TELECOMMUNICATIONS ISSUES
Since 1966,
when the Foundation filed comments with the Federal Communications
Commission on domestic communications satellites, it has maintained
an interest in the possibility of a satellite system to transmit
public television either free or at drastically reduced cost. The
Foundation's efforts helped establish a limited land-line
interconnection. The rates are below those charged commercial
broadcasters, but the interconnection still is
expensive—about $1 million a year. This year, in response to
the FCC's request for public comment, McGeorge Bundy, president of
the Foundation, wrote to the FCC in support of the comments of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting
Service urging extension of low-cost public broadcasting
interconnection via satellite. CPB and PBS jointly petitioned the
FCC to grant noncommercial television free full-time use of two
satellite channels and the use of additional channels as necessary.
A Foundation grant of $50,000, matched by CPB, contributed to the
costs of economic and technical consultants to prepare for
participation in the FCC proceedings.
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The
Foundation also filed comments with the FCC on cable television.
This followed presentation to the Commission last year of four
Foundation-sponsored studies prepared by the Rand Corporation. The
Foundation's statement recommended that the Commission support and
promote non-profit public-interest ownership of cable television.
Specifically, the Foundation urged the FCC to require cities to
give preference in awarding franchises to competitive applications
from public television stations, universities, libraries, community
groups, and other nonprofit organizations over commercial
applicants. Among the public services possible via cable television
are job training programs, coverage of local meetings, and
broadcasts of neighborhood cultural events. Cable TV is also
capable of two-way communications for traffic and fire control and
for the delivery of social service information. The Foundation's
remarks, in effect, proposed a "people's dividend" from cable
television technology as suggested earlier for satellite
technology.