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Corporation for Public Broadcasting
American publicly funded non-profit corporation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB; stylized in all lowercase as cpb) is an American non-profit corporation created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting in the United States.[4] The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services. It received funding from Congress and distributed more than 70 percent of its funding to more than 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations,[5] including Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) stations. In particular, CPB funding was a key part of small and rural public media station budgets.[6]
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Funding and operations
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The CPB's annual budget is composed almost entirely of an annual appropriation from Congress plus interest on those funds. Under the establishing law, no more than 5% of the appropriation may be used for administrative expenses. CPB allocates the funds to content development, community services, and other local station and system needs.[7]
For fiscal year 2025[update], its appropriation was US$535 million, including $10 million in interest earned. The distribution of these funds was as follows:[8]
- $267.83M for direct grants to local public television stations;
- $96.78M for television programming grants;
- $83.33M for direct grants to local public radio stations;
- $28.63M for the Radio National Program Production and Acquisition
- $9.58M for the Radio Program Fund
- $32.10M for system support
- $26.75M for administration
Public broadcasting stations are funded by a combination of private donations from listeners and viewers, foundations and corporations. Funding for public television comes in roughly equal parts from government (at all levels) and the private sector.[9]
Stations that receive CPB funds must meet certain requirements,[10] such as the maintenance or provision of open meetings, open financial records, a community advisory board, equal employment opportunity, and lists of donors and political activities.
A 2007 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report and 2025 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report both found that public broadcasting stations in smaller and rural media markets had a greater dependence on federal funding.[11][12] In 2023, rural stations received 45% of the CPB appropriation, while CPB grants accounted for at least 25% of station revenue for at least half of rural stations and more than 50% of revenue for some stations.[13][14] A 2011 FCC report noted that less than one-fourth of funds disbursed through grants by the CPB to public broadcasters were used for programming while the overwhelming majority was used for support of station infrastructure.[15]
After administrative costs and system support programs, the 2025 CRS report noted that the entire federal appropriation to the CPB was used to provide grants to qualifying public broadcasting stations and program producers.[16] The Public Broadcasting Act prohibits the CPB from owning or operating stations,[17][18] and from producing, scheduling, or distributing programming.[19][20] As PBS and NPR were incorporated as station-owned membership organizations,[21] PBS and NPR received only a small fraction of their total revenue from the CPB directly, with 16% and 1% respectively of their total revenue coming directly from all federal sources in total and the majority coming from member stations, distribution revenue and services, corporate underwriting and institutional support, and individual contributions.[22] PBS and NPR member stations are owned and operated by colleges and universities, public school districts, other private non-profit corporations, or state government agencies.[23] Along with the 2007 GAO report about public television specifically,[24] the 2025 CRS report noted that while NPR is authorized to produce programming for its member stations, programming included in the PBS National Programming Service (NPS) is not produced by PBS itself but by its member stations, external production companies, and independent producers, and PBS and NPR member stations retain ultimate editorial control over which programming from the NPS and NPR they wish to broadcast.[25]
Public television stations participate in the Emergency Alert System (which includes Amber alerts) and the pilot program for the Digital Emergency Alert System.[26][27] The CPB is the sole eligible recipient of funding through the Next Generation Warning System Grant Program within the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.[28]
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History
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![[icon]](#/media/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion with: history between 1970 and 2002. You can help by adding to it. (August 2025) |
Establishment
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created on November 7, 1967, when U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 (PBA).
Under the PBA, the congressional declaration of policy stated that it was in the public interest for the CPB to facilitate the development of educational, cultural, and other programming not provided by commercial broadcasters, as well as programming for audiences that were unserved or underserved by commercial broadcasters.[29][30][31] The House and Senate reports that accompanied the PBA as a bill suggested that such programming was not provided commercial broadcasters due to market failure, and that by providing seed funding through federal grants administered by the CPB, public broadcasters would contribute to a better-informed citizenry through high-quality national and local programming.[32][33]
The new organization initially collaborated with the National Educational Television network (NET)—which would be replaced by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Ward Chamberlin Jr. was the first operating officer.[34] On March 27, 1968, it was registered as a nonprofit corporation in the District of Columbia.[35] In 1969, the CPB talked to private groups to start PBS, an entity intended by the CPB to circumvent controversies engendered by certain NET public affairs programs that aired in the late 1960s and engendered opposition by politically conservative public figures, potentially threatening the medium's future viability.[36][vague] President Nixon was well known for his dislike of PBS and the CPB and wanted to kill the congressional funding for it.[37]
On February 26, 1970, the CPB formed National Public Radio (NPR), a network of public-radio stations that began operating the following year. Unlike PBS, NPR produces and distributes programming.[35]
Digital broadcasting initiative
On May 31, 2002, the CPB, through special appropriation funding, helped public television stations making the transition to digital broadcasting; this was complete by 2009.[35]
Objectivity and balance concerns in the 2000s
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 requires the CPB to operate with a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature".[38] It also requires it to regularly review national programming for objectivity and balance, and to report on "its efforts to address concerns about objectivity and balance". In 2004 and 2005, people from PBS and NPR complained that the CPB was starting to push a conservative agenda.[39][40] Board members replied that they were merely seeking balance.
Kenneth Tomlinson, chair of the CPB board from September 2003 until September 2005, angered PBS and NPR supporters by unilaterally commissioning a conservative colleague to conduct a study of alleged bias in the PBS show NOW with Bill Moyers, and by appointing two conservatives as CPB Ombudsmen.[41] On November 3, 2005, Tomlinson resigned from the board, prompted by a report of his tenure by the CPB Inspector General, Kenneth Konz, requested by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The report stated:
We found evidence that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) former Chairman violated statutory provisions and the Director's Code of Ethics by dealing directly with one of the creators of a new public affairs program during negotiations with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the CPB over creating the show. Our review also found evidence that suggests "political tests" were a major criteria [sic] used by the former Chairman in recruiting a President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for CPB, which violated statutory prohibitions against such practices.[42]
Threat to funding in 2023
In July 2023, the appropriations bill for FY 2024 included no money for CPB when it passed out of the US House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.[43][44] However, the corresponding bill considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee planned to continue funding for the CPB, though at 7 percent less than what President Biden requested.[45]
Second Trump administration
Executive Order 14290
Executive Order 14290, titled "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media", is an executive order signed by U.S. president Donald Trump on May 1, 2025 to end federal funding for NPR (a radio network) and PBS (a television network) by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and by federal agencies, alleging biased news coverage in violation of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 (PBA) and that public funding for news programming was "not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence" in the current U.S. media market.[46][47][48]
CPB, PBS, and NPR executives issued press releases arguing that the executive order was unlawful under the PBA and that the organizations would explore how to continue providing programming while challenging the order.[49][47][50] On May 27, NPR and three public radio stations sued the Trump administration for ending their federal funding, citing it as a violation of the First Amendment.[51][52][53] On May 30, PBS sued the Trump administration for ending their federal funding.[54][55][56]
Before the executive order was issued, the CPB filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on April 28 after Trump attempted to fire three of the five members of the CPB's board of directors,[57][58] while the CPB also filed a lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in March 2025 for halting their funding under the Next Generation Warning System Grant Program within the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.[59][28][60]
FEMA released the funds on April 24.[61][62] On June 8, District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss ruled against a preliminary injunction requested by the CPB in its lawsuit against the attempted director removals since the CPB changed its by-laws afterward under the District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act to prevent any authority, including the President of the United States, from removing a director without a two-thirds vote of the other directors, which allowed for the directors to keep their positions.[63][64][65] On July 15, the Trump administration filed a separate lawsuit to remove the same CPB directors.[66][67]Rescissions Act of 2025
On June 3, President Trump filed a request for a rescission bill that included the congressional appropriation for the CPB.[68][69][70] The next day, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on the rescission request and the administration's 2026 fiscal year budget request.[71][72] Before the rescission request, PBS CEO Paula Kerger, NPR CEO Katherine Maher, and the CEO of Alaska Public Media testified on March 26 before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency about the CPB appropriation, the journalistic standards and alleged bias of the organizations, and public broadcasting's educational programming and participation in emergency alert systems in rural areas.[73][74] On June 6, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise introduced a rescission bill including the CPB appropriation in the House of Representatives.[75]
The House passed the bill on June 12 along party lines by a vote of 214 to 212.[81] On June 25, Vought testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the rescission bill.[82][83][84] The Senate received the House bill on July 10 and it was referred to the Appropriations and Budget Committees.[85] On July 15, the Senate passed motions to discharge the House bill from the Appropriations and Budget Committees and to proceed to debate with Vice President JD Vance casting tie-breaking votes on each motion.[86][87][88] In the morning of July 17, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 51 to 48 and with an amendment, requiring the bill to be transmitted back to the House for a second vote.[89][90][91] The House approved the amended bill after midnight on July 18 by a vote of 216 to 213.[92][93][94] President Trump signed the bill into law on July 24.[95]
Critics of the rescission bill, such as Nevada U.S. Representative Mark Amodei and New York U.S. Representative Dan Goldman, noted that the CPB appropriation amounted to less than 0.01% (1/10000) of the U.S. federal budget.[96] Polls conducted by YouGov from 2022 through 2025 showed PBS and NPR to be among the most trusted media institutions in the United States and that trust in PBS and NPR was growing,[97][102] while five surveys conducted by YouGov and the Pew Research Center from February through July 2025 found consistent majorities or pluralities of Americans supported continuing federal funding for PBS and NPR.[108] Previously, in every year from 2004 through 2021, surveys of Americans had shown PBS to have been consistently ranked as the most trusted institution in comparison to commercial broadcast and cable television, newspapers, and streaming services, and in January 2021, Americans valued tax dollars spent on PBS behind only military defense and oversight of food and drug safety.[109]
After the passage of the rescission bill, the CPB announced on August 1, 2025, that it would layoff the majority of its staff by the end of the fiscal year on September 30, with only a skeleton crew staying on board until January 2026 to distribute any remaining funds and royalties.[110][111][112]
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Board composition
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The CPB is governed by a nine-member board of directors selected by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate; they serve six-year terms, and are allowed to continue serving until the end of the calendar year that their term ends or until their successor is seated on the board.[38] Under the terms of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, the president cannot appoint persons of the same political party to more than five of the nine CPB board seats.[38]
The Board of Directors governs the CPB, sets policy, and establishes programming priorities. The Board appoints the president and chief executive officer, who then names the other corporate officers.[113]
Board members
The current CPB board as of April 10, 2025[update]:[113]
Context about public broadcasting
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Comparison to commercial media
In 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a report that concluded that growth in the number of media outlets in the United States from satellite radio and television, cable television, and the internet had not offset reductions in local news reporting with public interest, civics, or investigative journalism coverage caused by the decline of newspapers and local news in radio broadcasting.[114] While local television stations were broadcasting a greater total number of news hours and had become some of the largest providers of local news online, most coverage was of crime and courthouses, accidents and disasters, and human interest topics while the depth and quantity of public interest, civics, and investigative journalism coverage declined, and broadcast and internet media remained heavily reliant on reporting about the latter topics from the declining number of newspapers through fair use exemptions in copyright law.[115][116] Conversely, the 2011 FCC report noted that two-fifths of public radio listening hours was for news, 185 NPR member stations used an all-news format (with another 480 featuring news as part of mixed programming format), and the number of NPR member stations featuring local news had increased to 681 in 2009.[117]
One-third of all NPR programming was locally produced while less than 15% of the news and public affairs programming on commercial news/talk radio was local programming.[118] A 2017 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report noted that 90 percent of public radio stations provided local newscasts and about half carried local news on weekends.[119] While weekly listenership for NPR member stations fell from 2017 to 2022, weekly listenership for radio in general fell during the same time period.[120] While the 2011 FCC report noted that the news and public affairs programming of public television was mostly national programming, PBS programming was noted to provide greater in-depth coverage and journalistic documentaries than commercial television.[121] When surveyed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in reports released in 2004 and 2007, majorities of public television licensees expressed the view that they did not produce enough local programming to serve the needs of their communities due to a lack of funds and that cutting the CPB appropriation would lead to a reduction in local programming.[122][123]
The 2011 FCC report also noted that NPR had 17 international bureaus and a greater number of foreign correspondents than NBC, CBS, Fox News, or MSNBC,[124] and that children's programming on cable television was dominated by entertainment programming while educational programming for children remained chiefly provided by public television.[125]
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