.svg) Final logo used from 2000 to 2026 | |
| Company type | Private,non-profit[1][2] |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founded | November 7, 1967; 58 years ago (1967-11-07) |
| Founders | |
| Defunct | January 5, 2026; 44 days ago (2026-01-05) |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Patricia Harrison (president &CEO) |
| Revenue | 582,013,746 United States dollar (2023)  |
| Total assets | 330,483,332 United States dollar (2023) |
Number of employees | ≈100[citation needed] |
| Website | cpb.org at theWayback Machine (archived February 2, 2026) |
TheCorporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB; stylized in all lowercase ascpb) was an Americannon-profit corporation created under thePublic Broadcasting Act of 1967 to promote and help supportpublic broadcasting in the United States.[3][4] The corporation's mission was to ensure universal access tonon-commercial, high-quality educational, cultural, and other content and telecommunications services.[5]
The CPB received annual funding fromCongress from 1967 to 2025. As of 2015, it had distributed more than 70 percent of its funding to more than 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations,[6] includingPBS andNPR stations. In particular, CPB funding was a key part of small and rural public media station budgets.[7]
Following the end ofU.S. federal government funding, the CPB announced in August 2025 that it would cease operations in January 2026. Most of its staff departed following the end of the fiscal year on September 30; a small team remained until January to "focus on compliance, fiscal distributions, and resolution of long-term financial obligations."[8] On January 5, 2026, the CPB board of directors voted to dissolve the corporation entirely.[9][10]
The CPB's annual budget was composed almost entirely of an annual appropriation from Congress plus interest on those funds. Under the establishing law, no more than 5% of the appropriation may be used for administrative expenses. CPB allocated the funds to content development, community services, and other local station and system needs.[11]
For fiscal year 2025[update], its operating budget included US$535 million of federal appropriation and $10 million in interest revenue. Its budgeted expenses were as follows:[12]
Public broadcasting stations from the CPB were funded by a combination of private donations from listeners and viewers, foundations and corporations, as well as government sources from 1967 to 2025. Funding for public television in 2013 came in roughly equal parts from government (at all levels) and the private sector.[13]
Stations that received CPB funds were required to meet certain standards, including open meetings, open financial records, a community advisory board, equal employment opportunity, and public lists of donors and political activities.[14]
A 2007Government Accountability Office (GAO) report and 2025Congressional Research Service (CRS) report both found that public broadcasting stations in smaller and rural media markets had a greater dependence on federal funding.[15][16] In 2023, rural stations received 45% of the CPB appropriation, while CPB grants accounted for at least 25% of station revenue for at least half of rural stations and more than 50% of revenue for some stations.[17][18] A 2011 FCC report noted that less than one-fourth of funds disbursed through grants by the CPB to public broadcasters were used for programming while the overwhelming majority was used for support of stationinfrastructure.[19]
After administrative costs and system support programs, the 2025 CRS report noted that the entire federal appropriation to the CPB was used to provide grants to qualifying public broadcasting stations and program producers.[20] The Public Broadcasting Act prohibits the CPB from owning or operating stations,[21][22] and from producing, scheduling, or distributing programming.[23][24] As PBS and NPR were incorporated as station-ownedmembership organizations,[25] PBS and NPR received only a small fraction of their total revenue from the CPB directly, with 16% and 1% respectively of their total revenue coming directly from all federal sources in total and the majority coming from member stations, distribution revenue and services,corporate underwriting and institutional support, and individual contributions.[26] PBS and NPR member stations are owned and operated bycolleges and universities,public school districts, other private non-profit corporations, orstate government agencies.[27] Along with the 2007 GAO report about public television specifically,[28] the 2025 CRS report noted that while NPR was authorized to produce programming for its member stations, programming included in the PBS National Programming Service (NPS) was not produced by PBS itself but by its member stations, external production companies, and independent producers, and PBS and NPR member stations retain ultimateeditorial control over which programming from the NPS and NPR they wish to broadcast.[29]
Public television stations participate in theEmergency Alert System (which includesAmber alerts) and the pilot program for theDigital Emergency Alert System.[30][31] The CPB was the sole eligible recipient of funding through the Next Generation Warning System Grant Program within theIntegrated Public Alert and Warning System.[32]
U.S. government funding of the CPB ceased in 2025, and the corporation shut down operations by January 2026.[8]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: history between 1970 and 2002. You can help byadding missing information.(August 2025) |
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created on November 7, 1967, when U.S. presidentLyndon B. Johnson signed thePublic Broadcasting Act of 1967 (PBA).
The new organization initially collaborated with theNational Educational Television network (NET), which would be replaced by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Ward Chamberlin Jr. was the first operating officer.[33] On March 27, 1968, it was registered as a nonprofit corporation in the District of Columbia.[34] In 1969, the CPB talked to private groups to start PBS, an entity intended by the CPB to circumvent controversies engendered by certain NET public affairs programs that aired in the late 1960s and engendered opposition by politicallyconservative public figures, potentially threatening the medium's future viability.[35][vague] President Nixon was well known for his dislike of PBS and the CPB and wanted to kill the congressional funding for it.[36]
On February 26, 1970, the CPB formed National Public Radio (NPR), anetwork of public-radio stations that began operating the following year. Unlike PBS, NPR producesand distributes programming.[34]
.svg)
.svg)
Under the Public Broadcasting Act, the congressional declaration of policy stated that it was in thepublic interest for the CPB to facilitate the development ofeducational,cultural, and other programming not provided by commercial broadcasters, as well as programming for audiences that were unserved or underserved by commercial broadcasters.[37][38][39] The House and Senate reports that accompanied the PBA as a bill suggested that such programming was not provided by commercial broadcasters due tomarket failure, and that by providingseed funding throughfederal grants administered by the CPB, public broadcasters would contribute to a better-informed citizenry through high-quality national and local programming.[40][41] Under theRadio Act of 1927 and theCommunications Act of 1934, Congress had established thatbroadcast licensees did not own theradio frequency assigned to them and that theradio spectrum as a whole belonged to the public, and as such, broadcasters were required to serve the public interest in order to receive a license.[42][43] In 1929, theFederal Radio Commission issued a regulatory ruling that held that broadcasters were expected to provide a balanced program schedule that included programming for "education and instruction, important public events, discussions of public questions… and news".[44]
In 1939, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) required all radio stations tolocate their main offices and studios in the community they were licensed to serve.[45] In 1946, the FCC issued itsPublic Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees report that recommended that stations produce programming of local interest and to determine such programming through a community ascertainment process.[46] In 1949, the FCC promulgated thefairness doctrine which required broadcasters to present programming that covered controversial issues of public importance with the opportunity for contrasting viewpoints to be aired.[47][48][49] In 1960, the FCC issued a policy statement that listed 14 categories of programming considered necessary for a station to be operating in the public interest which included educational programs, public affairs programs, and news programs.[44] However, out of more than 100,000 broadcast license renewal applications from 1934 through 2011, the FCC only rejected four renewal applications in total for failure to meet the agency's public interest programming obligations, last did so in 1980, and only once before the PBA was passed.[50] Also, a 1979General Accounting Office (GAO) report estimated that even though the FCC only took preliminary action on 2 to 3 percent of the approximately 5,000 fairness doctrine complaints it received annually (with only 15 to 20 per year in total resulting in any adverse finding for licensees), many broadcasters would avoid presenting controversial public issues altogether to avoid sanctions or risk losing a license.[51][49][47]
In 2011, the FCC issued a report that concluded that growth in the number of media outlets in the United States fromsatellite radio andtelevision, cable television, and theinternet had not offsetreductions in local news reporting withpublic interest,civics, orinvestigative journalism coverage caused by thedecline of newspapers and local news inradio broadcasting.[52] Whilelocal television stations werebroadcasting a greater total number of news hours and had become some of the largest providers of local news online, most coverage was ofcrime and courthouses,accidents and disasters, andhuman interest topics while thedepth and quantity of public interest, civics, and investigative journalism coverage declined, andbroadcast andinternet news media remained heavily reliant on reporting about the latter topics from the declining number of newspapers throughfair use exemptions incopyright law.[53][54] However, even though total advertising spending in the United States had shifted to television and cable from newspapers by the 1990s, the 2011 FCC report noted that local television stations were also seeing declining newsroom staffing alongside newspapers, with some stations outsourcing, reducing, or ending their local news programming and more frequently in smallermedia markets.[55]
Also, the total number of localcable news channels nationally was not growing (and possibly declining in some regions) since most channels were only attempting tobreak-even rather than beprofitable and most cable operators did not invest in local cable news channels and had no plans to do so.[56] Conversely, the 2011 FCC report noted that two-fifths of public radio listening hours was for news, 185 NPR member stations used anall-news format (with another 480 featuring news as part of mixed programming format), and the number of NPR member stations featuring local news had increased to 681 in 2009.[57] One-third of all NPR programming was locally produced while less than 15% of the news andpublic affairs programming on commercialnews/talk radio was local programming.[58] A 2017Congressional Research Service (CRS) report noted that 90 percent of public radio stations provided local newscasts and about half carried local news on weekends.[59] While the 2011 FCC report noted that the news and public affairs programming of public television was mostly national programming, PBS programming was noted to provide greater in-depth coverage andjournalistic documentaries than commercial television.[60]
The 2011 FCC report also noted that NPR had 17international bureaus and a greater number offoreign correspondents thanNBC,CBS,Fox News, orMSNBC,[61] and thatchildren's programming on cable television was dominated by entertainment programming while educational programming for children remained chiefly provided by public television.[62] When surveyed by the GAO in reports released in 2004 and 2007, majorities of public television licensees expressed the view that they did not produce enough local programming to serve the needs of their communities due to a lack of funds and that cutting the CPB appropriation would lead to a reduction in local programming.[63][64] In light of various changes inconsumer preferences and market dynamics in the news industry,[65][66] a 2023 GAO report suggested along with the 2011 FCC report that local public interest journalism is at risk of market failure due to having thenon-excludable andnon-rivalrous features of apublic good that generatespositive externalities and is vulnerable tofree riding.[67][68] Along with other policy proposals,[69] the 2023 GAO report suggested increasing the federal CPB appropriation to address the market failure.[70]
On May 31, 2002, the CPB, through special appropriation funding, helped public television stations making the transition to digital broadcasting; this was complete by 2009.[34]
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 requires the CPB to operate with a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature".[71] It also requires it to regularly review national programming for objectivity and balance, and to report on "its efforts to address concerns about objectivity and balance". In 2004 and 2005, people from PBS and NPR complained that the CPB was starting to push aconservative agenda.[72][73] Board members replied that they were merely seeking balance.
Kenneth Tomlinson, chair of the CPB board from September 2003 until September 2005, angered PBS and NPR supporters by unilaterally commissioning a conservative colleague to conduct a study of alleged bias in the PBS showNOW with Bill Moyers, and by appointing two conservatives as CPB Ombudsmen.[74] On November 3, 2005, Tomlinson resigned from the board, prompted by a report of his tenure by the CPB Inspector General, Kenneth Konz, requested by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The report stated:
We found evidence that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) former Chairman violated statutory provisions and the Director's Code of Ethics by dealing directly with one of the creators of a new public affairs program during negotiations with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the CPB over creating the show. Our review also found evidence that suggests "political tests" were a major criteria [sic] used by the former Chairman in recruiting a President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for CPB, which violated statutory prohibitions against such practices.[75]
In 2011,Paul Ryan'sThe Path to Prosperity budget passed in the House of Representatives, which would have completely eliminated the CPB.[76] After Senate reconciliation, CPB funding was restored, although a 49-year-old grant program for public television, the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, was eliminated, and a one-time recession payment to CPB was not renewed.[77]
In 2017, thefirst Trump administration again attempted to eliminate the CPB.[78] In 2019 and again in 2020, Trump attempted to cut CPB funding by more than 90%.[79] Neither of these threats survived Congressional review.
In July 2023, the appropriations bill for FY 2024 included no money for CPB when it passed out of theUS House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.[80][81] However, the corresponding bill considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee planned to continue funding for the CPB, though at 7 percent less than what President Biden requested.[82]
Executive Order 14290, titled "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media", is anexecutive order signed by U.S. presidentDonald Trump on May 1, 2025 to end federal funding forNPR (a radio network) andPBS (a television network) by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and by federal agencies, alleging biased news coverage in violation of thePublic Broadcasting Act of 1967 (PBA) and that public funding for news programming was "not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence" in the currentU.S. media market.[83][84][85]
CPB, PBS, and NPR executives issued press releases arguing that the executive order was unlawful under the PBA and that the organizations would explore how to continue providing programming while challenging the order.[86][84][87] On May 27, NPR and three public radio stations sued the Trump administration for ending their federal funding under the executive order, citing it as a violation of theFirst Amendment.[88][89][90] On May 30, PBS sued the Trump administration for ending their federal funding under the executive order.[91][92][93]
Before the executive order was issued, the CPB filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on April 28 after Trump attempted to fire three of the five members of the CPB'sboard of directors,[94][95] while the CPB also filed a lawsuit against theFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in March 2025 for halting their funding under the Next Generation Warning System Grant Program within theIntegrated Public Alert and Warning System.[96][32][97]
FEMA released the funds on April 24.[98][99] On June 8,District of Columbia U.S. District Court JudgeRandolph Moss ruled against apreliminary injunction requested by the CPB in its lawsuit against the attempted director removals since the CPB changed itsby-laws afterward under the District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act to prevent any authority, including the President of the United States, from removing a director without a two-thirds vote of the other directors, which allowed for the directors to keep their positions.[100][101][102] On July 15, the Trump administration filed a separate lawsuit to remove the same CPB directors.[103][104]
On June 3, President Trump filed a request for arescission bill that included the congressional appropriation for the CPB.[105][106][107] The next day,Office of Management and Budget DirectorRussell Vought testified before theHouse Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on the rescission request and the administration's 2026fiscal year budget request.[108][109] Before the rescission request, PBS CEOPaula Kerger, NPR CEOKatherine Maher, and the CEO ofAlaska Public Media testified on March 26 before theHouse Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency about the CPB appropriation, thejournalistic standards and allegedbias of the organizations, and public broadcasting'seducational programming and participation in emergency alert systems inrural areas.[110][111] On June 6,House Majority LeaderSteve Scalise introduced a rescission bill including the CPB appropriation in theHouse of Representatives.[112]
The House passed the bill on June 12 alongparty lines by a vote of 214 to 212.[118] On June 25, Vought testified before theSenate Appropriations Committee on the rescission bill.[119][120][121] The Senate received the House bill on July 10 and it was referred to the Appropriations andBudget Committees.[122] On July 15, the Senate passedmotions todischarge the House bill from the Appropriations and Budget Committees and to proceed to debate with Vice PresidentJD Vance castingtie-breaking votes on each motion.[123][124][125] In the morning of July 17, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 51 to 48 and with an amendment, requiring the bill to be transmitted back to the House for a second vote.[126][127][128] The House approved the amended bill after midnight on July 18 by a vote of 216 to 213.[129][130][131] President Trump signed the bill into law on July 24.[132]
Critics of the rescission bill, such as Nevada U.S. RepresentativeMark Amodei and New York U.S. RepresentativeDan Goldman, noted that the CPB appropriation amounted to less than 0.01% (1/10,000) of theU.S. federal budget.[133] Polls conducted byYouGov from 2022 through 2025 showed PBS and NPR to be among the most trusted media institutions in the United States and that trust in PBS and NPR was growing,[134][139] while five surveys conducted by YouGov and thePew Research Center from February through July 2025 found consistent majorities or pluralities of Americans supported continuing federal funding for PBS and NPR.[145] Previously, in every year from 2004 through 2021, surveys of Americans had shown PBS to have been consistently ranked as the most trusted institution in comparison tocommercial broadcast andcable television,newspapers, andstreaming services, and in January 2021, Americans valued tax dollars spent on PBS behind onlymilitary defense andoversight of food and drug safety.[146]
After the passage of the rescission bill, the CPB announced on August 1, 2025, that it would lay off the majority of its staff by the end of the fiscal year on September 30, with only askeleton crew staying on board until January 2026 to distribute any remaining funds and royalties.[147][148][149] On January 5, 2026, the board of the CPB announced that it had voted to dissolve instead of remaining in a defunded state that could be exploited.[150]
The CPB was governed by a nominally nine-memberboard of directors selected by the president of the United States and confirmed by theSenate; they served six-year terms, and were allowed to continue serving until the end of the calendar year that their term ends or until their successor was seated on the board.[71] Under the terms of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, the president could not appoint persons of the same political party to more than five of the nine CPB board seats.[71] The final board had only three members.
The Board of Directors governed the CPB, set policy, and established programming priorities. The Board appointed the president and chief executive officer, who then named the other corporate officers.[151]
The CPB board as of April 10, 2025[update] was:[151]
| Position | Name | Party | Appointed by (year of confirmation) | Took office | Term expired |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chair | Ruby Calvert | Republican | Donald Trump (2018),Joe Biden (2022) | May 24, 2018 | Upon CPB's shutdown |
| Member | Elizabeth Sembler | Republican | George W. Bush (2008),Barack Obama (2014),Joe Biden (2022) | October 2, 2008 | |
| Member | Diane Kaplan | Democratic | Joe Biden (2022) | December 20, 2022 | |
| Member | Vacant | ||||
| Member | Vacant | ||||
| Member | Vacant | ||||
| Member | Vacant | ||||
| Member | Vacant | ||||
| Member | Vacant |
{{cite news}}:|last2= has generic name (help)| Documentaries |
|  |
|---|---|---|
| Drama |
| |
| Music and fine arts |
| |
| History |
| |
| News and public affairs |
| |
| Personalities | ||
| How-to and special interest |
| |
| Science and nature | ||
| Networks | ||
| Major stations |
| |
| Former |
| |
| Related | ||
| ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
