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They're already losing congressional funding, and are constantly under threat of all govt funding being pulled. How real that threat is - not sure in all cases, but there's always a lot of posturing on the issue.

I'll posture a bit and say I'd like to see public funding of the airwaves in the US - radio and tv - continue.




Why not just mandate cable providers pick up a small portion of the tab instead of going through the Federal government? FCC could make this happen over-night, in relative terms.


Why not just mandate citizens donate a small portion of their income to charity instead of getting federal funding? The IRS could make this happen over-night, in relative terms.


That's actually kind of what is happening in the United Kingdom. Television owners are required by law to pay a so called 'TV Licence' which is mostly spent on funding the BBC.

I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or not but the fact is that the BBC is simply the best public service broadcaster in the world and they achieve that without any commercials (in the UK) at all.


You can even volunteer to pay your TV tax for internet streaming.


not outside the UK, from what I understand. I'd love to pay a tv tax to get all UK programming. As it stands, we have to use torrents. :/


There's already significant tax benefits for doing this, so the IRS is as much as doing that.


> I'll posture a bit and say I'd like to see public funding of the airwaves in the US - radio and tv - continue.

I'll posture a bit and say that I'd like to have you pay for the things that I like instead of the reverse. (Don't tell me how little it is unless you're cutting me a check for that amount.)




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