Poll: 8 in 10 say commercial broadcasters
should aid public TVOriginally published in Current, Jan. 25, 1999
By Steve Behrens
Seventy-nine percent of adults would favor a law requiring commercial broadcasters to pay 5 percent of their revenues into a fund for public broadcasting, according to a national poll released this month.
Results of the survey, commissioned by the Project on Media Ownership and the Benton Foundation, indicate that Americans back much tougher requirements than the Gore Commission, the advisory committee that gave its undramatic recommendations to the White House last month.
"The fact is, the American people are way out front on this issue," said Mark Crispin Miller, executive director of the Project on Media Ownership (PROMO), at a press conference on Jan. 14.
They're not aware, however, that the FCC now gives broadcasters free use of TV channels, the poll found. Fifty-two percent said broadcasters pay to use the airwaves; 29 percent thought they use them for free, and 19 percent said they didn't know.
Pay for play
Q. “If broadcasters wanted additional airwaves to start new channels, would you favor or oppose charging them for any new access they might want?”
Favor Oppose Don’t know Adults 54% 30% 16% Democrats 60 23 16 Indpts. 57 29 14 Repubs. 47 38 15 Men 59 30 11 Women 49 30 21Q. “A proposal to require commercial broadcasters to pay 5 percent of their revenues into a fund to provide more money for public broadcasters to make sure that we have more educational and noncommercial programming available to the public. Do you favor or oppose asking that of broadcasters in return for the free use of public airwaves?”
Favor Oppose Don’t know Adults 79% 11% 9% Democrats 84 8 8 Indpts. 77 13 10 Repubs. 78 14 8 Men 79 12 9 Women 80 11 9Source: December 1998 poll for the Project on Media Ownership and the Benton Foundation
But once the polltaker had told them that broadcasters get the airwaves free, 54 percent favored charging for any additional airwaves, 30 percent opposed it, and 16 percent didn't know. Even among Republicans, more favored charges than opposed them (see box).
When the question referred specifically to airwaves for digital TV, the public favored levying charges by a similar two-to-one margin: 57 percent favored, 24 percent opposed, 19 percent didn't know.
The majorities increased dramatically when the questions asked about obligations to provide children's educational programs or to assist public broadcasting.
Eighty percent favored "requiring broadcasters to meet certain public obligations like more children's educational programming and local programming" in exchange for DTV channels. Just 7 percent opposed that; 12 percent didn't know.
Nearly the same majority, 79 percent, favored the idea of a 5 percent fee on commercial broadcasters' revenues, which would be used to support public broadcasting programming (see box above). Republicans agreed, with 78 percent favoring the proposal.
"These are intense numbers," said pollster Celinda Lake of Lake Snell Perry & Associates Inc., which took the survey. "These are numbers on which [a politician] could campaign on."
"On the brink of a new digital system, as we write the new compact between broadcasters and the communities they are licensed to serve, the public wants broadcasters to be required to realize TV's potential to serve our educational needs," said Larry Kirkman, executive director of the Benton Foundation. Exit polls in last year's election already had showed that education was the No. 1 issue on voters' minds, he said.
The poll, paid for by George Soros' Open Society Institute, is the first sign of a foundation-funded campaign to rachet upward what commercial broadcasters pay or do in exchange for their TV channels.
"We are forging close connections with a good number of very, very large and influential advocacy organizations--more to come later," said Miller.
The initial allies include not only Miller, a professor of media ecology at New York University, and the Benton Foundation, which is chaired by Gore Commission member Charles Benton, but also the Center for Media Education, headed by Kathryn Montgomery and Jeff Chester; the Civil Rights Forum, headed by Mark Lloyd; and the Media Access Project, whose executive director, Gigi Sohn, also served on the Gore Commission.
The national survey covered 1,150 adults, interviewed by phone Dec. 8-10 [1998]. Lake Snell Perry also conducted four small focus groups in Secaucus, N.J., and Baltimore.
Outside links: Benton Foundation and Center for Media Education web sites.
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Earlier news: Gore Commission submits report to White
House, December 1998. See recommendation No. 5.