Ancillary product sales — Barney & Friends Scores of public TV program-funding deals have been inspired by the financial successes of Barney & Friends. But Barney earned much more for the production company than for PBS and stations—and far less than claimed by advocates of private-sector funding.

Ancillary product sales — Reader's Digest Association: One of PBS's most promising deals of 1995 gave program funding to PBS in exchange for the right for the publisher of Reader's Digest to sell home videos and other related products. The alliance yielded its first on-air results in February 1997 — a new nature series called Living Edens. But the deal fell through when the publisher's corporate strategy changed.

Ancillary product sales — PBS Home Video: To supplement its funding that comes mainly from stations, PBS has brought in partners to develop the sale of home videos and other ancillary products. Its first home video venture with Michael Nesmith's Pacific Arts Video launched in 1990 and lasted until 1993, falling apart when Pac Arts fell behind in paying royalties. PBS and producers filed suit, but it boomeranged, resulting in a $47 million civil judgment against PBS in 1999. PBS hired prominent litigator Jonathan Schiller to handle its appeal, and the network reached an undisclosed settlement with Nesmith in July 1999. After the pact with Nesmith disintegrated PBS in 1994 delegated the retail portion of its home video business to Turner Home Entertainment — now Warner Home Video. The PBS Home Video start-up with Nesmith helped set a $20 price for documentary cassettes, though competing video distributors initially objected the market was being undercut and PBS was using unfair leverage to sign up programs for Nesmith.

Ancillary product sales — PBS Records:  In 1998, PBS created a partnership with Warner Bros. Records to issue soundtracks and performance recordings under the label PBS Records, instead of letting all proceeds of broadcast-related discs go outside public broadcasting.

Ancillary product sales — online services: A leading advocate for children's TV has criticized three state public TV networks for plans to promote an online service for children, JuniorNet, that would help support the networks.

Ancillary product sales — holiday gifts: By Christmas 2000, the various elves of public broadcasting were offering a wide variety of giving options.

Auctions for fundraising: Some public TV and radio stations are finding that auctions work better on the Web than on-air. They disrupt the station less and cost less than traditional marathon auction broadcasts.

Capital — a new source for pubcasting. In 2002, for the first time, a pubcasting station has raised expansion money by selling bonds on its own credit. The move by Colorado Public Radio was expected to be followed shortly by other stations. Raising capital is a problem for nonprofits. Without owners, they seldom have the money they need when they want to expand or protect an asset. So pubcasters created a new organization, Public Radio Capital, to held them obtain capital by selling taxfree bonds. Public Radio Capital grew out of the Station Resource Group.

Commercial support proposed — the PTV Weekend or "P2" network: Some major public TV stations have shown interest in affiliating with a commercially supported network, variously known as "P2" or "PTV Weekend," that has been proposed by former PBS President Lawrence Grossman. A text of the proposal and related articles are available on this site. Grossman first proposed the plan in 1996, developed it with backing from the Markle Foundation, and privately briefed station execs in November 1996. The idea went public in 1997 and drew immediate opposition from the FCC chairman and the head of WNET, the largest station. Two prominent managers debated the proposal in Current: Mike Hardgrove of St. Louis, pro, and Fred Esplin of Salt Lake City, con. The plan, which would require approval of Congress, would bring much-needed programming money into public TV, but alter a fundamental characteristic of its identity. Grossman points to Britain's Channel Four as an example of a commercial broadcaster that can fulfill a programming mandate, though the British channel operates under a different financial structure and historical tradition. [Current Briefing on commercialism and public broadcasting.]

Copyright royalties: Pubcasters traditionally have gotten a big break on the amounts they pay to music companies for royalties, but had to fight in a courtlike 1998 proceeding to keep that advantage. Music copyright owners said public TV and radio have become more commercial and should now pay four times as much as before. In September 1998, the arbitration panel gave them just a 44 percent raise.

CPB — Future Fund and other initiatives to help public TV: The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found in 2004 that CPB had no authority to finance its TV Future Fund out of money reserved for grants to stations. Members of Congress called for CPB to return $6 million to station grant purposes. [Text of full 137-page report in PDF file or one-page summary.] Over eight years, CPB distributed nearly $60 million in grants through its Television Future Fund, intended to help public TV boost its fundraising and efficiency—and almost half of that was money Congress earmarked for station grants. CPB contends that it didn't violate the law [CPB press statement]. GAO's study had begun in January when CPB announced it will end the fund this year, but it is launching three more concentrated projects to help public TV, including a big push to tutor station staffs in major-gift fundraising. CPB continued to operate a similar grantmaking program for public radio, and GAO did not criticize it. R&D efforts are expected to fail occasionally and some potentially significant Future Fund projects collapsed before or soon after going operational: OnCourse, Infinite OutSource and a second national channel for PBS. CPB says other projects backed by the fund have raised millions in revenue for public TV. The latest of the projects, announced in 2003, aim to increase revenues and efficiency in public TV, while releasing unhappy conclusions from a consultant's analysis of present trends. CPB President Bob Coonrod elaborated in a Q&A.

CPB—dividing the pie among stations: Under threat of a congressional hearing, a CPB task force in 2001 rushed to recommend changes in grant formulas to respond to complaints of inequity from North Carolina's public TV network. The state network released a Q&A explaining its case.

CPB—audits of federal aid to stations: Two stations were fighting CPB's demands that they return hundreds of thousands of federal dollars in 2003. At three other stations, investigations led to criminal prosecutions and guilty pleas in court. But audits by CPB's inspector general mostly involve smaller disputes over accounting rules.

CPB—President Richard Carlson resigns: A key Republican who defended public broadcasting during the past two years of friction on Capitol Hill submitted his resignation early in 1997 as chief exec of the congressionally chartered corporation that serves as conduit for federal aid to public broadcasting. Changes in the CPB Board, including a new Democratic majority, made it likely he would leave.

CPB—Robert Coonrod promoted to president: The CPB Board looked around and found no one better suited to run the quasi-federal funding agency than Bob Coonrod, its chief operating officer for more than five years. In a Current Q&A, Coonrod discussed the challenges of DTV and pubcasting's legislative goals. In March 1998, Coonrod brought in new overseers for CPB's program grantmaking—Cindy Browne and Katherine Carpenter, succeeding Carolynn Reid-Wallace.

CPB—patronage appointments to board: In a commentary, longtime CPB executive David Stewart argues that CPB would play a stronger role if its board members weren't chosen so often for their political connections. Also: a look at what's done to minimize patronage in government appointments elsewhere, and brief profiles of the 1997-98 CPB Board members.

The Development Exchange: Public radio's fundraising clearinghouse is the Development Exchange, with its new president Douglas Eichten and new Minneapolis location. It's involved in such projects as "Membershop," a CPB-funded project that aims to develop a shared fundraising "service bureau" for small stations that would help them take advantage of economies of scale.

Digital Gift proposal/Digital Opportunity Investment Trust: See Trust funds.

Efficiency in public broadcasting: See the Current Briefing

Federal aid: A Current Briefing, How to support public broadcasting?, Part 1, examines the struggle over federal aid, 1995-96, recapping the debate over federal funding. See also CPB above.

Federal aid — earmarking or pork barrel: Earmarks are sometimes dismissed as "pork barrel," but they're a way of life for universities, and a few public broadcasting stations have picked up the technique to get custom-made grants through their members of Congress.

Federal aid — bills to continue CPB and consider a trust fund: Reps. Billy Tauzin and Ed Markey crossed party lines to propose a new CPB reauthorization bill in June 1998 that would launch a study of the field's longterm funding, including a possible trust fund. They held a quick hearing in October 1998. Since Tauzin became chair of the House telecom subcommittee in 1996, he has been floating the idea of a fee—paid by commercial TV operators in exchange for digital TV channels—that would help support public broadcasting. In the Senate, Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been much more critical of public broadcasting. An earlier trust fund proposal, with less federal aid in it, got nowhere in 1996. Tauzin's predecessor at the head of the subcommittee, Jack Fields, since retired, introduced his trust fund bill early in 1996. Critics of the Fields bill noted that the vacant TV channels that he proposes to auction off may not be as available or as valuable as hoped, and that the amount of the proposed initial endowment falls far short of present aid to CPB.

Federal aid — new performance conditions imposed on public radio stations: Many of the weaker public radio stations around the country are redoubling their fundraising or revising their schedules to meet new CPB grant standards that were designed to show Congress that aid goes only to stations with reasonable community support and listening. Among the stations streamlining their schedules are two relatively small stations in the largest markets, KPCC in the Los Angeles area and WFUV in the New York City region.

Federal aid — satire: Some smart remarks about privatizing Congress.

Funding for the DTV transition: In their own lobbying for federal aid in equipping themselves for the transition to DTV, public TV got some support from the White House in 1998, but a skeptical response in its first congressional hearing, and Congress felt no need to hurry with aid. Meanwhile, PBS is cosponsoring a national tour to demonstrate DTV to opinion leaders. Some stations have gotten help from state governments, and others are successfully tapping the federal equipment grant program, but neither source is ready to pay the whole bill. For more about DTV, see our Current Briefing.

Mailing lists for fundraising: A leading advisor to pubcasting fundraisers suggests that stations examine their "opt-out" policies to make sure that donors never again feel misused by list exchanges with other nonprofits.

Major-gift solicitation: Failing to ask for large gifts costs stations millions, specialists contend. For years they have advised stations to seek major donors ($1000+ a year) and bequests — mainstays of many other kinds of nonprofits. Experts shared 10 basic suggestions for stations starting to seek major donations.

Major gift to NPR from Joan Kroc: McDonald's heiress Joan Kroc stunned NPR by leaving the network more than $200 million when she died in 2003. With the bequest expected to earn investment income of $6.2 million a year, NPR decided to spend three-fifths of its first year's proceeds to expand its news operation, hiring 45 staffers over three years. But the network pledged nearly two-fifths to aid stations bearing the heaviest increases in fees for NPR programs. At the same time, a key NPR Board committee wants the network to continue seeking major donations instead of reserving those prospects for local stations.

Membership support— public TV looks at declining membership, troubled pledge drives: Worried by public TV's slow decline in membership, PBS held a "summit" of selected station leaders to discuss the decline and its complex relationship with the widely unloved but highly remunerative pledge drives. Member/viewer contributions now exceed a quarter of public broadcasting's income, according to the latest CPB report. In commentaries, fundraising consultants say pledge drives have gotten "tired" and ineffective, and their heavy pitching of premiums gives viewers a damaging commercialized image of public TV. One of many theories put forth to explain the present situation is that many pledge drive donors don't care to become ongoing member-donors.

Membership support — radio stations shorten pledge drives: Experiments with reduced pledge drives spread to more stations during spring 1998. Stations know that pledge drives are the most annoying things they do. When curtailed drives work as planned, stations found in 1997, they can raise more of their needed funds through mail and phone solicitation and the rest from more effective on-air appeals. But public TV stations, which tried the idea in the 1980s, warn that short pledge drives can fail in a key objective of pledge drives: bringing in new members, who are harder to find by mail and phone.

Membership support — What portion of listeners donate?: Call them subscribers, members or donors, they have long been assumed to make up about 1/10 of listeners, but the Audience 98 research project found it's more significant to note that 1/3 of listeners at any given moment are donors. Still, the smaller percentage (actually averaging about 1/12, according to a recent study) does reflect how many people listen fairly often (at least once a week) and have signed up as members within a year. Incidentally, public TV members also make up about 1/10 of the audience of popular PBS shows, but smaller percentages of the less-mainstream shows that broaden public TV's audience, according to TRAC Media Services, another research outfit.

Membership support — What motivates givers?: What does public TV do when its true believers and its pledgers want different strokes? Research shows they're not the same kinds of folks. How can public TV seek help from both — and give both what they want? Stations' membership total has been slipping since 1993, raising questions about how public TV gets too few members and keeps even fewer.

Membership support — What is the role for premiums?: A former top fundraiser for PBS, Mike Soper, tells colleagues in a Current commentary that pledge-drive premiums have become high-priced retail sales, undercutting their value as thank-you's for true giving.

Nonfederal revenue: A Current Briefing, How to support public broadcasting?, Part 2, looks at what can be done—and is being done—to raise support from nonfederal sources and to reduce operating costs?

Pledge drives: See Membership support

Public Radio Capital: A nonprofit founded in 2001 helps stations get access to tax-free bond borrowing that can help them buy channels and the expand public radio system.

Retailing—Minnesota Public Radio: In 1998, the nonprofit state network built public radio's largest endowment by selling Rivertown Trading Co., the largest part of its for-profit operations. MPR President Bill Kling and other executives received large bonuses for building the operations, but a state investigation found no wrongdoing.

Retailing — Store of Knowledge and Learningsmith: The nationwide Store of Knowledge chain has maintained its links with public TV, while Learningsmith has broken most ties. Both chains sell educational games, videocassettes and books — often featuring public TV names and faces.

Spectrum fees: See Trust funds.

State funding—cutbacks: Despite a severe budget squeeze in 2003, Northern Michigan University delayed for a year the closing of the WNMU public TV and radio stations in Marquette. The school had stirred a public reaction by announcing that it would close both stations by June 2004. Stations across the country continue to suffer cutbacks, as they did last year, as a result of shortfalls in state tax revenues, among other fiscal problems.

Ted Turner: The cable TV entrepreneuer, who is planning to get back into documentary production after losing control of his part of AOL Time Warner, in 2001 expressed interest in backing projects with Bill Moyers.

Trust funds — Digital Gift/Digital Opportunity Investment Trust: Inspired by the Digital Promise proposal of 2001, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced a bill to invest spectrum auction proceeds in public-service content for digital media [text of bill]. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) introduced a similar bill [text of bill]. Unlike earlier trust fund proposals, the April 2001 proposal by Newton Minow and Lawrence Grossman would aid schools, museums, libraries and public broadcasters and not just public broadcasters.

Trust funds — Spectrum fees: If the FCC wants more public-interest programming on DTV multicasting channels in the future, it should pay public TV to do it rather than inventing rules to drag it out of unmotivated commercial broadcasters, policy guru Henry Geller told the commission in October 2000. He recommended a spectrum fee on commercial stations of 1 percent of ad revenues. Similar proposals have been fiercely opposed by commercial broadcasters in the past, though advocates for the idea say that 79 percent of the public would back such a fee, and at a higher rate (5 percent). Vice President Gore is among the figures who have backed spectrum fees in the past. And the Gore Commission two years ago recommended a spectrum fee as an option for stations doing DTV multicasting (recommendation No. 5).

Underwriting credits — how long is enough? Or too much? Many public TV stations in major markets, eager to become more self-sufficient, are airing 30-second underwriting credits instead of the national standard 15-second blurbs. But more than 30 license holders, including the major state networks, say the credits are too close to being commercials and they won't air them. [Current Briefings on commercialism and pubcasting's funding picture.]

Underwriting credits — what do listeners think? Public radio's daily business program, Marketplace, itself partially dependent on grants from General Electric, hired prominent independent producer Sandy Tolan to look at the risks to journalistic integrity and listener tolerance that come with corporate aid. The transcript of Tolan's series was printed in Current; on the web, you can find the three-part series, aired in May and June 1999, in both text and RealAudio forms, on Marketplace's site. Researchers found reason for concern about listeners' "underwriting anxiety" "underwriting anxiety" in an Audience 98 study printed in Current last year and accessible on the research project's web site.

Underwriting credits — how close to commercials in content? Is that a commercial or an underwriting credit? The difference can be obscure, as in any matter where lawyers are debating the work of ad agencies. The FCC seldom cracks down on public TV stations for violating its rules against commercials, so when it does, the lawyers watch closely. In December 1997, the commission proposed a fine against Chicago's WTTW [Text of the FCC's notice.] In March 2000, the FCC reduced the fine against WTTW. [Text of order.]

Underwriting — conflicts of interest alleged: When does a corporate underwriter have too much interest in the subject of a program it might pay for? San Francisco's KQED and some of its critics and viewers disagree regarding a program that was being planned in 1996, but because of the ruckus the station eventually dropped plans to produce the portrait of pioneering wine magnate Robert Mondavi. In a different case in 1999, press watchdogs criticized producer/commentator Bill Moyers for failing to disclose that three on-air interview subjects were backed by a foundation that he heads.

Underwriting standards for children's programs: The maker of Cheetos snack food decided not to underwrite the popular PBS kids' show Wishbone after complaints by advocates for children's TV. A PBS policy change had opened the possibility of brand-name underwriting of children's shows.

Underwriting: Mystery claims of online salesman: Are they really selling public TV underwriting on their website? XRayMedia, based in British Columbia, says it has a $10 million inventory of underwriting spots on U.S. public TV, but well-situated pubcasters here had never heard of the company. What's up?