Public Broadcasting Leaders Urge Protection of Access to Public TV Amid Spectrum Crunch

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is helping stations assess the opportunities from the spectrum auction identified in a report by investment banking firm Greenhill & Co. The FCC should and can establish reasonable safeguards “to mitigate unintended loss of access to over-the-air public television, upon which millions of viewers rely every day,” CPB said in an ex parte filing. A strengthened, not diminished, public media service that continues to embrace innovation “will meet the growing communications needs of our nation through the smart and effective use of over-the-air broadcasting, wireless broadband, and other online platforms,” it said. The filing pertained to a meeting with Patrick Butler, Association of Public Television Stations CEO; Patricia de Stacy Harrison, CPB president; Paula Kerger, PBS CEO; and Jarl Mohn, NPR president.