Public Broadcasters Not Struggling With Funding

“We’ve never raised this kind of money,” said South Dakota Public Broadcasting Executive Director Julie Overgaard. WTJU Charlottesville, Virginia, had its highest-grossing pledge drive “ever," said General Manager Nathan Moore. “The financial underpinnings of public broadcasting are just different,” said Meg Miller of Gray Miller Persh, which represents numerous public broadcasters. America's Public Television Stations held its annual summit last week and announced plans to seek historical funding increases during the next two budget cycles (see 2102220070).

The boost in political advertising that helped many commercial broadcasters in 2020 wasn’t a revenue stream for public broadcasters, and their stations also don’t receive retransmission consent funds, Miller noted. New Hampshire PBS had to focus on diverse revenue streams after it stopped receiving state funding years ago, said President Peter Frid. Commercial broadcasters are heavily dependent on ads from industries that were themselves hit by the pandemic, such as automobile sales, Frid noted.

Many public broadcasters said corporate underwriting decreased during the coronavirus crisis, but it isn’t their primary funder. “Our underwriting is down 25%, but underwriting is my fifth most important revenue stream,” said Moore, whose station WTJU is licensed to the University of Virginia. Frid’s stations are also having a decline in underwriting and increase in individual donations, and he’s starting to see the underwriting come back as well. “It makes up a much smaller part of our total budget,” said Overgaard.

Donations are up because viewers are using public broadcasting more during the pandemic, the broadcasters said. WTJU’s webstream traffic increased by 50%, Moore said. South Dakota’s public stations have become one of the main sources of state government coverage, Overgaard said. “We were the ones who broadcast the governor’s press conferences.” Donor-supported nonprofits such as public media stations have cultivated loyal bases of supporters who are responding to public stations that are focusing on local concerns during the crisis, Moore said. Public broadcasting is helping with distance education, Overgaard said. “People are using us more,” Frid said.

Boston public broadcasting entity GBH's membership revenue remained “quite strong” during the pandemic, said Vice President Corporate Sponsorship and Membership Suzanne Zellner. Like commercial broadcasters, GBH had a decline in industries such as travel but was able to make it up through new business, she said. “We are significantly ahead in new business this fiscal year compared to this time last year.” Large national sponsors kept their PBS buys even while cutting back on other national media, Zellner said. “GBH’s national corporate sponsorship revenue is pretty much flat compared to pre-pandemic levels,” she said. “Overall, there has not been a decline in support from our foundation partners.”

Public media officials suspect larger-scale operations that produce national programming, such as WETA in Washington or GBH, might feel a decrease in underwriting dollars more keenly than smaller public broadcasting entities. WETA had large increases in TV viewership during the pandemic, General Manager Miguel Monteverde said. A WETA spokesperson said she couldn't comment on specific funding trends because every year, the funding picture is different.

WETA shifted its content strategy in response to the pandemic, programming new digital subchannels and acquiring more programming for viewers stuck at home, said Monteverde. “We went on a shopping spree." Those plans were in the works before the pandemic but were accelerated because of it, he said. WETA also produced new content during the crisis, with socially distanced crews wearing personal protective equipment, Monteverde said, calling the production planning “the most stressful thing” he’s ever done. WETA had to figure out how to produce PBS’ flagship news operation, the PBS NewsHour. “It’s the nightly news show," said a WETA spokesperson. "We can’t shut it down.”

The pandemic also isn’t hampering the stations’ work much, the public broadcasters said. New Hampshire PBS “pivoted” in March to allow staff to work from home, even on TV production. On-air talent at WTJU can broadcast from home -- with a slight decrease in sound quality -- or run a show single-handedly from the station, Moore said. South Dakota Public Broadcasting divided its staffers into separate “bubbles” based on whether they needed to work from its studios. GBH has functioned remotely quite well since last March, said a GBH spokesperson. “The majority of our employees are working remotely although select production and on-air staff continue to work in our Brighton Studio.” Most broadcasters we spoke with said they haven’t been able to hold events during the pandemic, which affects revenue. “But event expenses are also down,” pointed out Moore.

Editor's note: This is part of an ongoing series on how the pandemic is affecting communications stakeholders, including the public. A report last week about virtual hearings is here. An earlier story about virtual hearings is here. Our report about remote oral arguments is here. And an article about the FCC scaling back news conferences is here.