If the proposed $1.1 billion funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) come to fruition, public radio and television stations nationwide will bear the brunt of the impact, particularly in rural areas.
According to Statista’s Anna Fleck, CPB grants accounted for 17 percent of the revenue of an average rural public station, compared to 9 percent for non-rural stations in FY2023, as stated on the CPB website.
Furthermore, nearly half of all rural grantees depended on CPB for at least 25 percent of their revenue, while 33 rural stations, including those on Native American reservations, relied on CPB funding for over 50 percent of their revenue that year.
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CPB highlights that rural public stations already encounter challenges in fundraising from individual donors compared to urban stations, in addition to facing higher broadcasting and engineering costs due to the sparse population densities of their audiences and the need to operate multiple transmitters to reach remote areas.
An analysis of FY2023 data from 467 public media stations in the U.S., published on Current.org, reveals varying levels of federal funding reliance across states. States like West Virginia, Alaska, New Mexico, and Montana demonstrate higher average dependency on federal funding, ranging from 32-37 percent. The analysis also indicates that while public TV stations generally rely more on federal funding than radio stations, the top five stations with the highest federal funding dependency in FY2023 were all radio stations, each exceeding 80 percent reliance.
The data presented in the infographic above reflects the average dependency of public media stations on any federal funding source, not solely CPB funding.
Nonetheless, CPB remains the primary funding source for public radio, television, and related online and mobile services in the U.S.
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