For over 50 years, public television has been a trusted source of children’s educational content, cultural programming, and award-winning journalism. Carried over a national network of broadcast towers and instructure, these exceptional noncommercial programs are delivered for free to virtually every corner of America. Having opened our homes to Big Bird, Mr. Rogers, NewsHour and Nova, we are a better country.

The question to ask now, however, is not about public television’s legacy. It is about public television’s future. Threats to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, coupled with profound changes in audience behaviors and the rapidly evolving media landscape, have exposed the fragility of public television’s business model and raised questions about its ongoing relevance. 

Over-the-air prime-time viewership of PBS stations is down by half in the past decade, and public television is only recapturing a fraction of that audience via its streaming platforms. PBS’ predicted trends for the next five years are challenging. Such a precipitous drop undermines revenue generated through membership, sponsorship and underwriting. These threats reflect broader trends across legacy media, but they force us to ask: Can this medium, with its roots in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, continue to serve the public as we barrel toward the mid-decades of the 21st century?

The answer is a resounding “yes” — if the public television system unites around three emergent and interconnected ideas:

1. Our existing public television spectrum and infrastructure offer an efficient, resilient and nearly ubiquitous means for sharing essential information with people everywhere. What it offers is complemented, but cannot be replaced, by mobile broadband, satellite or any other unicast distribution system.
2. As a technology, television broadcasting is undergoing a revolution that will radically diversify its services. Delivering linear streams of content will be just one of many ways a public television organization leverages its broadcast spectrum to support informed communities. As services diversify, so will revenue creation opportunities – at a potential scale of hundreds of millions of dollars annually. 
3. Public television (and radio) stations themselves have a historic opportunity to reinvent themselves as the trusted centers of thriving local information ecosystems at a time when virtually every community is threatened by declining news networks and the associated erosion of civic engagement and connectivity. As social media, artificial intelligence misinformation and disinformation proliferate, public media – properly reimagined – can become more essential than ever.

At this time, public television’s true value is not what it is but what it could readily become. The second question is: Will public television act with urgency and innovation to move beyond past models and become again the dynamic force our communities need? 

What provides optimism is that although public television is for many audience members simplified as a national program service, “PBS,” it is in fact a decentralized network of over 350 stations, owned by over 150 locally-governed, independent organizations. The entire system does not need to change simultaneously. What is required is leadership – local stations willing to push forward into a new future and model for their peers what public television can become. With bold first steps by some, change itself becomes easier for others to imagine, embrace, and implement. 

The intent of this paper is to help bold leaders envision opportunities for future relevance and impact. This paper will first focus on technological infrastructure, emergent opportunities and their revenue-generation potential. Then the paper will focus on how public media organizations can anchor local information ecosystems by opening their doors to new, different and more vital relationships with their communities. For more information about topics covered in this paper, the Appendix can be found here. 

Foundation for the future

Public television is generally understood as an ad-free alternative to commercial television offering substantive, high-quality programs. That is perfectly accurate as a matter of audience perception.

There is, however, another way to define public television – as a vast network of UHF and VHF spectrum, carried over high power, high tower infrastructure (HPHT) hardened and stabilized by guy wires, designed to withstand disasters and maximize coverage over a wide area and equipped with transmitters that can push a signal to a million watts. Delivered as “broadcast” (one-to-all), public television content is sent from towers over the spectrum to an unlimited number of homes and devices within its service area. Public television stations’ noncommercial spectrum is scarce and highly valuable — equivalent to beach front property. This spectrum’s attributes include an ability to penetrate buildings (making it ideal for urban and suburban settings); travel long distances (making it ideal for rural settings); and carry significant amounts of data and content. Today, public television reaches 97% of American homes.

It is a system that benefits from scale. As more people and devices receive the content within a market, it becomes less expensive to reach each person. This is different from mobile network operators that operate as a unicast platform (one-to-one). It is also an incredibly resilient system, able to withstand blizzards, fires, hurricanes and other emergency situations, as well as network congestion. This national, ubiquitous spectrum and infrastructure were built over the past 50 years at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. Like our highways, parks and libraries, it is a gift from past generations that we are now the stewards of. 

Since television’s inception, other related technologies have emerged that offer alternative means for distributing information, including cable television, dial-up internet and now mobile broadband and satellite connectivity. While these are powerful complements, they can not replace broadcast. The reasons for this include: 

1. Between 10–15% of U.S. households lack access are to high speed broadband, and that is likely to remain true for the foreseeable future; 
2. Both broadband and satellite connectivity are prohibitively expensive for many Americans; and 
3. These alternatives to broadcasting are far more vulnerable to disruption either by natural forces or network congestion. 

In addition, our public television infrastructure is owned by locally-governed nonprofit organizations, not remote, corporate entities like Google, Meta or Verizon. This governance structure makes the system as a whole more accountable to local priorities and concerns.

Evolution powered by ATSC 3.0

Since its first station launched in Houston in 1953, public television has operated on linear broadcast, which means that specific shows are transmitted at a particular time. While linear broadcast continues to attract a significant audience, it increasingly struggles to compete with on-demand streaming and time spent on social media.

A process is now underway, however, to transition broadcast from its past standard, ATSC 1.0, to a new operating model, ATSC 3.0 (currently being marketed at “NextGen TV”). This transition is driving two fundamental changes. First, basic delivery is enhanced. Images are clearer. Sound is sharper. The user experience is qualitatively different, and better, than ever. 

The second change is more profound. Enhanced by ATSC 3.0, broadcast and data distribution becomes targeted, interactive and on-demand. In other words, we will no longer just watch tv. From an audience perspective, we can now meaningfully engage with a diversified world of information through our televisions and across related devices. For example, children’s programming can be developed – either internally or through partners – for broadcast that includes interactivity to reinforce numeracy and literacy concepts. From a station perspective, we are no longer restricted to linear broadcast but can open “our pipes” to a diversified flow of content and resources that better match the complexity of our communities.  

What will this transition actually look like in practice?

What people love about public television remains. Free, nationally produced and locally selected programs of extraordinary quality will still be broadcast through a national network of towers into individual homes. Continuity of this service remains critical for the financial stability of PBS member stations and for the audiences who rely on over-the-air programming. Nearly 20% of households who receive content via an antenna either do not or cannot pay for streaming platform services. 

But public television can also diversify beyond linear broadcast with ATSC 3.0 to become a true, 360-degree hub of information access and discovery for local communities, delivering information and services that extend far beyond what’s possible with a single program or fixed program schedule.

For most stations, the transition from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0 will cost between $300,000 and $600,000, depending on the age of their transmission facilities. The costs of the transition are dwarfed by potential revenue opportunities, which helps explain why four of the largest commercial broadcasters have established EdgeBeam Wireless, a joint venture to develop opportunities to leverage ATSC 3.0 spectrum. 

By industry estimates, the total addressable market for three core services that become accessible via ATSC 3.0 – automotive connectivity, Content Development Networks, and Global Positioning Systems – exceeds $7.5 billion annually. There will be stiff competition from the commercial sector for this market, but there are elements where nonprofit broadcasters are well-positioned because of their trusted local relationships and their mission commitment to prioritize the public interest. 

Despite both programmatic and financial potential, the transition to ATSC 3.0 has been far slower than anticipated. Today more than 75% of U.S. households can receive an ATSC 3.0 signal, but in most markets only a single station has made the leap. In addition, a far smaller percentage of households have an ATSC 3.0-compatible television or external tuner. 

There are numerous reasons for slow adoption, including the FCC’s regulatory framework, the lack of consumer awareness and demand, and the upfront costs of equipment upgrades with no immediate return on investment. 

The National Association of Broadcasters petitioned the FCC in February to mandate a staged transition to ATSC 3.0 that would be completed by 2028 in major markets and 2030 for all markets. A decision by the commission to set a timeline and mandate for a transition would accelerate the diversification of services and motivate consumer adoption of ATSC 3.0-enabled devices. 

Beyond a screen

When public television stations better utilize their existing spectrum and HPHT infrastructure and further activate their capacity through ATSC 3.0, what new local services will be offered? At this early stage, the  range of potential services include:

• Public interest datacasting: With their ubiquitous coverage, PBS member stations are beginning to leverage their HPHT infrastructure to help solve one of the country’s most intractable problems: the digital divide. In partnership with the Information Equity Initiative, which I lead as CEO, public broadcasters are working with government agencies and non-governmental organizations to facilitate the decentralized curation and delivery of critical information to those who lack access to broadband. Over the past two years, multiple public interest use cases have emerged in education and public health, including delivering learning resources to K–12 teachers and students; supporting workforce upskilling, re-entry and mental health services for those experiencing incarceration; providing literacy and numeracy materials to early childhood facilities in rural America; and maternal and infant health resources for expecting and new mothers. In addition kiosks in waiting rooms at federally qualified health centers are able to address health needs in multiple languages. With each deployment, the public broadcaster expands its local public services and partnerships with government agencies and NGOs, further cementing its position as a critical media resource in the community. 
• Broadcast Positioning System (BPS): The Global Positioning System (GPS) underpins a wide range of sectors, including transportation, telecommunications, agriculture, finance and emergency response, and yet is increasingly vulnerable to hacking. Public television can help address this threat by dedicating a fraction of its spectrum to be a part of the nation’s Broadcast Positioning System (BPS). Developed by the National Association of Broadcasters, BPS is a terrestrial navigation and timing technology that complements GPS, especially in areas where GPS is disrupted. Using the ATSC 3.0 standard, BPS transmits precise time-synchronized signals along with the exact location of its broadcast tower, forming a decentralized, robust network for measuring time and space.
• Advanced emergency information: During times of emergency, broadcasting’s HPHT infrastructure is far less likely to fail than mobile networks due to its robust construction, access to back-up power and resilience to network congestion. Public broadcasters have a long history of providing emergency alerting services. With ATSC 3.0, there is an opportunity to dramatically enhance the quality and reliability of emergency alerting in a community. By partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, emergency managers, first responders and news organizations, public broadcasters will play increasingly critical roles in distributing life-saving geo-targeted information: FEMA-generated emergency alerts; wall-to-wall news coverage about the event; zip code-specific details about where to access clean water, food and shelter; details about road closures and openings; and guidance about how to prepare for an emergency. In response to the need to improve communications for first responders, PBS North Carolina and its technology partners developed a way to deliver critical incident information to firefighters and EMS responders via mobile, handheld paging devices. Prototype development was funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the system was successfully tested in North Carolina in 2022.  
• Predictive broadcast systems: In 2023, Americans used over 100 trillion megabytes of wireless data, a 36% increase from the previous year. Mobile data traffic in North America is expected to roughly triple by 2029. To reduce costs and alleviate the associated strain on mobile networks, broadcasters have an opportunity to develop a hybrid Content Delivery Network (CDN) that combines Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and ATSC 3.0’s multicast capabilities. The concept of predictive broadcast applies Pareto’s Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, to streaming platforms, assuming 20% of content satisfies 80% of user demand. By leveraging a hybrid delivery model, the most popular content and software updates can be efficiently pre-delivered to devices in people’s homes, enhancing user satisfaction and optimizing network resources. This approach reduces latency and buffering while maximizing network efficiency. By prioritizing high-demand content, broadband service providers can partner with broadcasters to optimize network design, ensuring accessibility and alleviating network load. Given public television’s historic commitment to reaching rural communities, it is well positioned to offer these services. Unlike broadband, which has concentrated on highest density areas, public television has the infrastructure to bridge the digital divide in rural communities. 

These use cases are just the beginning of what would be possible with ATSC 3.0. As practitioners learn from experience, the range of opportunities will grow, deepening each public television station’s importance to its community. Content and data can either be streamed, such as for on-demand programs, or downloaded onto a wide variety of smart devices, including televisions, automobiles, mobile phones, agricultural equipment, home appliances, machinery and computers. These applications and those yet to emerge will enhance the value of public television’s service to local communities while opening new opportunities for revenue generation,providing  a “third leg” that balances continued public investment and philanthropy. 

Revenue models that are emerging for the ATSC 3.0-enabled services include:

• Public interest datacasting: Stations partnering with IEI on public interest datacasting have established a price for the spectrum that’s allocated for datacasting services and secured project management contracts with participating government agencies. Through partnerships with local foundations, they’ve also developed content production and licensing models that support education and public health uses of datacasting that deliver direct services within a community. One IEI project aims to decrease the incidents of preterm births by providing information about nutrition, health risk factors and prenatal care to expecting mothers who lack access to broadband. The potential for scaled investment from health insurers is significant: the median cost of a single preterm birth is $269,974.
• Broadcast Positioning System: The federal government spends $2 billion annually on GPS, which has become so central to the economy that a system shutdown would cost approximately $1 billion per day given the scope and scale of disruption. In light of recent space and satellite weapon developments from Russia and China, the FCC is seeking to establish alternative Position, Navigation and Timing options. This proceeding positions public television to deploy spectrum in ways that help secure national and commercial infrastructure and  generate new sources of revenue. 
• Advanced emergency information: As extreme weather events become more common, public television’s tested and resilient HPHT infrastructure will become increasingly valuable. The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority), an independent entity within the Department of Commerce, is projected to spend $8 billion over the next 10 years to establish a nationwide broadband network for public safety communications. With its more secure infrastructure, public television should be part of the solution, and it should earn new revenue for its contributions to public safety. 
• Predictive broadcast systems: The CDN market in the United States is estimated to generate $5 billion annually and is expected to grow 12.5% per year through 2030. Because public television spectrum is available in dense urban areas and rural parts of the country, it is well positioned to provide these services.  By dedicating a fraction of their  spectrum to deliver the most heavily consumed content to homes, public broadcasters can open a new, and potentially meaningful, passive revenue stream.

Public broadcasting has a long track record of piloting technology applications, such as podcasting, diginets and closed captioning, and activating network effects to achieve national scale. As early-adopter stations participate in these opportunities, others will begin to incorporate best practices in their own markets. As national network effects emerge, more service opportunities, and the revenues they can bring, will expand.

Community information networks

Technology is not a stand alone force. As we absorb its potential to expand services, we also must evolve the culture of public television stations and their roles within our communities. 

In the broadcast era, public television stations largely operated as a conduit for the delivery of PBS’ National Program Service, including programming from top producing stations such as GBH in Boston and WNET in New York City, into local homes. At most stations, modest levels of local or independently produced programs complement the national schedule. This means that public TV’s technical infrastructure is used primarily for the delivery of national programming for broadcast.

In the transition to ATSC 3.0 and the service opportunities described above, stations will  “open their pipes” to transmit content and data from other mission-aligned providers, including teachers and school districts, public health officials, local media organizations and public safety agencies. With their extra capacity for content delivery, public television stations will become more integrated into a network of organizations and agencies that collectively serve their communities’ information needs.

What if this spirit took hold and went even further? What if public media organizations — both radio and television — began to see themselves as distinctly positioned to become catalytic centers of thriving community information networks? In such a model, stations continue to create and deliver public media content while establishing partnership networks that collectively help to:

1. Identify the information needs of diverse, complex communities with a special attention to  gaps in either high quality content, accessibility or audience reach. 
2. Identify and elevate other “creators” who share a commitment to informing their communities on local issues that matter. These could include health providers, libraries, artists and arts organizations, educators, digital newsrooms and even entrepreneurs and local business owners and restaurateurs.
3. Promote and distribute the original content generated by other locally-based creators while also encouraging a proliferation of decentralized distribution channels to maximize audience reach and impact.
4. Enhance production and editorial quality, help establish norms and standards and cultivate the next generation of media-savvy leaders.
5. Empower other creators, and especially those entering the field, to balance base metrics like audience size or ad revenue with values-centered outcomes like quality, engagement, relevance and trust.

In other words, rather than contracting in relevance as the media marketplace evolves, public media stations would activate both their historic and emerging assets as invaluable and unique resources. 

This opportunity comes at a critical moment. The quality of information in local communities is under increasing threat from the loss of local news organizations, removal of fact-checking moderation by social media platforms and the rise of misinformation, disinformation and AI-generated content. This opens an entirely new opportunity for public media to embrace its local ownership and nonprofit mission and to redefine its impact beyond audience size. Instead of metrics based on audience reach and engagement, public media can build toward a broader measure of success — improving the overall quality of the information ecosystem in their communities.

This vision – integrated, networked, diversified, curious, open and multifaceted – is far closer to the needs of our communities than how most stations currently operate. But it is not an absolute break or deviation. Public radio’s contemporary music stations, like WXPN, KEXP and KUTX, model this approach through their relationships with local and emerging artists, record labels, music venues and festivals. These connections create a network effect for music discovery, enhance opportunities for local artists and support the local “music scene.” 

Public radio news stations are increasingly open to collaboration with other news entities, including digital-first public interest organizations. In the Twin Cities, Minnesota Public Radio helped shelter and seed the Sahan Journal, the nationally-celebrated nonprofit newsroom organization focused on  immigrant communities. 

The seeds of change exist, but they need to be nurtured. And quickly. 

To reposition their organizations as leaders in improving the quality of information in their communities, stations must work in ways that are external facing and deeply engaged across all aspects of their communities. This transformation requires an entrepreneurial spirit that embraces change, speed, local partnership and an openness to new workflows for content production and distribution. Some content will originate outside the station and will be datacast over the station’s spectrum; other types of content will never reach the station’s broadcast and digital channels, but will have been facilitated and improved through the network building described above. It will take the combination of each of these approaches to improve local information quality and access and to deepen the public broadcaster’s local relevance in this rapidly shifting media environment. 

To support these activities, new business models must evolve between public media and the local information ecosystem. One can imagine a range of partnerships between the public broadcasters and area creators, businesses and civic organizations that produce and disseminate information. Financial support will be built through membership, sponsorship, live events, government contracts, underwriting and philanthropy. As a first step, station leaders should begin the process of convening leaders and creators across the community to identify both production capacity and gaps in access to quality information. A broader plan for such engagement is included in the Appendix.

Today public television stations face both a stark and simple choice. They can cling to the  past broadcast-centered model — with its loyal but narrowing and aging audience and membership — or embrace a new range of services that are far better aligned with the evolving needs of their communities. 

Change is always difficult, even when compelled by market forces, but I am heartened by the local and national capacities of the public media system. Each station is local, independent and capable of its own decision making; yet it is also part of a national network that can support education, civic life and public safety at scale. Everyone who is ready to start down this path doesn’t have to wait for the entire network to change. The future is in our locally-governed hands.

Information Equity Initiative CEO Erik Langner has spent 20 years in national leadership roles in public broadcasting, including fifteen years at Public Media Company, where he structured dozens of mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships that raised several hundred million dollars to secure and expand public media spectrum and service for millions of Americans. Prior to dedicating himself to public media, Langner was a corporate attorney at Kirkland and Ellis in New York City and Latham and Watkins in San Francisco. 

Additional contributors include Mark Corl of the Advanced Television Systems Committee and Allan Hammershoj of mediathand, who contributed to the technical sections of this paper; Naiara Azpiri of IEI for her work to establish datacasting use cases; and Colin Hamilton for his role in creating the editorial vision for this paper.