Cable systems operated in 70 communities in 1950; by 1998, more than 65 million subscribers in more than 32,000 communities received service from more than 10,700 cable systems. A 1984 law mandated leased access channels, essentially for rent, to parties unaffiliated with the cable systems themselves. These parties are able to choose their own content free of editorial constraint, ensuring greater access and equality to the television viewing public and content developers.
The set-aside provision of the act requires cable systems with more than 36 channels to set aside a percentage of channels for lease. The cable operators establish price, terms and conditions to ensure that the leased channels will not affect, in a negative way, the financial condition or market development of the cable operator. According to writers of the provision, "The purpose of this section is to assure that the widest possible diversity of information sources are made available to the public from cable systems in a manner consistent with growth and development of cable systems."
Individual content developers, who favor the provision, claim that leased access channels provide the widest possible diversity of information to the viewing public. Two justifications for the provision were that cable was a monopoly, and providers had the ability to abuse the control they had over their systems. Cable system providers, any person or group of persons providing cable service, claim that not being able to control pricing and terms creates a negative economic impact on the business as a whole, which in turn reduces the diversity of programming offered by such providers.