Congress also determined that cable operators must have guaranteed access to broadcast programming, which might not occur under a negotiation scenario. A cable operator might successfully bargain with the copyright owners of most of the programs contained on a broadcast signal, but be forced to pay exorbitant fees (or denied access to the programming) by copyright owners of certain categories of programming, or those copyright owners who realized that a cable operator's retransmission of an entire broadcast signal hinged on its ability to obtain a license from that program owner. A compulsory license for the cable operator eliminates any holdouts among copyright owners by guaranteeing access to the programming.