Bill Bennett: “Last year Congress created the Public Television Station Digital Transition Grant Program within the U.S. Department of…”

“Last year Congress created the Public Television Station Digital Transition Grant Program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help public television continue broadcasting to rural America in the digital age. As with any first year program there are some fine points that need to be ironed out. I am concerned about potential inequities in the distribution of funds that may result from the grant competition. I support awarding grants to public television stations that provide a broadcast service to rural populations, regardless of the location of their main transmitter. If a public television station's digital transmitter serves less than 500,000 people it should be considered rural and automatically given the highest score for rurality. The Department's use of Per capita Income, PCI, as a factor in determining an applicant's score is appropriate. However, I encourage the Department to weight PCI by population. Unless a score is weighted by population, it may result in an inequitable score if a small portion of the coverage area reaches an enclave of higher income viewers. Highest priority should be given to rurality and critical need in scoring applications. The weighted PCI score should not exceed 15 percent of the total score. Furthermore, I believe that it would be beneficial for the Department to consult with public televisions stations through their national trade organization to assess the critical needs of the stations.”