On February 26, 2018, John Eggerton from Broadcasting & Cable published the article, “APTS’ Butler: Noncom Funding is Secured…For Now.”
During America’s Public Television Stations’ (APTS) 2018 Public Media Summit, Patrick Butler, President & CEO, said that although “noncommercial media have won the latest round of budget battles with President Donald Trump,” it will “require continued vigilance to secure continued funding.” Eggerton reports that Butler spoke of President Trump and GOP-led Congress’ defunding threat as “the biggest existential threat to noncoms in a decade,” that was overcome by “courageous stands by supporters on both sides of Capitol Hill.”
As President Trump continued to propose zeroing out federal funding for public media, bipartisan support was essential to winning the fight. This was done in part by advocates making their voices heard. Butler called upon the public media system to utilize funding allowances to spread its “civilizing influence” in a time of “divisive discourse.”
In addition to federal funding, public media now looks to ATSC 3.0, which will empower stations and communities as the new broadcast transmission standard. It will provide “interactivity, added channel capacity, signal coverage, enhanced spectrum efficiency, and other ‘transformative opportunities’ including updated emergency alert capability to wake up cell phones and TV sets, the ability to send huge files of content to areas where traditional broadband coverage may be years away.” The new rollout requires commitment and cooperation from stations and Congress, but the future rewards it will establish for its citizens are great.
To find out more, read the full article.