PTV stations will commit one multicast digital channel for formal...

PTV stations will commit one multicast digital channel for formal education services in exchange of greater federal funding for digital conversion under new strategy approved by APTS board April 1. PTV stations would offer equivalent of one multicast digital channel -- average data rate of 4.5 Mbps -- for formal educational services such as K-12, college telecourses and workforce training. They will also commit to providing broadband data services for educational purposes and educate viewers about benefits of digital broadcasting services. In exchange for wireless broadband digital capacity valued at $2.4 billion year, APTS will seek federal funding of $699 million over 5 years out of total estimated transition cost of $1.8 billion. As part of deal, PTV stations also would get cable carriage of PTV signals during transition and carriage of all DTV multicast streams. Calling it “2-pot” strategy, new APTS Pres. John Lawson said it consisted of getting “what you can out of PTFP [Public Telecom Facilities Program] but also getting what you can out of the CPB appropriations.” Explaining rationale behind move, Lawson told board that problem with PTFP funding was that “committee that funds Dept. of Commerce that PTFP is now under never has the kind of funding final authority that the committee that funds CPB has. We have gone to Capitol Hill 3 times now without success in getting an authorization for more funds.” He said among few areas of growth in Bush Administration budget request to Congress was education funding, which is under Labor-HHS subcommittees. “That where the money is.” Saying that APTS needed to calibrate its strategy to reflect interests in Congress, he said one major area of interest was use of technology for teaching or learning. “There is a major ramp-up in federal outlays for education technologies,” he said.