Public Broadcasting's Financial Woes

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how, due to recent efforts by political enemies of PBS to cut funding, it has forced the issues of government funding and of alternative funding methods onto the national agenda. It explains that PBS has responded by considering different ways of bringing in revenues to replace government funding in case such funding is cut. One of the ways being explored is increased corporate funding, even to the point of showing commercials on public television. The paper explains that this challenges the way PBS has always operated, raises questions about continuing viewer support and might remove the appearance of independence that has marked the network since its inception.

From the Paper:

"To date, PBS has not gone so far as to sell commercials as the broadcast networks have done for decades and as some cable networks do. For a long time, though, PBS has had corporate funding, which meant no more than that the corporation paid for the programming and received a credit in the form of "Funding Provided By" or "Funded By," followed by the name of the corporation. Even this degree of corporate involvement raised a few eyebrows--corporations might fund programs on subjects of particular interest to them and so might be suspected of having brought pressure to shape the program one way or another. An increase in corporate sponsorship or even outright advertising such as has been contemplated more recently would only increase the perception of corporate interference."

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