Local Public TV Programming Remains Very Expensive, KQED President Says
SAN FRANCISCO -- The high cost of producing local programming is part of what keeps PBS the main programming supplier for noncommercial TV stations, said President John Boland of San Francisco public radio and TV stations KQED. About 10 percent of KQED-TV’s budget goes to PBS, but the programmer’s shows make up 80 percent of its schedule, he said at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club late Tuesday. PBS President Paula Kerger told the event that federal funding remains vital for public TV stations.
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A reason KQED doesn’t attempt a daily local news program that would compete with San Francisco commercial TV stations is the expense of programming, Boland said. “We don’t do it intentionally because it’s so crowded now and it would be so expensive.” He didn’t rule out adding a daily local TV news program. “There are so many local news broadcasts every day, multiple times a day, and quite frankly some of them don’t do such a bad job,” he said. Plus, KQED has other outlets for delivering local news, such as its website and on its FM station, he said.
PBS fights hard for federal funding for public TV stations because, without it, some would go dark, Kerger said. Though the bulk of public TV funding comes from individual donors, in some areas public TV stations would fail without federal support, she said. “We recognize these are extraordinary times for our country and all organizations that receive federal funding are going to be asked to do more with less,” she said. “We certainly feel the pressure of a very difficult economic climate,” she said. “But as we look at the ways to sustain public media moving forward, I will fight very hard for continued federal support."
State funding is also under pressure, Kerger said. Some PBS stations draw significant state funding because they also are distance learning distributors, she said. Because California didn’t fund public TV in a significant way, the state’s public TV stations aren’t suffering the state’s budget problems, she said. “During down times, you're not having to make up for those dollars.” Public philanthropy is picking up at many public TV stations, which is good news, she said. “We are starting to see a bit of an increase.”
Meanwhile, PBS and pubic TV stations are trying to figure out how to approach the new media landscape, Kerger and Boland said. That’s leading to an increasing focus on the programming they produce, Kerger said. “Whether you're accessing content through a very large television in a media room in your house, or looking at a smartphone or scrolling through a tablet, you're still looking for content of consequence."
At the local level, KQED has been trying to transform itself from primarily a content distributor to a producer and curator of programming, Boland said. “For decades KQED has been the place you go for PBS programming and NPR programming,” he said, “and now, that content is available in lots of other places and on lots of platforms.”