System/Policy
House Appropriations Committee takes next step in zeroing out pubmedia funding for FY27
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President Biden has proposed upping CPB’s FY27 appropriation to $595 million.
Current (https://current.org/tag/interconnection/)
President Biden has proposed upping CPB’s FY27 appropriation to $595 million.
President Biden has proposed upping CPB’s FY27 appropriation to $595 million.
If approved, the appropriation would be a record sum for CPB.
The recommendation follows a House subcommittee’s proposal earlier this month to zero out public media funding.
The broadcaster also addressed problems with open meetings and grant reporting highlighted in a CPB audit.
Some stations have been surprised to learn that snags with usage windows are blocking their access to previously aired shows.
The board also heard that PBS’ old non–real-time satellite transponder will be turned off Jan. 2.
Proponents say the system designed to move content from expensive satellite transponders to a terrestrial fiber-based system will be cheaper and more versatile.
CPB would get only $15.5 million next year and $15 million in 2020 to shut itself down.
Both the House and Senate Appropriation panels defied the president on CPB funding.
The committee recommends $25.7 million for the public TV early literacy project.
The bill does not include funding for public broadcasting’s interconnection project or public TV’s Ready To Learn.
“We’re working on a different model from the old broadcast world,” said PBS’s chief technology officer.
“We decided to partner instead of compete,” said Ben Godley, c.o.o. of WGBH in Boston.
There is considerable urgency for public TV’s leadership to address the issues raised in the report.
An Association of Public Television Stations briefing focused on federal funding prospects and the next steps in the FCC’s 2016 spectrum auction.
The CPB funds, which are approved two years before being paid out, not only stay at the current level but would include annual increases of roughly 2.2 percent through 2025.
When Ed Caleca came to PBS a decade ago, he expected to see it through completion of the digital TV transition in ’06 before moving on. But media switchovers don’t stick to schedule. With PBS in unending, overlapping transitions, Caleca and colleague André Mendes are leaving their jobs, the network told stations recently.