Hurricane Katrina and relief efforts after the tsunami in Asia helped generate a record value for public service by broadcasters in 2005, NAB says.
The organization says local radio and TV stations generated $10.3 billion in public service through airtime donated for PSAs and money raised for charity and disaster relief. Last year’s figure was $9.6 billion. The organization started charting this statistic in 1997, when the value was put at $6.8 billion.
NAB President and CEO David K. Rehr called the figures “meticulously calculated and … extraordinarily conservative.”
Not included in the total, NAB stated, were PSAs from groups like the Office of National Drug Control Policy that may have involved in-kind contributions or partial payment to stations.
“Nor did broadcasters include the value of ad revenue lost when stations carried breaking news stories related to natural disasters, or advertising lost from breaking weather emergencies,” it stated. “The census also did not include the value of public service at the broadcast network level or the hourly value of broadcast station personnel participating in community charity events such as AIDS fundraising walks, breast cancer fundraising drives and Toys for Tots campaigns.”
Rehr stated, “This year’s survey affirms the longstanding fact that local over-the-air radio and television stations are collectively the number one provider of public service in America.”
NAB Puts Public Service Value at a Record High and Calls That ‘Conservative’
NAB Puts Public Service Value at a Record High and Calls That 'Conservative'