  that  those 
public-access  channels  be  open  to  all  comers  on  “a  first-
come,  first-served,  nondiscriminatory  basis.”   §895.4(c)(4).  
Likewise,  the  State  prohibits  both  cable  franchisees  and 
local governments from “exercis[ing] any editorial control” 
over  the  channels,  aside  from  regulating  obscenity  and 
other unprotected content.  §§895.4(c)(8)–(9). 

B 
  Years ago, New York City (no longer a party to this suit) 
and Time Warner Entertainment Company (never a party 
to  this  suit)  entered  into  a  cable-franchise  agreement.  
App. 22.  Time Warner received a cable franchise; the City 
received  public-access  channels.    The  agreement  also 
provided that the public-access channels would be operated 
by  an  independent,  nonprofit  corporation  chosen  by  the 
Manhattan borough president.  But the City, as the prac-
tice of other New York municipalities confirms, could have 
instead chosen to run the channels itself.  See §895.4(c)(1); 
Brief for Respondents 35 (citing examples). 
  MNN  is  the  independent  nonprofit  that  the  borough 
president  appointed  to  run  the  channels;  indeed,  MNN