Ever wonder how PBS North brings you the programs you love, from educational resources to insightful documentaries and local stories?
While your local support is vital, there’s another key player ensuring our ability to serve the community: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Discover the essential role the CPB plays in keeping PBS North and public media thriving.
What is the CPB’s role in public broadcasting?
The CPB is distinct from PBS. It is not a broadcaster, but an independent, nonprofit organization created by Congress in 1967 with two primary functions: to serve as a firewall between partisan politics and public broadcasting and to help fund programming, stations, and technology.
Funding for CPB is established through the federal budget annual appropriations process two years in advance with the intention of insulating funding from political pressures. Its total appropriation is currently over $500 million. The CPB is responsible for allocating its funds from the federal budget in any way that fulfills its mission: to ensure universal access, over-the-air and online, to high-quality content and telecommunications services that are commercial-free and free of charge.
PBS doesn’t receive direct support from the CPB; the funding goes directly to 1,300 local and independently managed stations so they can decide how best to create programs for their communities.
How much CPB funding does PBS North receive?
Approximately 26% of our budgeted revenue comes from the CPB. The amount is calculated using a complex formula that considers our region’s population and how much funding we are able to raise locally from donations by individuals and support from small businesses and organizations.
The breakdown of our funding is as follows
For Fiscal Year 2025:
- Business Support (underwriting, sponsorships, digital ads) 6.9%
- Members 29.3%
- Corporation for Public Broadcasting (federal funding) 26.1%
- State Grants 24.6%
- Other grants (non-federal): 11.5%
- Other 1.6%
Support from local listeners and businesses accounts for the largest percentage of our revenue annually. It is critical for PBS North’s sustainability and always has been.
Why does PBS North (or any station) need federal funding?
Even though member and local business support make up the bulk of PBS North’s funding, federal funding, which costs an average of $1.60 per American per year, makes public media, as you currently know it, possible.
CPB’s investment directly supports local stations across the country and enables them to provide essential programs and services. If federal funding is eliminated, public media stations could be forced to cut some or all of the following:
- Signature educational content as set forth in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
- Important public safety communications during natural disasters
- Professional development and resources for teachers
- Music and cultural programming
Some stations, particularly those in rural areas that secure a larger percentage of their revenue from the CPB, could even be forced off the air. In many rural communities, public media stations are the only local sources of news, weather, and emergency information.
Stable funding from the CPB and other sources has allowed PBS North to expand its programming and digital multi-platform services.
What would happen if PBS North lost CPB funding?
While PBS North would immediately seek to raise the $x in lost CPB funds from donors and business sponsors, the loss of federal funding would very likely result in immediate and significant impacts on our ability to provide essential services, including the production of local programming, our ability to purchase national programming, and maintain broadcast infrastructure.
How can I help?
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