The Latest Perils of PBS

By Gerald Clarke

Will a plan for pay TV shows save public broadcasting?

Since it was established twelve years ago, public television has lurched from one crisis to another. Each time it has not only survived but also emerged stronger than before, with better programming and more viewers. Now, however, public TV is confronted with a double threat: drastic budget cutbacks by the Reagan Administration and competition from rapidly proliferating private cable systems that are scouring the market for cultural programs. Last week the board of the Public Broadcasting Service voted to counter both with a bold and perhaps desperate plan: a profit-making pay TV system of its own.

The Public Subscriber Network, as it would be known, would charge customers an average $10 to $13 a month, beginning in 1983. It would offer up to three hours each night of high-class entertainment, such as plays and operas, which would be broadcast free over the PBS system, probably many months later. Subscribers would be served, and so would the arts groups, which would receive a share of the profits. But the key point of the plan is that a bigger share would go to PBS and its stations, which would then have an assured income safe from the whims of fickle politicians. If all goes well and 1,225,000 households subscribe, the public system could be grossing more than $158 million by 1990.

Many of the 283 stations in the PBS system look upon the plan as a salvation. Inflation has raised production costs, government at all levels is stingier than it was, and corporate underwriters like the big oil companies say they are giving as much as they can. "Pay public television is unquestionably going to happen," says Tony Tiano, general manager of San Francisco's KQED. "And it's going to happen sooner rather than later." Says Ward Chamberlin, president of Washington's WETA: "The Reagan cuts are a sign that we had damned well better get ready to be self-reliant."

Many other stations, however, are just as firmly convinced that PBS President Lawrence Grossman, who sponsored the plan, has made serious mistakes in both math and logic. "The projected revenues are not realistic," complains Lloyd Kaiser, president of Pittsburgh's WQED. "They will add up to a very small amount of money for each station." John J. Iselin of New York's Channel 13 says that PBS might well have to borrow $100 million from banks and insurance companies just to set up the new venture. Even a supporter of the proposal like WETA's Chamberlin is concerned that PBS might be competing against itself and that people who pay for the subscriber network may no longer be interested in PBS'S free programming.

Individual supporters now contribute $71.6 million to public TV. Many of them might stop giving if they signed up as subscribers. "It's an enormous undertaking," says Grossman, acknowledging the criticism, "and I knew that there would be questions."

Still, the Reagan Administration's proposed 25% cut in federal money for public TV and radio--$43 million out of $172 million--makes some such money-making scheme almost mandatory. Even before the election. PBS and local stations had been looking for new funds. PBS now makes $1 million a year by renting out time on its transmitting satellite; five local stations hope to make money soon on their new program magazine, the Dial, which has won all challenges to its nonprofit status. Chicago's WTTW is already making more than $300,000 a year on one of its subsidiaries, Chicago magazine. In addition, stations are leasing studio space to private producers, selling video cassettes of popular shows and pushing sales to foreign markets. They are even examining the possibilities, both legal and ethical, of allowing sponsors to cluster ads between programs--thus taking the "non" out of noncommercial TV. In short, they will do almost anything the law allows to make a buck and stay in business.

Already, there have been cutbacks and layoffs at some stations. Boston's WGBH, which produces some of PBS's best programs, such as Nova and World, last year laid off 108 people, almost a quarter of its staff. At KQED in San Francisco, news was dropped altogether when 35 people, 16% of the staff, were let go.

Some systems, which are primarily educational and receive most of their money from state legislatures (North and South Carolina are good examples), will survive federal cuts. So will big-city stations that have large and loyal followings. "We base our success on our viewers," says William McCarter, president of WTTW. But small stations that are much more dependent on money from Washington will be severely hurt by the Reagan slices. "A 25% cut won't put us out of business, but it will seriously cripple us," says St. Clair Adams, general manager of little KEET in Eureka, Calif.

Ironically, a $150 million gift to public TV and radio from Publisher Walter Annenberg (TV Guide, Seventeen), announced less than two weeks ago. will do little to bail out PBS. Annenberg's money, spread over 15 years, will finance the production of a PBS program of college-level courses, but it will not subsidize regular programming. Some Congressmen assume that Annenberg's gift will do precisely that, however, and are now asking public TV executives, "What do you need our money for?"

Obviously, there is a great deal of confusion in both Congress and the Administration about what public TV is and should be. It is far from perfect, certainly, but it does accomplish what it was intended to do: provide an alternative to the general dreariness of the commercial networks. If the Reagan budget cuts go through and new money is not found, the system will begin to shrink, and eventually could disappear. Warns WGBH's general manager Henry Becton: "In two years public television could be a pale shadow of what it was--with nothing to replace it." --By Gerald Clarke.

Reported by Dorothy Forenbaugh/New York and Susan Schindehette/Washington

With reporting by Dorothy Forenbaugh/New York, Susan Schindehette/Washington

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