Public-broadcasting funds OKed

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The Senate approved a spending bill 90-7 Thursday that includes $380 million
for public broadcasting in fiscal-year 2004 and $25 million for costs related to
its digital-TV transition in 2002.

The House approved the final version of the same bill Wednesday, which now
goes to the president to be signed.

The 2004 funding is $15 million more than the service will receive in
2003.

Congress also approved $22 million for public broadcasting's 'Ready to Learn'
program, a $6 million increase over last year, and it voted to continue funding
the program through 2007.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.