Pubcasters quizzed on underwriting tradeoff in House bill
Originally published in Current, Oct. 12, 1998
By Steve Behrens
With a $475-million-a-year appropriation as their carrot, House telecom subcommittee leaders last week cajoled public broadcasters to accept the shortening of underwriting credits to 10 seconds.
While scandal junkies watched the Bill-and-Monica hearings Oct. 5 [1998] in another House committee, subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking minority member Ed Markey (D-Mass.) milked pubcasting reps for support of the CPB reauthorization bill, H.R. 4067, which they introduced in June. Except for the brief appearance of one other subcommittee member, they were the only congresspeople present.
Tauzin said he was looking for feedback on the bill so that his subcommittee can finish work on the long-overdue reauthorization "right out of the box," after the November election.
CPB President Bob Coonrod called the bill "a very good beginning toward repositioning public broadcasting for the next century," but said the bill gives an "overly optimistic" four months for a temporary commission to study the complex issues of funding the field.
Peter Jablow, NPR's acting president, backed the bill, and alerted Tauzin and Markey that NPR early next year will begin seeking a special appropriation for public radio's satellite system replacement. The present system was compromised with the sudden failure of Galaxy IV on May 19, which left public radio without a guaranteed backup satellite after March 1999.
Beth Courtney, president of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, endorsed the bill's provision for an extra $475 million (total over five years) in DTV-transition aid. "Stations simply will not be able to make the transition without federal support," she said. "Almost half of all public television licensees will incur transition costs that exceed their projected annual revenue."
She spoke up for including a pubcasting professional on the nine-member Commission for the Future of Public Broadcasting proposed in the bill.
Tradeoffs for all
The Tauzin-Markey bill seeks support from the right and the left, and from the private and public sectors, by proposing several tradeoffs. It would assign a high-level commission to consider a historic tradeoff for commercial broadcasters: they'd pay fees to support pubcasting so they could jettison FCC-imposed public-interest obligations.
Monroe Price, a media expert at New York's Cardozo Law School, said the bill is "pretty amazing," because it accomplishes three purposes at once--stabilizing and depoliticizing pubcast funding, reforming station operations, and reducing hypocrisy in policy governing commercial broadcasting, including some "constitutionally suspect" FCC rules.
"The Congress tries to use the leverage of the funding solution to achieve meaningful reform in the operation of the public broadcasting system," said Price, "and it does so simultaneously with building a more independent commercial broadcasting system."
But the tradeoff that dominated the friendly hearing is one that public broadcasters would make: public stations would give up underwriting credits longer than 10 seconds in exchange for a larger appropriation and, perhaps later, a long-term trust fund. Credits now range from 15 to 30 seconds.
Markey bluntly advised the pubcasting reps to tell their colleagues: "This is the condition we've got to sign on to, if we want this unusually high level of support."
The Democrat objected to Chuck E. Cheese and Discovery Zone credits on children's shows, which "smack too much of regular TV advertising," and acknowledged that the shortened underwriting credits would resemble the spartan blurbs of years ago. "The reason we're taking you backwards is that we don't like what we're seeing," Markey said. "We don't like Chuck E. Cheese."
"The worst idea I've heard recently," Markey added, is a proposal for public TV to carry commercially sponsored cultural programs two weekend nights a week--apparently a reference to the PTV Weekend idea developed since 1995 by former PBS President Larry Grossman.
Markey asked the pubcasting witnesses whether they'd support the 10-second limit, and got neither complete support nor strong opposition.
Courtney said she personally agrees with the rollback of underwriting rules, but noted that it would have "tremendous impact" in undermining a revenue source that pubcasting now relies upon. Indeed, APTS President David Brugger later told Current that a decline in the value of underwriting could wipe out the gain from the larger appropriation.
John Hollar, PBS executive v.p., told Markey the restriction would be "appropriate" in the context of the enlarged appropriation. Coonrod seconded the response. Hollar noted that PBS is studying underwriting in "one of the most wide-ranging inquiries ever launched at a board level."
Softball home runs
The subcommittee leaders at least once lobbed what Tauzin called a "softball" question at the team of pubcasters, looking for strong arguments to make pubcasting's case.
If Congress doesn't give more help to pubcasting, Tauzin asked, isn't it true that the field will face the same growing pressure to carry only national programs that's overcoming commercial stations?
The panel generally concurred. "We aren't worth our salt if we don't do things about our communities," Courtney said.
Markey asked whether pubcasting would need must-carry rules to guarantee cable carriage of its DTV program streams. Courtney replied: any help would be welcome. Hollar noted that must-carry should protect the interactive data that public TV expects to transmit along with programs, which cable operators might otherwise strip out of the signal.
Price advised that Congress must articulate a compelling case for public TV to get preferential digital must-carry rules so that the rules can withstand Supreme Court scrutiny. Digital must-carry rules "would be even more valuable than a trust fund," Price declared.
Tauzin reiterated the concern that overlap stations air "five Barneys at the very same time," but got an argument from both public radio and public TV reps, who said multiple stations in a market can provide distinct program services.
"At a time when we're on the threshold of 500 commercial channels," Hollar said, "we hope that perhaps one more additional noncommercial educational channel might be a welcome thing."
Current Briefing on federal aid to pubcasting.
Tauzin and Markey introduce CPB reauthorization bill, June 1998. Text of the bill, H.R. 4067.
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