WASHINGTON – March 6, 2021 – America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) today applauded the United States Senate for including in its budget reconciliation bill $175 million in COVID-related emergency assistance to public television and radio stations.
“Throughout the pandemic, public television stations, which serve nearly 100 percent of the American people, have provided a learning lifeline to millions of students whose schools were closed and to thousands whose Internet access was limited,” said Patrick Butler, president and chief executive officer of America’s Public Television Stations.
“We’ve also conveyed COVID-related information to millions of viewers from Governors, State health and education officials, and other authorities through our role as the “C-SPAN” of many State governments and in our capacity as the trusted voice of community leadership across the country. And we’ve provided countless public safety communications to keep our citizens informed of health and safety alerts and other critical matters.
“We’ve done all of this, and we’re still doing it, with mostly unbudgeted funds in response to the national emergency while losing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from State governments and private sources due to the severe economic downturn that accompanied the pandemic.
“This $175 million in emergency assistance is vital to continuing and expanding these essential services when America needs them most.
“With this funding, public television stations will continue to provide essential remote learning services to millions of students in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories. Local public television stations across the country have provided a broad range of standards-based, curriculum-aligned educational services, in collaboration with State and local education authorities, to help students, teachers and parents continue a high-quality learning process. And many stations also remain committed to devoting their entire daytime schedules to age-appropriate educational programming.
“With this funding, public television stations will continue to help bridge the digital divide by delivering educational content to students without internet access over-the-air and through datacasting. Datacasting delivers IP data over the broadcast television signal – no internet connection needed -- vastly improving the remote learning landscape for children and educators in areas where internet access is limited.
“Public television stations in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Indiana, South Dakota and Kentucky, among others, are moving forward on using their broadcast spectrum to deliver digital educational content to students living in areas that are unserved by broadband or robust internet, ensuring that students in more rural and remote areas have access to critical educational content, like their peers with robust broadband access.
“And with this funding, public television stations will continue to provide trusted information to all of our citizens, as the “C-SPAN” of many State governments, about what their Governors, State health officials, State education officials, and others are doing to deal with the pandemic and efforts to reopen our economy and our country.
“We are grateful for the broad bipartisan support for this emergency funding for public media among both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate. We will do our best with the resources we have to continue to respond effectively to serve our country and our fellow citizens as we get through this crisis,” Butler said.
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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