Recommendation: (4a) Congress should create a trust fund to ensure enhanced and permanent funding for public broadcasting to help it fulfill its potential in the digital television environment and remove it from the vicissitudes of the political process.
(4b) When spectrum now used for analog broadcasting is returned to the government, Congress should reserve the equivalent of 6 MHz of spectrum for each viewing community in order to establish channels devoted specifically to noncommercial educational programming. Congress should establish an orderly process for allocating the new channels as well as provide adequate funding from appropriate revenue sources.
(4c)Broadcasters that choose to implement datacasting should transmit information on behalf of local schools, libraries, community-based nonprofit organizations, governmental bodies, and public safety institutions. This activity should count toward fulfillment of a digital broadcaster's public interest obligations.
The digital age will open up major new avenues for broadcasting information and entertainment to Americans, creating many new lanes on the information superhighway. In theory, the expansion in information resources and avenues should result in the marketplace driving a vast augmentation of programming in all areas, including those that serve the public interest. For the most part, it works well, as witnessed by the substantial amount of quality programming aired by commercial analog broadcasters.
But the Advisory Committee recognizes that the market alone may not provide programming that can adequately serve children, the governing process, special community needs, and the diverse voices in the country. To be sure, cable television's multiple channels have served commendably some of these needs, such as through Nickelodeon for children or C-SPAN for government and politics. But cable channels like these are not available to a large share of the populace, either because they are not carried on many cable systems or because cable itself is neither universally available nor free. Moreover, many of these channels are commercial.
4a. Public Broadcasting
Free, over-the-air broadcasting has the virtue of being readily available to virtually all the people in America, but the marketplace dictates of commercial broadcasters do not automatically accommodate the public interest programming needs of our diverse population. That is why public broadcasting was created and why it has served the country so well. The role that public broadcasting has played in the analog era does not disappear in a digital age. To the contrary, we believe that public broadcasting will continue to be a vital link for many Americans who want access to high quality cultural, public affairs, children's, and educational programs -— indeed, that the exciting capabilities of the digital spectrum in terms of high-definition pictures, multiple signals, data transmission and interactivity should serve to enhance dramatically the value of public broadcasting to the country.
But there is a major challenge ahead for public broadcasting to fulfill its potential in the digital age. The startup costs of converting to digital signals are high, and just as significantly, the costs of producing digital programming are 10 to 20 percent higher than those of comparable analog programming. (See Section I.) We believe that public broadcasting will need the funding necessary to produce quality digital programming and to promote it so that viewers know what is available to them. Thus, we urge Congress to consider ways to provide enhanced funding for public broadcasting in the digital era, and to create a trust fund to make such funding assured and permanent, and to move public broadcasting out of the whipsaw of the political arena. By "public broadcasting," we mean the public broadcasting system, along with independent noncommercial programmers. If Congress does create a public broadcasting trust fund with a base ample enough to fund public broadcasting in the digital age, we join Representatives Billy Tauzin, Edward Markey, and others in urging that public broadcasting reduce or eliminate the practice of "enhanced underwriting" that closely resembles full commercial advertising.(6)
4b. The Creation of New Noncommercial, Educational Channels
Even if the steps described above are taken, we believe that there is more that can be done to exploit the move on the spectrum from analog to digital broadcasting to meet public interest needs. In particular, we recommend carving out space on the spectrum for channels devoted specifically to noncommercial educational programming and services, and funding them in ways that will vastly expand the educational opportunities for all Americans, and particularly for those now underserved by information resources.
The opportunity for digital television to improve student achievement has extraordinarily high stakes for our Nation. The acquisition and use of knowledge is a major resource for our society in the coming century and is pivotal for our quality of life, our economic development, our democracy, and indeed our security. The Nation's success depends upon how effectively all members of our society are prepared to use information technologies, which in turn means that the proficiency of our citizens depends upon the quality of our educational offerings and the capacity of students to utilize information technologies for educational ends. We put our children at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy if we do not invest wisely in educational resources.
The capacity of digital television to expand the flow of information and communication to and within our school systems, and to the population as a whole will require new and imaginative decisions on the dedication of entire channels or sub-channels, and the interaction between programming and datacasting in the digital form.
Under current law, when digital channels are up and running and reaching substantial numbers of people, the existing analog channels are to be turned back to the government, repacked and auctioned off.(7) We recommend that when this process occurs, the equivalent of one 6 megahertz channel in each viewing area be reserved instead for noncommercial educational purposes -— defined as preschool, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education, lifelong learning, distance learning, literacy, vocational education, children's educational, public affairs, multicultural, arts and civic education, and other programming directed to the educational needs of underserved communities.
We recommend the creation of an orderly process to allocate these channels in a way that will serve each viewing community. A very high priority should be given to ensuring that these educational channels serve underprivileged and minority communities that typically have less access to the educational opportunities present in the information age. One option would be to give the first opportunity to claim and run each educational channel to the local public television station or stations. Partners could include universities, libraries, minority organiza- tions, other noncommercial broadcasters, and other groups. However, the license to operate the channels should be neither automatic nor eternal. The applicants would first have to draft and submit a plan to the FCC indicating how they would involve the local community, including schools, universities, libraries, and diverse and underrepresented groups, what kinds of noncommercial educational programming they might produce and air, and how the new channel devoted to education would be different from their existing public television stations.
The FCC would either accept or reject the plans; if rejected, the educational channel space would be open for application by others, including schools, universities, libraries, minority organizations, other broadcasters or other groups, under clear FCC guidelines made publicly available prior to the application process. The licenses issued would be for finite periods; the record of each station in these areas would be reviewed and considered at license renewal time.
We make this recommendation with one important condition. We believe that spectrum space alone, despite its enormous intrinsic value, will be unable to reach its potential if there are not adequate resources to provide appropriate and engaging programming. New channels devoted to education can be of enormous benefit to the country if they have adequate financial backing. We recommend that Congress provide such funding, using as sources revenues from the auction of other spectrum, including the remainder of the analog spectrum; some of the fees from ancillary and supplementary services by digital broadcasters required by current law; and a portion of the fees we recommend implementing for the use of multiple commercial-driven broadcast channels by digital broadcasters.
The Advisory Committee is very much aware that revenues from auction of the analog spectrum and fees from ancillary and supplementary services are already "scored" under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and are destined for the General Treasury. We urge Congress and the President to reconsider the destination for these funds -- and indeed, urge Congress to adopt the general principle that revenues from auctions of broadcast spectrum and from any fees from broadcasters be used to protect and enhance the public interest in broadcasting. But if Congress and the President decide not to alter the path of these revenues, we urge them to find other sources of revenue for a trust fund for public broadcasting and for the dedicated education channels, whether from industry sources or general revenues. We also urge that any funding mechanism include a provision for matching funds from local communities.
We have two other recommendations in this area. First, the U.S. Department of Education should be encouraged to work with educational programmers to suggest programming and datacasting ideas, once again with a particular sensitivity to the educational needs of minorities and other underserved communities. Second, some portion of the fees collected for these educational purposes, no more than 20 percent, should be set aside for bids by all broadcasters, including commercial ones and minority ones, to produce and air educational programming that would otherwise not be commercially feasible. That revenue should be specifically targeted to support the creation and promotion of programming from diverse and independent producers to air on noncommercial channels, with a particular emphasis on addressing the interests and needs of minorities and other underserved populations. This portion of the fees should be administered by a foundation, perhaps based on the model of the Children's Television Endowment mandated by the Children's Television Act of 1990.
4c. Datacasting
One of the more exciting new capabilities made possible by digital television technology is datacasting, a transmission mode that allows broadcasters to deliver vast amounts of information in a variety of formats to digital television sets and computers. Broadcasters that choose to datacast will be able to send information either alone or in conjunction with audio or video transmissions. The information transmitted could be stock quotations, sports statistics, government information, weather updates, information to accompany video programming, and educational materials to be used with instructional programming, among other possibilities.
Datacasting is also notable for making interactive television feasible. Viewers can engage with programming that is "pushed" at them in the traditional fashion, but also with information content that they can "pull" out of the digital transmission. In this way, important aspects of television broadcasting and the Internet can be combined in innovative ways.
The potential applications of datacasting for education are also significant. Datacasting could transmit course-related materials, such as lesson plans and teacher and student guides, as part of instructional video programming. Schools, libraries, and other educational institutions could use datacasting as a large "digital pipe" to deliver computer-based educational materials during off-peak hours. Public television stations are already developing innovative applications of datacasting for use in conjunction with their video programming as well as in entirely new instructional applications.
Datacasting can also serve a variety of government and public interest needs. Some local government agencies have large amounts of information that could be delivered via datacasting. During weather-related crises, the service could be programmed to track storms house-by-house, and provide viewers with information about when a storm is likely to hit their area.
With datacasting's vast potential to serve, the Advisory Committee recommends that broadcasters develop their plans to implement datacasting with the public interest in mind. Broadcasters should work with local educational and public safety institutions to provide community broadcasting services. The types of information that might be transmitted include:
- Educational programming from preschool through higher education;
- Schedule and logistical information for voting, public hearings, and other governmental activities;
- Public school information;
- Public safety and health announcements;
- Snow emergency information;
- Public text bulletin boards (volunteer opportunities, nonprofit meetings, etc.);
- Community "radio" programming in multiple languages;
- Public access video programming;
- Local library information; and
- Open publication of citizen "letters to the editor."
It is unlikely that datacasting of public interest information would impose an undue burden on broadcasters. Such information consumes little bandwidth, generally less than 1 percent of the total 6 MHz spectrum provided to each digital broadcaster. Digital television broadcasters should be encouraged to offer data broadcasting services on a not-for-profit basis to appropriate community organizations, and have this activity count as a public interest activity.
Endnotes 6) Public Broadcasting Reform Act of 1998, H.R. 4067, 105th Cong. (1998).
7) See 47 U. S. C. §336(c); see also Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Pub. L. No. 105-33, 111 Stat. 251, adding new section 309(j)(14)(A), (B), and (C) to the Communications Act.
Additional Links
Supplemental Statements
- Statement of Charles Benton on Funding New Education Digital Broadcast Channels, in which Frank M. Blythe, Peggy Charren, Frank H. Cruz, Newton N. Minow, Cass R. Sunstein, Gigi B. Sohn, and James Yee join
- Statement of Frank H. Cruz, in which Frank M. Blythe and Newton N. Minow join
- Corporation for Public Broadcasting
- Public Broadcasting Service
- Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT)
- Independent Television Service (ITS)
On to Recommendation 5