Changing Media Landscape Forces Public TV To Work Smarter, APTS’s Butler Says
Public broadcasting is continuing to thrive in the changing media landscape as leaders find ways to streamline station operations, create a new business model and maintain partnerships geared toward education and community outreach, said Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations. APTS also is working to revive momentum in Congress behind support for the federal appropriation for public broadcasting, he said Thursday at a Media Institute luncheon in Washington.
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Public TV has faced changes “that have had an extraordinary effect on what we do and how we serve the American people,” Butler said. He said the industry remains dedicated to educational initiatives, including the PBS Ready to Learn program, which “helped close the achievement gap between poor kids and middle class kids.” Through digital resources and content from the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration and other federal agencies, public TV is helping to revolutionize the teaching and learning experience in U.S. K-12 classrooms, he said. The industry is trying to carry out its mission more efficiently through efforts like joint master control, channel sharing, spectrum leasing and other innovations “that may help us improve our service without increasing our costs,” he said.
Public TV benefits the public in other critical ways, Butler said: Its spectrum “provides the backbone for emergency alert, public safety and homeland security services in states across the country.” Public TV also is “the C-SPAN of many state governments,” he said. Its mission is different from the mission pursued by its commercial colleagues, he added: “Our mission is to be public service media, to treat our viewers not as consumers, but as citizens."
APTS hasn’t taken a position yet on a 9th U.S. Appeals Court decision (CD April 13 p2) that opened the door for public stations to air political ads, but stations may be open to political messages modeled after underwriting, Butler said. “If there’s a way for us to craft a political communication system that is consistent with our values in public television, some of our stations may well want to consider that.” It’s not clear if that idea has any practical application, but the possibility may be worth exploring, he said. Some APTS members already said it wasn’t for them, he added. “We will wait until the judicial issue is better settled before we make any plans at all."
APTS is continuing its work with Congress behind federal funding, Butler said. About 40 senators and 115 members of the House put their support behind it such funding, he said. “We're feeling pretty good about rebuilding this bipartisan support.” Federal funds have been reduced by over $50 million over the past two years in response to the budget and deficit challenge, he said: Eliminating federal funding “would reduce the federal budget by a microscopic one hundredth of one percent, but it would have a devastating effect on all the good work we're trying to do for the American people.” Stations still face some questions involving perceived media bias from some lawmakers, Butler said. “It has more to do with NPR than with public TV,” he said. “What I tell our members of Congress who worry about bias is that the American people do not share their concern and that their constituents are highly satisfied customers.”