Public Media & Federal Funding

1. Sign up for alerts from Protect My Public Media. This trusted national organization is working to support public media nationwide.
   
2. Share your love for Nebraska Public Media with your friends and neighbors.
   Follow Nebraska Public Media and share our posts. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn. Talk about your favorite public media services and shows using #protectmypublicmedia and #viewerslikeme.
   
3. Donate to Nebraska Public Media.
   Federal funds are vital to the long-term health of public media here in Nebraska and nationwide. However, donations from our viewers and listeners like you are an important part of our base of support. Each year, Nebraska Public Media has a fundraising goal to supplement our federal, state and University appropriations, creating a unique public media partnership. Your donations are always gratefully accepted and will help us meet our goal for this year, or get a jump on next year’s budget. Thank you for supporting our work across the state.

On May 1, an executive order was issued that restricts the ability for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to provide federal funds either directly or indirectly to PBS and NPR and places restrictions on how local stations like Nebraska Public Media spend their federal allocations.

CPB is the private nonprofit set up by Congress to receive and distribute the federal funds that go to public media. Most of the federal funding that CPB receives goes directly to local stations like Nebraska Public Media.

We are still evaluating the full impact of this order.

We are proud of our ability to make independent and locally focused decisions about the programming and resources we provide to Nebraskans. We have a strong local-national content mix, where shows celebrating Nebraska live alongside valued national programming from PBS and NPR.

Federal funds represent nearly 16% of our budget. This order seeks to restrict how we can spend our programming dollars.

Public media stations currently cover nearly 99% of the country. Any restrictions on how funds are spent would put universal access—the core mission of public media at risk.

Many small and predominantly rural stations rely heavily on federal dollars to provide both the local and national services that people love, while also leveraging our broadcast infrastructure for essential public safety services. Restrictions on how stations can spend their budget would be devastating and would likely cause some stations to close. This would create gaps in media coverage and the ability to keep the country safe.

Federal dollars also power our valued PBS KIDS programming and educational resources provided through PBS LearningMedia. Restrictions on funds will jeopardize access for the children, parents and educators who rely on these services.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. CPB strives to support programs and services that inform, educate, and enrich the public. CPB is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting and the largest single source of funding for public radio, television and related online and mobile services.

CPB is dedicated to ensuring universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services. More than 70% of CPB’s funding is distributed to the more than 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations around the country, including Nebraska Public Media.

CPB does not own, operate or control any of the local public broadcasting stations. CPB, PBS and NPR are three independent organizations.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s federal appropriation for fiscal year 2025 was $535 million. Federal funding of public media is less than 0.01% of the total federal budget, or approximately $1.60 per person per year. This critical seed money is maximized locally to provide essential public services, including children’s educational content and community resources, lifesaving public safety services, and content and services that help engage communities and contribute to a stronger, more connected society.

Public media is facing multiple serious threats in addition to this executive order. On April 14, The White House announced its intention to send a rescission request to Congress sometime this spring.

A rescission package is a rarely used method to cut federal spending. It is a request from the Administration to eliminate federal funding that has already been approved by Congress.

The exact timing and contents of the request are not yet known. The Administration has indicated it will likely eliminate the previously approved FY26 and 27 funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which is funded two years in advance.

The formal delivery of the request starts a 45-day countdown for Congress to review and vote on the proposal. During this time, the Administration can temporarily withhold any funding included in the plan.

The House and the Senate can pass the package with a simple majority. Congress also has the option to change what’s included in the request.

If Congress does not get enough votes to pass the plan or chooses not to act on it, the funding must be released after 45 days.

Public media is facing multiple serious threats.

The executive order seeks to restrict direct funding to PBS and NPR and how stations use federal funding they receive from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It does not eliminate federal funds to public media. However, there has been talk of a future proposal that could seek to eliminate funding previously allocated by Congress and future federal funding for public media overall.

Any potential loss of federal funds could impact the breadth and depth of our service to the state. We are proud of all that we are able to offer Nebraskans, but our local service is not possible without a robust national system around it.

Locally, eliminating federal funding may jeopardize the services we provide, such as:

• Valuable storytelling that documents Nebraska history, arts, culture and ingenuity as featured on television and radio through programs like Nebraska Stories, Friday LIVE, What If…, JAM and Once Again.
• Our 24-hour radio service offering a mix of music, culture, national news from NPR and local reporting from our team of journalists. Our award-winning reporters produce nearly 1,000 stories per year, including daily reports from the yearly legislative session that keep Nebraskans informed.
• Our more than 200 hours of live broadcasts and streams of high school, college and professional sports, including NSAA high school championships, college sports from the University of Nebraska and Creighton, and professional volleyball from the Omaha Supernovas.
• Trusted educational events and professional development opportunities that prepare all children for success in school and support educators, parents and caregivers. In fiscal year 2023-24, we engaged more than 800 children and families in 20 local communities in intergenerational learning with our Nebraska Public Media and PBS KIDS educational resources.
• Essential emergency alerts and other public safety services that keep Nebraskans safe. In one year, we issued 178 regional tornado warnings on our network of FM radio transmitters. We also issue Amber Alerts across the state.

A significant cut or elimination of federal funding would critically damage public broadcasting as we know it today. It would be a serious threat to the existence of local public media stations, which then puts all of our programming and services at risk.

• These cuts will have an outsized impact on small stations in rural communities that rely heavily on federal funding to operate, putting the core mission of public broadcasting to be accessible to all at risk.
• It will disrupt the pipeline for trusted reporting that connects Nebraska to the nation and the nation to Nebraska through Morning Edition, All Things Considered and PBS NewsHour.
• It will damage the creation and distribution of valued programs that inform, educate and entertain such as Masterpiece, FRONTLINE, NOVA, NATURE, Finding Your Roots, Antiques Roadshow and more.
• It will reduce the ability to offer free, educational media resources and valued PBS KIDS series such as Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Wild Kratts and Odd Squad – all supported by federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Nebraska Public Media is funded with a mix of public and private funds. Our revenue sources are public funds through federal, state and University of Nebraska appropriations; private funds from individual donations, grants, contracts and underwriting; and self-generated funds.

In the 2023-24 fiscal year, 43.7% of our funds came through state appropriations, 15.7% through federal community service grants, 7.2% through University appropriations, 28.3% through private funds and 5.1% through self-generated funds.

In the 2023-24 fiscal year, 15.7% of Nebraska Public Media’s annual budget, or approximately $4 million, came from federal community service grants. These funds come through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the private nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress to receive federal funds and distribute them to support public broadcasting.

Federal dollars are essential for local public media stations’ ability to provide all Americans in communities across the country with public safety partnerships, educational services and homegrown programming, everywhere, every day, for free.

For over two decades, the American public has ranked public broadcasting as one of the best investments that federal government makes. Federal funding of public media amounts to less than 0.01% of the total federal budget, about $1.60 per person per year. Public media stations cover nearly 99% of the country.

• Public media serves as a safety net, addressing gaps where for-profit outlets cannot operate sustainably, such as in rural and underserved areas.
• More than 70% of federal funds go directly to local stations. As trusted community partners, local stations use the federal investment to provide essential local public services in public safety and education and address unique local needs.
• Local stations leverage each $1 of federal funding to raise nearly $7 from other sources in a highly efficient public-private partnership.

Here in Nebraska, we invest in local journalism and offer gavel-to-gavel coverage of the state legislature; devote over 200 hours per year to broadcasting local sports; produce shows that elevate and celebrate Nebraska’s music, culture, history and ingenuity; develop excellent education programming to children, parents and educators; and provide life-saving emergency alerts and public safety infrastructure.