Church groups fail in attempts to buy Calif., Florida PBS stations

Religious broadcasters' plans to buy PBS stations in California and Florida have been blocked, one at an auction and the other by the seller cancelling the transaction. KCSM-TV, a PBS station serving the San Francisco Bay Area, is in financial difficulty and was put up for auction in February, and last week the top two bidders were announced. Neither is a church group…….

PBS stations in California, Florida may be acquired by national, church groups

LOS ANGELES – Valentine's Day has been set as the date for the sale of KCSM-TV, the PBS station serving San Mateo and the counties south of San Francisco. The station is owned by the local community college and said it could no longer afford to operate the station because it is short of funds. Potential buyers expressing interest include two Colorado organizations, the Public Media Company, based in Boulder, and Independent Public Media, based in Denver. (You can see our earlier report on Independent Public Media here.) Daystar, a Texas-based religious broadcaster, is also interested in bidding on the……

New venture fund for public TV, and launch of all-pledge PBS channel

WASHINGTON – New revenue models to support public television have been announced – one a new twist on venture philanthropy and another taking a traditional source of funds to what may be its logical extreme. The venture philanthropy comes from the formation of Independent Public Media last week. Fuelled by revenue from spectrum leases, IPM will "acquire and recapitalize television stations at risk of closing or selling their licenses to organizations that may not represent a community's interests at large," according to its news release. To illustrate the threat to local public television stations, IPM's announcement cited three stations: "Three……