Big Bird gets raise
Pubcasters to receive $50 mil bump in 2000
Pubcasters will have to wait until 2000 to see their first increase of $50 million. But when the increase does kick in, it will be the first time since the Republican Party took over Congress in 1995 that money will be added to the pubcasting annual allotment.
In 2000, the pubcasting set-aside will increase from the current $250 million to $300 million. Congress also scheduled a sec-ond funding hike in 2001 from $300 million to $340 million.
After its initial attempts to eliminate all federal funding for pubcasters, the GOP has now set a course for a slow rise in funding. The change in fortune is due in part to a grassroots backlash against members of Congress who spearheaded the effort to zero out Bigbird. Also, congressional budgeters don't feel as much pressure to cut funding for popular pubcasters now that the federal government has scored its first budget surplus in a generation.
Even before Republicans took over Congress, things were not going too well for pubcasters. In their last year as a majority, Democrats trimmed $7 million from the set-aside distributed by the Corp. for Public Broadcasting.
But pubcasters are still wondering how they will pay for their transition to digital television. CPB wants the government to chip in $600 million toward the $1.7 billion pubcasters say they need to make the jump to digital. Congress did earmark an additional $15 million for the digital transition, but pubcasters plan to keep lobbying for more.
The budget also allots an additional $11 million for a "Ready, Set Learn" program. Among the program's key features is its support of a nine-hour block of educational programming targeted at preschool-aged kids.
Commercial broadcasters also scored some points in the Budget Act of 1999. Congress is not giving commercial stations any money, but it did decide to abandon its plan to auction the spectrum between channels 60 and 69 on an accelerated time schedule. The sale is now set to take place in 2001. The Clinton administration wanted to speed up the sale to help pay for an initiative to hire more teachers for the nation's public schools.
The airwaves between 60 and 69 are sparsely populated, and the few incumbents will not be forced to leave when the auction takes place. But broadcasters are worried that the current plan to give every one of the 1,600 television stations in the country a second channel for digital services may hit a few glitches. The National Assn. of Broadcasters wants to put off the sale of channels 60 through 69 just in case the extra airwaves are needed to assure an orderly transition to digital service in crowded markets.
