WASHINGTON—The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will receive a $10 million increase in funding for fiscal year 2023 thanks to negotiations between the House and Senate. That will bring CPB’s funding for FY2023 to $475 million.
The funding increase was officially approved as part of a package of appropriations bill including in the omnibus spending bill that was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate on Dec. 21.
According to Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, the increase in funding helps restore what he says is nearly $100 million in lost purchasing power for public broadcasters due to frozen funding over the last decade.
Butler says that the additional funding will help CPB continue to provide and grow its services related to education, including crafting educational programming for at-home learning that bridges the digital divide; expand public safety and information services; and help with the rollout of the ATSC 3.0-based NextGen TV standard at public stations.
“This increase will enable public television stations to educate more children, protect more lives and property, and enable more well-informed citizens to guide the world’s most important democracy,” said Butler.
The legislation also provides level funding of $20 million for FY2021 for station interconnection, Butler says. In addition, $29.5 million, an increase of $500,000, is being provided for the Ready to Learn program focusing on early childhood education.
