Pubcasters Devising Strategy for Growing Federal Funding
Seeking to double federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the next five years, public broadcasters are planning a campaign that includes enlisting station board members who contribute to congressional and presidential candidates to lobby for increased funding. Leaders of national public broadcasting organizations have “discussed in principle” what it would take to double CPB appropriations, said John Lawson, president of the Association of Public TV Stations. And they have concluded that public broadcasters need to make a “very solid case statement of what public TV and radio would do with increased federal funding,” he said.
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The strategy for public broadcasters includes backing the CPB’s request to the Office of Management and Budget for an FY 2011 allocation of $483 million, up from $420 million approved by Congress for FY 2010, he said. For APTS’ Capitol Hill Day in February, stations have been asked to develop “concise, measurable goals tied to an increase of federal funding,” including programming on improved health care, education and early childhood, Lawson told us in an interview.
As part of a “more systematic” way to bolster community support, members of local station boards, many of whom make political contributions, would be organized into a “leadership council,” he said. “It would be a structure for the community leadership of public broadcasting from across the country to come together to help plan the future of public media… and form an advocacy organization like we've never had before.” Efforts also would be made to raise resources to effectively staff the leadership council, Lawson said: “We are talking about a campaign approach with experienced managers to create the leadership council and organize it as an effective advocacy organization.”
While Congress approved a $20 million increase in CPB forward funding for FY 2010, other public broadcasting allocations such as digital funding, Ready to Learn and public radio interconnection were hit by a 1.75 percent cut for domestic programs. The FY 2008 funding of $400 million already appropriated by CPB was reduced to $393 million as a result. Public broadcasters don’t think it’s likely that Congress would take up CPB reauthorization in 2008, he said, but they hope to start a “robust discussion” about the future of public service media that would serve as a “groundwork” for a future reauthorization of the Public Broadcasting Act.
Public broadcasters continue to have an “open, positive dialog” with converter box retailers on possible partnership arrangements for the digital transition, but no agreement has been reached largely because public TV doesn’t have the “capacity in terms of personnel to manage a true partnership with retailers,” he said. Local stations will likely form their own relationship with retailers, he said, and they're looking at national organizations like APTS and the Public Broadcasting Service to create a framework for those local arrangements. Because APTS and PBS don’t have the people to manage a business partnership with retailers, it’s a “real challenge,” he said. “Public TV as an industry is not equipped to handle coupons or to provide customer assistance for people whose antennas don’t work when they bring the [converter] box home.”