Court Opinion

ID: 9689666
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:42:22.833578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:51.224424
License: Public Domain

Blair Moody, Jr., J.
(concurring). I concur with the analysis and result reached by Chief Justice Coleman in Detroit Edison. I concur in the result reached in City of Ann Arbor but write separately to elaborate on certain important considerations *575left unaddressed in Chief Justice Coleman’s opinion.
Const 1963, art 7, § 25 reads:
"No city or village shall acquire any public utility furnishing light, heat or power, or grant any public utility franchise which is not subject to revocation at the will of the city or village, unless the proposition shall first have been approved by three-fifths of the electors voting thereon. No city or village may sell any public utility unless the proposition shall first have been approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon, or a greater number if the charter shall so provide.” (Emphasis added.)
It is evident from the plain meaning of the words of this provision and from a review of the Official Record of the 1961 Michigan Constitutional Convention that the definition of the term "public utility” is limited to those utilities furnishing light, heat or power. Thus, for art 7, § 25 purposes, cable television is not a public utility.
Although this limited constitutional definition of public utility excludes cable television, it is imperative to recognize on a practical level that cable television possesses all the attributes of a public utility. While the term "public utility” has eluded precise definition, this Court has defined the term as follows:
"Utility means the state or quality of being useful. Was this plant [waterworks company] one useful to the public? If so, it was a public utility.” Schurtz v Grand Rapids, 208 Mich 510, 524; 175 NW 421 (1919).
A Federal District Court has given a similar, if somewhat more expansive, definition by defining a public utility as a business which offers services for which the public has such a need as to consti*576tute a practical necessity and which by its very nature is an economic monopoly. Greater Fremont, Inc v Fremont, 302 F Supp 652, 664-665 (ND Ohio, 1968).
Whether cable television is analyzed in terms of "usefulness” or "practical necessity”, it is clear that cable television provides a service that is important to the public. The United States Supreme Court, in the context of a decision involving cable television, has noted the importance of the communication industry:
"[F]or broadcasting is demonstrably a principal source of information and entertainment for a great part of the Nation’s population.” United States v Southwestern Cable Co, 392 US 157, 177; 88 S Ct 1994; 20 L Ed 2d 1001 (1968).
While cable television may not cater to the physical needs of man as do utilities that provide heat, light and power, it provides an equally important service in terms of the rational, psychological and esthetic growth processes of man. Further, as many commentators so adroitly point out, cable television is in its essence a de facto monopoly.1 Barnett, Cable Television and Media Concentration, Part I: Control of Cable Systems by Local *577Broadcasters, 22 Stanford L Rev 221, 239 (1970); Note, Regulation of Community Antenna Television, 70 Columbia L Rev 837, 849 (1970).
Because cable television in its nascent state portends a vast revolution in the broadcasting industry and because of the importance of the service cable television provides, it is essential that some form of regulation be fostered to insure that the benefits of cable television be made available to the entire population. The City of Ann Arbor has taken steps in Chapter 32 of the Ann Arbor City Code to insure that the benefits of cable television reach a broad spectrum of the citizenry. Section 2:114(9) of Chapter 32 reads as follows:
"The Grantee shall, without charge for installation, maintenance, or service make single installations of its standard community antenna services to the City Hall, each fire station in the City of Ann Arbor, each accredited public and private, elementary or secondary school in said City, and the Public Library. One such installation shall be provided for each Junior or Community College in said City and four (4) such installations for the University of Michigan. Such installations shall be made at such reasonable locations as shall be requested by the respective units of government or educational institutions.”
However commendable this above provision may be, there is still a segment of the populace who will most likely be unable to avail themselves of the benefits of cable television. This includes the poor, the elderly and those on fixed incomes. In these inflationary-recessive times, it is not difficult to project that economic reality will prevent access to cable television on the part of these groups.
To insure equitable distribution of the benefits to be derived from cable television, it seems essential that some broad state-wide regulatory scheme *578be developed. Although the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) has in the past declined to assume jurisdiction over the cable television industry, City of Jackson v Michigan Bell Telephone Co, 63 PUR3d 384 (Mich Public Service Commission, 1966), it is incumbent upon both the PSC and the Michigan Legislature to enter into the regulatory void that surrounds cable television. Since cable television is truly a public utility, state-wide regulation would certainly enhance the likelihood that the benefits of cable television would adhere to all the public.2
Kavanagh, J., concurred with Blair Moody, Jr., J.

 Cable television for the most part originated in small communities where network television was difficult if not impossible to receive. Because of the expense of stringing cables on poles or burying them underground and because of the exclusivity of the franchises ob-' tained, it was almost unheard of for two cable television operators to exist within the same community. As cable television has rapidly developed into large metropolitan areas, however, it is not unheard of that several cable television operators can exist side by side. While this might indicate that cable television no longer operates from a monopolistic framework, at least as far as large cities are concerned, there has recently developed a trend of consolidation of cable television operators under one large umbrella or corporation. Thus, the industry remains a functional monopoly. See Witt, CATV and Local Regulation, 5 Cal Western L Rev 30, 39-40 (1968).

 While availability to the public has been stressed as the main reason for advocating a state-wide regulatory scheme, it is noted that there may be other important considerations which would favor a state-wide method as opposed to local regulation, e.g., difficulty of local government units in setting fair rates. See Comment, Federal, State, and Local Regulation of CATV — After You, Alphonse * * *, 29 U Pitt L Rev 109, 119 (1967).