Cashing In on Public Interest Programming

[Commentary] As part of an 80-year-old bargain under the Communications Act, local television and radio broadcasters license “public airwaves” from the government for free in exchange for increasingly minimal public interest obligations to serve local communities. But those same airwaves -- also called electromagnetic spectrum, or just, spectrum -- could also be used by telecommunications companies like AT&T and Verizon to expand Internet access to our mobile phones and devices. Because it would be politically impossible to simply cancel the free licenses for broadcasters, and auction them off to Internet giants, Congress is offering broadcasters a cut of the auction proceeds if they give up their licenses.

No one doubts this country’s insatiable love for, and dependence on, mobile devices. Also, the government stands to make billions of dollars after the companies like AT&T and Verizon buy airwave space, having raised almost $45 billion at the last spectrum auction. But what effect could this have on public television? With the Federal Communications Commission promising broadcasters billion-dollar payouts in exchange for their licenses, even the most dedicated public broadcasting affiliate must give serious thought to cashing in. That could spell the end of PBS as a national network, and would end our greatest effort to dedicate a portion of the public airwaves to the public.

[Feld is the senior vice president of Public Knowledge]