Funding
Federal and State funding is critical seed money that enables local public television stations to provide essential public services to their communities.
Federal Funding
The vast majority of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting— over 70 percent — goes directly to local stations to provide these services which are centered around education, public safety and civic leadership.
This relatively small amount of funding — approximately $1.40 per American per year — represents one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget. Federal funding is the backbone of a highly successful public-private partnership which enables local stations to meet their unique community needs and provide unparalleled services throughout this country, every day, everywhere to everyone for free.
Federal funding is particularly critical for smaller stations and those serving more rural and remote areas where the cost to provide service is often exponentially higher than in more densely populated urban areas.
Study after study, including one by the Government Accountability Office, has found that there is no substitute for federal funding to ensure universal service for public television.
And this federal investment has broad bipartisan public support. For nearly two decades, public television has been ranked the most trusted public institution and the third best use of taxpayer dollars, behind only military defense and food and drug safety.
A Hart Research/American Viewpoint poll in 2017 found that 73 percent of voters across the political and geographic spectrum oppose eliminating funding for public television and 83 percent of voters.
The small but critical amount of federal funding provided annually to public broadcasting is what enables local public television stations to educate people of all ages with lifelong learning programs and services, partner with local public safety officials to help save lives, and provide civic leadership resources to strengthen our democracy by giving our citizens the grounding they need in the history, culture and civic affairs of their communities, their states and their country.
Learn more about our current funding requests.State Funding
In addition, about 75% of States invest in public television’s work, with both Republican and Democratic governors and State legislatures supporting their local stations.
By investing in their local public television stations, States are advancing critical education, public safety and civic leadership services for their residents.
These services in many states include the educational programming that is available for free to all residents on television, online, on mobile devices and through on the ground events and services; distinctive partnerships with public safety entities to use public television’s wide reaching spectrum to share critical public safety and emergency information; and providing a CSPAN of the States like service to ensure residents are informed and have access to State government.
These state investments include annually or biannually appropriated funding, contracts, grants and other fee for service arrangements that leverage the unique reach of public television stations, their expertise in education and their commitment to providing essential services to all Americans.
As trusted, local community partners, public television stations are able to bring their communities together to address local, regional and statewide issues in effective ways, with the support of state funding in many cases.
State funding for public television amounts to more than $200 million nationwide every year and is critical to the success of local stations.