Public TV has to come up with creative ways now to benefit from a...

(APTS) is working on the details of a proposal for PTV stations to embrace a hard date for analog switch off in return for the creation of a public broadcasting trust fund from the proceeds of the spectrum auction. “If we can do this, we have to find creative ways to do it now… and to benefit we have to make sure that we get something considerable out of that,” Norman Ornstein said in a legislative update to the board. He said Sen. Hollings (D-S.C.) would soon introduce a bill that “puts into play this notion of early spectrum return” for a public broadcasting trust fund. Ornstein, an American Enterprise Institute resident scholar representing Md. PTV, said based on recent spectrum auctions, the analog spectrum controlled by PTV was worth $70 billion. Former FCC Chief Economist Thomas Hazlett had estimated that based on the social value of wireless phone services, the TV band was worth more than $500 billion at $300 million a station, he said. But these figures are all speculative, he cautioned. The Media Bureau plan that would expedite return of the analog spectrum is provoking a lot of serious discussion on Capitol Hill and at the FCC, he said. The Dept. of Homeland Security is also interested in public TV’s analog return plans, he said. In a “lengthy” meeting with Secy. Tom Ridge last month, Ornstein said he had told him that PTV’s plan would help solve the Dept.’s problem of getting spectrum for public safety and security uses: “We are also working on partnerships on homeland security and public safety.” PBS Pres. Pat Mitchell, who has been advocating a different funding model for PTV, said APTS and PBS were exploring “this window of opportunity that now exists about a new funding model for public broadcasting.” She said Ridge “really appreciated” the opportunity to work with public TV on homeland security issues. She said Powell told her at a meeting to discuss PTV’s analog switch off plan that “we have only a small window of opportunity here. It is getting shorter. We want to help you guys to figure out how to use it best.” Much was made at the board meeting of the changed attitudes of lawmakers at a recent hearing on CPB appropriations by the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee. Mitchell characterized it as the “most positive, upbeat” hearing. Ornstein said that unlike in the past, when “we had taken flak from members… especially on issues of bias,” the hearing turned out to be “extraordinarily positive.” Part of the reason, he said, was the heat the commercial broadcasters were taking over indecency. He said public broadcasters could benefit from this ruckus -- but they must ensure that they had no wardrobe malfunction of their own.