Cable TV Firm Wins Right to Sue for City License

SAN FRANCISCO — In a major victory for cable television companies, a federal appeals court ruled today that free expression rights are violated when a city allows only one cable system in an area that could accommodate more.

Exclusive licensing of cable TV, when several companies could physically operate and meet the city’s legitimate conditions, “creates an impermissible risk of covert discrimination based on the content of or the views expressed in the operator’s proposed programming,” the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

A three-member panel of the court unanimously reinstated a suit by Preferred Communications Inc., which was denied permission to show cable programs in South-Central Los Angeles when it refused to take part in the city’s bidding process for an exclusive license.