PBS was a pioneer in putting programming online. However, last year they
made a decision to start a streaming service called Passport as a pledge
drive premium. With some exceptions ("Frontline" and the "Newshour" most
noteworthy), most PBS programs that have aired longer than four weeks ago
on the primary affiliates are now on Passport instead of having free access
(I believe a minimum of $35 a month). There have been a lot of complaints
that Passport goes against the whole idea of public broadcasting and
teachers have said that it has destroyed using "Nova" programs as
homework. On the other hand, Adam can verify that you have to pay the
license fee to get the BBC iPlayer for television and that the Australian
ABC and the CBC program streams are geoblocked.
Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
[email protected]
On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 3:33 PM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 5:13 AM, Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> From what I've read, the impact would be catastrophic. There was a 2012
>> report that the CPB themselves commissioned from Booz & Company which
>> concluded:
>>
>> "There is no substitute for federal support of public broadcasting... And
>> that the loss of federal support would mean the end of public broadcasting."
>>
>> And it would hit rural stations disproportionately:
>>
>> "The federal investment in public media is vital seed money — especially
>> for stations located in rural America, and those serving underserved
>> populations where the appropriation counts for 40-50% of their budget. The
>> loss of this seed money would have a devastating effect. These stations
>> would have to raise approximately 200 percent more in private donations to
>> replace the federal investment."
>>
>
> The paper released by the White House said to privatize PBS, not eliminate
> it entirely. The fight against PBS goes back to the rise of the moral
> majority right in the early eighties. That's when the mainstream media were
> derided for being liberal and the objection was to using taxpayer dollars
> to fund it. In the nineties I remember Pat Buchanan on Crossfire arguing
> that educational programming had migrated to commercial cable channels
> using Discovery Channel as an example. His argument was against using
> public money to do something private money does just as well. Seeing what
> happened to Discovery, Buchanan's argument seems quaint.
>
> I don't know what it means to privatize PBS today in this multi-platform
> TV world. The one thing republicans can do is eliminate funding in the 2018
> budget which can pass without any democratic votes. A move to change the
> structure of PBS would need a separate law and that would be subject to
> filibuster. People who would lose their local stations or object to
> privatization would have a chance to delay or stop a bad law.
>
> PBS President Paula Kerger addressed the TCA a few days before the
> inauguration (linked below). She said that 15% of PBS funding comes from
> the federal government and that stations covering most of the country could
> stay viable. It's the ones in rural areas, and she cites Alaska as an
> example, that have 50% of their budgets coming from government money. I
> know those rural areas are the ones least likely to have broadband access,
> but if PBS shows like American Experience and Frontline were available
> online, how much damage would the loss of an OTA station be?
>
> http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/pbs-chief-early-
> tell-trump-poses-a-threat-government-funding-964432
>
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