In contrast to PBS, with its coporate “underwriting” and constant pledge drives, C-SPAN seems to have no trouble raising money. What is its secret?
Well, C-Span’s production costs must be about as small as any television network’s could possibily be. Example: for PBS Newshour to cover a congressional hearing, they need a reporter, perhaps a couple researchers, an editor, a cameraman, a producer, a video editor, and so on.
For CSpan to cover a hearing, you need a guy to run a camera and someone in the truck to send the video feed to where it needs to get to.
And that doesn’t even speak to all the original programming on PBS.
As a result, "C-SPAN is a private, non-profit company, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a public service. Our mission is to provide public access to the political process. C-SPAN receives no government funding; operations are funded by fees paid by cable and satellite affiliates who carry C-SPAN programming. "
(From www.cspan.org)
C-SPAN hardly needs any money because they create almost no original content. They have no reporters, no writers, no editors, and very limited remote capabilities. Almost all of what they do is simply rebroadcast video feeds from the US Congress, UK Parliament and some state legislatures from time to time, and important press conferences.
C-SPAN does have 282 employees.
They do on-site documentaries/call-in shows regularly
C-Span is fully funded by the cable television networks. It’s not a public broadcasting operation. They don’t need to worry about money. On the other hand, their content is theoretically under the control of the cable television industry.
C-Span is fully funded by the cable television networks. It’s not a public broadcasting operation. They don’t need to worry about money. On the other hand, their content is theoretically under the control of the cable television industry.