PUBLIC BROADCASTERS WRESTLE WITH EARLY ANALOG RETURN PROPOSALS

“The train is pulling out of the station,” said Norman Ornstein, head of the board’s National Issues Committee, referring to the growing “recognition” among politicians about the potential of the analog spectrum now being “held in limbo.” Besides being voluntary, the APTS plan envisages that benefits accruing from the trust fund go only to stations that participate, he said. Also, the money is to be targeted for stations’ educational and work force training programs. Two developments have given a sense of urgency for public broadcasters to move forward with their proposal, he said. The FCC’s Media Bureau was formulating its own plan for arriving at a date certain to return the spectrum, Ornstein said, and pressure was building in Congress to reclaim the spectrum. House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) had recently raised the issue of why the Commission shouldn’t require a firm 2006 deadline for transition to digital, he said.

Ornstein, an American Enterprise Institute resident scholar representing Md. PTV, warned that PBS stations wanting to hold on to the analog spectrum may be faced with the “harsh reality” that they will soon have to return the spectrum without getting anything in return. The idea of a trust fund that could help do away with annual Corp. for Public Bcstg. (CPB) appropriations was appealing to some members of Congress, he said. It could be done if “we cut a different kind of deal,” he said, and it needed to be considered. The Media Bureau’s proposal was “moving quietly,” he said, adding that if public broadcasters didn’t come up with “something that’s powerful and reasonable” soon, the opportunity would be lost.

Saying the window for the trust fund was shrinking rapidly, PBS Pres. Pat Mitchell said a voluntary spectrum give-back program would greatly reduce the amount of money that would go into a trust fund. Acknowledging that PBS and APTS had 2 different approaches to the trust fund issue, she said there was a potential for a $5-$10 billion trust fund that would create a “more sustainable model” of funding for public broadcasters. To ensure that public broadcasters spoke in one voice on the issue, APTS and PBS officials will meet June 30 to try to resolve the differences, she said. McCain agreed to a “brainstorming session” with public broadcasting leaders in Aug. on issues such as the value of the spectrum, the amount going into the trust fund and how the fund is administered. She said McCain had raised several questions and “we hope to have the answers by August.” The goal was to send a proposal by the beginning of the next Congress, she said. Mitchell told us later that PBS hadn’t drawn up any concrete proposal on the trust fund. As for the opposition to the voluntary nature of the APTS plan, she conceded that PBS could not force reluctant stations to part with the analog spectrum. “PBS has no control over station decisions,” she said.

Stressing the need for public broadcasters to speak with “one voice,” APTS Chmn. Robert Shuman said stations were concerned about possible reduction or elimination of federal funding. The $5 billion trust fund being floated by some wasn’t adequate to replace current federal funding levels, said Shuman, who’s CEO of Md. PTV. John Porter, PBS board member and former Ill. congressman, said if there was outside funding for CPB through a trust fund, Congress would be inclined to cut appropriations. “You have to turn it into an entitlement and the chances of CPB funding being turned into an entitlement is next to zero.” While the trust fund idea was good, he said, “it seems to me that you have to get a large value to the trust fund to match the federal funding you get now.”

Asked about the differences over the APTS plan, Pres. John Lawson told us neither APTS nor PBS could force stations to give up their analog spectrum, although it’s true that the govt. will get the spectrum back at some point through a hard date. “But I think it would be not only unfair but unwise for APTS or anyone else to try to force stations to turn off analog earlier than they are prepared to because we cannot simply turn off analog TV to viewers that depend on it.” He said stations needed to be given an incentive to give up their spectrum early. APTS also was proposing that the revenue from a trust fund go directly to the stations that are willing to turn off analog early, Lawson said: “The stations hold the licenses, and we are proposing that the trust fund dollars go to those stations.”

Agreeing with Shuman that $5 billion would “clearly be inadequate” to replace annual appropriations, Lawson said that was why the APTS plan was not about “some grand scheme” to replace the annual appropriations. The return from a trust fund was to be used for production of digital education content, he said. The feedback from Capitol Hill was that public broadcasters were in “no better position if we simply come up with a dollar for dollar trade off from the annual appropriations, which has been growing,” he said. Also, it was unknown how much the analog spectrum was worth, “so we don’t know how big the trust fund could get -- $5 billion will clearly be inadequate; it would at best replace current funding levels.” That’s why APTS was looking at a trust fund that’s in addition to the CPB appropriation, he said. For stations returning their analog spectrum early, APTS was proposing that Congress appropriate funds upfront and deduct the money after spectrum auctions are held, Lawson said.