WASHINGTON – February 27, 2023 – The future of local public television stations is “a public service enterprise reaching far beyond the confines of the television screen,” America’s Public Television Stations president and CEO Patrick Butler said today in his annual address.
In his annual address to the Public Media Summit, Butler said local stations are already “inventing the future,” launching dedicated education and health channels, interactive job training courses geared to local market demands, public safety and border security communications networks, and more.
Butler said progress in technology is making such innovation possible, and he hailed the adoption of the Next Gen broadcast standard as a platform for greater progress in the future.
“Public stations in 20 markets have made the transition to the new standard,” Butler reported, “with all of its potential for greater mobility, security, addressability, interactivity, spectrum efficiency and signal strength, as well as dramatically better picture and sound quality. And more stations are converting every month.
“And before us lies the intriguing prospect of using a portion of our spectrum to support a national data distribution network connecting consumers and institutions of all kinds to the billions of devices on the Internet of Things.”
Butler said financial support from the federal government remains “central to all of these ambitions.” And while the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives “has come to Washington determined to rein in federal spending and reduce the national debt..., we can say with absolute confidence that no federal appropriation does more with less than we do with one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget.”
“Most stations, in most markets, simply don’t have the donor base of corporations, foundations and generous individuals to sustain these services, much less enhance them, without federal support,” Butler said. “The Government Accountability Office reached precisely that conclusion when Congress asked them to study the question several years ago, and the answer hasn’t changed.”
While others program for ratings and targeted demographic groups, “we tell the story of heartland America: the high school sports championships, the farming news, the local elections, the history and culture and daily life of a hundred thousand hometowns across our country,” Butler said. “And beyond this homegrown programming, we serve the people of our communities with priceless gifts of education, public safety and civic leadership:
“The 60 percent of kids who don’t attend preschool but get ready to learn with our help;
“The teachers who use the extraordinary resources of PBS LearningMedia, geared to each State’s standards and aligned with each school district’s curriculum, to enhance millions of students’ education every day;
“The police officers and first responders for whom every second counts, and who count on us for reliable emergency communications;
“The government officials who use our platforms to speak directly with their constituents;
“And the 330 million Americans who trust us, more than anyone else, to make them well-informed citizens of the world’s most important democracy.”
The Public Media Summit brings to Washington hundreds of public television and radio general managers from across the country to explore strategic issues facing public broadcasting and to make the case for continued federal funding with their Senators and Representatives.
Among other highlights of the 2023 Public Media Summit are a keynote conversation with FedEx Corporation founder and executive chairman Frederick W. Smith, an address by Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, an exploration of civil society with former Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) and PBS NewsHour senior correspondent Judy Woodruff, a dinner conversation with PBS NewsHour co-anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett, a report from NHK World-Japan managing director Junko Tanaka, and presentation of Champion of Public Broadcasting awards to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), U.S. Representative Mark Amodei (R-NV), and long-time advocate Domenic Ruscio; the David J. Brugger Award for Lay Leadership to Diana Enzi of the WyomingPBS Foundation; the Pillar of Public Service Award to GBH president emeritus Jonathan Abbott; the Excellence in Innovation Award to South Florida PBS president and CEO Dolores Fernandez Alfonso; and the National Advocacy Award to Jack Williams, government affairs manager of Alabama Public Television.
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About APTS
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system and helping member stations provide essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
Contact:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org