Subject: Broadcasters' Community Service -- A Headlines Special
Kevin Taglang (kevint@benton.org)
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 13:11:30 -0400
To: roundtable@cni.org From: Kevin Taglang <kevint@benton.org> Subject: Broadcasters' Community Service -- A Headlines Special Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 13:11:30 -0400 Message-Id: <19980406171130016.AAA318@W135.benton.org>
Broadcasters' Community Service -- A Headlines Special
New NAB Study
B&C: Putting a price on public service
B&C: Adding up the public service dollars
Television Economics
B&C: As broadcasters giveth, they taketh in billions
The Public Interest Perspective
B&C: The Wish List:
What Public Interest Advocates Would Like Broadcasters to Do
B&C: Hall monitors
B&C: William Kennard: Trust but verify
A Broadcaster's Proposal
B&C: Decherd proposes public interest plan
** New NAB Study **
Title: Putting a price on public service
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.70)
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/>
Author: Chris McConnell & Paige Albiniak
Issue: Television/Radio
Description: In B&C's cover story, National Association of Broadcasters
will release a study that totals television and radio broadcasters'
public service at $6.8 billion. The study by Public Opinion Strategies
reports that broadcasters donated $4.6 billion worth of time for Public
Service Announcements, raised $2.1 billion for charities, and donated
$148.4 million worth of time for debates, candidate forums, and
convention coverage. NAB President said, "What we want to show is that,
as a proud industry, we're doing this on a voluntary basis [and] we're
doing this without government mandates, without being pushed to the
wall to do this." [A Presidential Committee will make recommendations
on digital television broadcasters' public interest obligations in
October -- see <http://www.benton.org/Policy/TV/piac.html>]. Other
highlights from the study: half of the TV and radio stations offered to
sponsor and air debates and forums during the 1996 election; 20% of TV
stations and 23% of radio stations said they aired a debate or forum
sponsored by an outside group (i.e. the League of Women Voters); 44% of
TV stations aired a local public affairs program dealing with the 1996
elections; 63% of TV stations ran special segments profiling candidates
and/or their positions on issues; 75% of TV stations run combination on-
and off-air public service campaigns; 66% of TV stations aided disaster
victims; 81% of TV stations say they consult with local community
leaders in choosing issues and causes for public service causes; and 52%
of the TV PSAs are either locally produced or deal with local issues.
Title: Adding up the public service dollars
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.76)
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/>
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Television/Radio
Description: The National Association of Broadcasters sent surveys to
1,153 TV stations and 7,870 radio stations and received responses from
63% of the TV stations and 39% of the radio stations. Based on
information in the returned surveys, Public Opinion Strategies
determined that TV stations are airing an average of 137 PSAs per
station per week -- radio stations 122 per week. It then valued these
ads at $137 for TV stations and $63 for radio stations. Although the
survey asked broadcasters when they aired the PSAs, researchers did not
include that information in their calculations of the net worth of PSA
time. Based on these numbers, the TV respondents gave $707.3 million in
PSA time; radio station respondents gave $1.2 billion. Projecting for
non-respondents, TV gave $1.12 billion last year; radio gave $3.14
billion. The study covers the time period Aug 1, 1996 thru July 31, 1997.
** Television Economics **
Title: As broadcasters giveth, they taketh in billions
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.80)
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/>
Author: John Higgins
Issue: Television Economics/Ownership
Description: According to a analysis by Broadcasting & Cable, in 1997
"possession of a broadcast license has allowed TV station owners to add
around $19.5 billion in value to their portfolios." The industry's asset
value was raised to $84.5 billion -- 30% higher than the $65 billion in
1996. "That excludes the value of the additional spectrum for digital
broadcasting that TV stations were given by Congress last year" that some
value at $70 billion. Broadcasters $6.8 billion in PSAs "comes within
shooting distance" of their combined total cash flow of $9.4 billion.
"The NAB study did not reveal how much of the airtime devoted to PSAs
was in time periods that could readily be resold to further bolster
stations' bottom lines." 4.1% of stations' total revenue came from
political advertising during the last presidential election year. In
some markets, that number reached 5-8%. A Big Three station affiliate
in a top 10 market was worth $286 million in 1987 -- the same station
was worth $876 million ten years later.
** The Public Interest Perspective **
Title: The Wish List:
What Public Interest Advocates Would Like Broadcasters to Do
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.74)
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/>
Author: Paige Albiniak
Issue: Television/Radio
Description: Article lists seven ways public interest advocates think
broadcasters should fulfill public interest obligations. 1) Better local
public affairs programming: spending more time on community issues [see
"Hall monitors" below on current local public affairs programming].
2) More children's educational programming: news for children and
nonfictional documentaries aimed at preteen and teenage audiences.
3) Better local news: critics say local news focuses too much on crime,
weather, disasters and traffic. They'd like to see more coverage of
community affairs and campaigns. 4) PSAs in primetime: Many wonder when
the $4.6 billion in PSAs are being aired. They want to see them when
more people are watching. 5) Free air time: more time for political
debates and more creativity with formats to get political information to
viewers. 6) More community programming targeted at the minorities who
live there. 7) Better-funded public broadcasting systems.
Title: Hall monitors
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.82)
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/>
Author: Harry Jessell
Issue: Television
Description: "If you're interested in in-depth discussions on what's
going on at City Hall, don't count on TV stations," B&C reports. 70% of
stations surveyed in a new report from the Benton Foundation and the
Media Access project have no regularly scheduled local public affairs
programming. "The centerpiece of FCC regulatory policy is localism, the
requirement that each station provide news and information of civic
affairs," says MAP's Andy Schwartzman. The study looked at commercial
broadcasters in Chicago, Phoenix, Nashville, Spokane, and Bangor. The
stations in three markets -- Nashville, Spokane, and Bangor -- offer no
public affairs programming at all, according to the study. [See the
study at <http://www.benton.org/Policy/TV/whatslocal.html>]
Title: William Kennard: Trust but verify
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.84)
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/>
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Television/Radio
Description: An interview with Federal Communications Commission
Chairman William Kennard on the public interest requirements of
broadcasters. Chairman Kennard has gotten a lot of heat over plans to
start a proceeding on free time for political candidates and he is also
interested in ownership diversity and "microradio." "It's really
important to me that...we are promoting the concept of diversity in ways
that are significant."
** A Broadcaster's Proposal **
Title: Decherd proposes public interest plan
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.24)
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/>
Author: Paige Albiniak
Issue: Digital Television
Description: Robert Decherd, President of A.H. Belo Corp, says the
government should look to public broadcasting to handle additional
public service obligations in the digital age of television. Mr.
Decherd is proposing that the government deregulate television
altogether: "Intense and ever-increasing competition in the information
marketplace will force broadcasters to offer high-quality, original,
locally oriented programming that serves the public interest," according
to a report Mr. Decherd will submit to the Presidential Advisory
Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Broadcasters. Mr.
Decherd is a member of the Committee. Mr. Decherd's plan calls for
increased spectrum capacity for public TV and funding from fee-based
ancillary and supplementary uses of digital spectrum by broadcasters.
"I've talked to people at the Gore commission and people in the public
broadcasting world," Mr. Decherd says. "I think this is an intriguing
and constructive idea around which every member of the commission can
rally. Fellow Committee member Gigi Sohn suggests that broadcasters
should pay a portion of their gross revenues, if they'd like public TV
to fulfill commercial TV's public service obligations. [For more on the
"Gore Commission" see <http://www.benton.org/Policy/TV/piac.html>.
*********
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