News Junkie & Vagabond

Why Public Broadcasting? | Sign up to support 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting

shaneguiter:

Public broadcasting is local: Stations are locally licensed and governed, locally programmed, and locally staffed. In many rural areas, public broadcasting is the only source of free local, national and international news, public affairs, and cultural programming.

Public broadcasting is a great investment: Unlike public broadcasting systems throughout the world, America’s public broadcasters do not rely upon the government as their primary source of funding.  On average, federal funding amounts to less than 14% of a station’s budget, with the remaining 86% coming from local sources.(1)  However, this federal support is critical seed money for local stations which leverage each federal dollar to raise over six more dollars from local sources in order to provide the American public with the highest quality programming and services.

Public broadcasting reflects the values of viewers and listeners, not advertisers.. America has tremendous diversity of broadcasting outlets, but only public broadcasting is commercial free.  This is one reason why public broadcasting is so highly trusted by the American people.