SHORT TAKES : Public TV Groups Sign Pact

The three national public television organizations have announced an agreement designed to enhance their coordination and improve program scheduling and quality.

The pact, involving the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, the Public Broadcasting Service and the National Assn. of Public Television Stations, will “free public television from many of the frustrations of the past and give it a jump start for the next decade,” according to CPB President Donald Ledwig.

The agreement in principle, which now must be approved by the organizations’ respective boards as well as Congress, would make CPB primarily responsible for developing new programs, while PBS would focus on distribution, funding for existing programs and support of local stations.

Public television in the United States is now a complex, decentralized system with multiple sources of programming and financing. As a consequence, producers spend much of their time scrambling for money.

Currently, about $262 million--less than half of which is tax money--is spent annually by public television for national programming. The agreement calls for PBS to directly manage $100 million of that amount. The CPB would handle the rest.