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3w ago

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Begins Wind-Down After Federal Funding Cut

Last month’s $1.1 billion rescission prompted the nonprofit to eliminate most positions by September 2025; a transition team will remain through January 2026 to oversee final legal and financial duties.

With CPB shutting down, many are worried about NPR and PBS shuttering too, given that the entity helps fund both.
FILE - One of the control rooms at the Arizona PBS offices at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix is seen Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Katie Oyan, File)
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Overview

  • CPB announced an orderly wind-down of operations, eliminating most staff by Sept. 30, 2025, and retaining a small transition team until January 2026.
  • Funding cuts followed President Trump’s May executive order halting support for NPR and PBS, a $1.1 billion rescissions package in July, and the Senate’s exclusion of CPB funding from the FY 2026 appropriations bill.
  • Established under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, CPB distributed federal appropriations to support NPR, PBS and more than 1,500 local radio and television stations nationwide.
  • While NPR depends on CPB for roughly 1% of its operating costs, PBS relies on the agency for about 15% of its television revenue; smaller and rural stations that receive up to 90% of their budgets face existential threats.
  • The transition team will handle final distributions, compliance and long-term obligations such as music rights and royalty contracts as the public media system adapts to the loss of federal funding.