High school sports at PBS stations could be at risk with potential federal funding cuts

High school sports games and related coverage have become some of the most popular local programs on PBS stations across the U.S., especially in states without professional sports.

PBS stations in states like South Dakota, Arkansas and Nebraska have spent years bulking up on high school sports programming — mainly championship coverage — in a bid to broaden their local offerings.

The content has led to a bigger audience for public broadcasters. Live sports on every level tend to boost TV and streaming viewership, and that’s especially true when hometown athletes are being aired to local communities. In many cases, it’s even led to increased donor support, according to interviews with station executives.

But that programming is at risk if the federal government cuts its funding to PBS.

“The Friday night lights phenomenon is real in the South, and we have all these viewers that look forward to that like you would an NFL game,” said Bert Wesley Huffman, president and CEO of Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Select regular-season high school football games are aired on GPB, in addition to other sports championships. “We’ve watched a lot of our players go on to the professional leagues,” Huffman added.

PBS television stations are funded by their state governments, as well as by federal subsidies and private donors and sponsors

But President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month to cut federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — the nonprofit corporation that stewards the government’s investment for NPR, PBS and other services — alleging “biased and partisan news coverage.” On Thursday, Politico reported the White House plans to soon send a “rescissions” bill to Congress, which includes cuts to NPR and PBS.

This week NPR, which was also included in the executive order, sued Trump in response, arguing the order violates First Amendment protections of speech and the press.

A spokesperson for PBS, which had earlier sued Trump over his move to fire some of its officials, said in a statement that “PBS is considering every option, including taking legal action, to allow our organization to continue to provide essential programming and services to member stations and all Americans.”

A White House spokesman said in a statement that “The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”

While the conversation surrounding PBS has largely focused on nationally aired shows, like children’s program “Sesame Street” or news mainstays like “Frontline” and “PBS News Hour,” locally produced content makes up the majority of the lineup for PBS stations.

“I think the challenge is so much of the debate ends up being around news [programming], which is an important part of what we do but is less than 10% of it,” said Paula Kerger, PBS CEO and president. “I think most people don’t realize all of our stations are locally owned, operated and governed. They’re run by people who love their communities and understand them really well. They decide everything that’s on their air.”

In a show of how far local sports broadcasting can go, one of the first TV profiles of breakout WNBA star Caitlin Clark took place on Iowa’s local PBS station in 2020 when she was making a run at a state championship in her home state.

Now, years later, Clark has helped lead the WNBA to record ratings nationally.

Iowa began broadcasting girls’ high school sports championships, including basketball, more than 10 years ago, said Andrew Batt, the executive director and general manager of the station.

“Girls’ sports weren’t being produced or broadcast consistently,” Batt said. “We found an underserved audience there at a time prior to the explosion of interest in women’s athletics.”

While Iowa has a number of businesses that underwrite its sports coverage, a loss of any federal or state funding “would seriously undermine our ability to have the staff and the resources” to produce sports programming, Batt said.

Other state PBS executives said they and their viewers are concerned about potential cuts in funding.

“It would be a disaster for us; it would be an absolute disaster,” said Courtney Pledger, the executive director and CEO of Arkansas PBS. “If we lost CPB funding, sports would probably go and we would be limited in the things that we can make and the things that we could do.”

Arkansas’ PBS receives about 40% of its funding from the state legislature, which mostly covers salaries and benefits and a small part of operations. The remainder of the operations are funded by federal subsidies or donations.

Nebraska Public Media gets about 16% of its budget from the federal government. The station offers a variety of local high school and other sports programming, and is particularly known for its volleyball coverage.

“One of the very first stations I visited was Nebraska, and for them, sports coverage is big time. One of the first big HD mobile trucks I actually saw was owned by Nebraska,” Kerger said.

Kerger also noted that some stations would be more affected than others if they were to lose federal subsidies. For those that count less than 10% of their budget from the federal government, the loss in funding would be “a hit,” but for others that could lose up to 40% of their budget, “it’s more existential.”

“I was speaking with someone today who said she has a staff of 18, and if they lose funding, they’d have to cut 10 people,” Kerger said.

While the executive order from the Trump administration has drawn concerns, budget fights are not new for most stations.

“I’ve been doing this for over 36 years,” said Julie Overgaard, executive director of South Dakota Public Broadcasting. “I’ve been through more budget funding fights than I like to admit.”

Overgaard added that “even in a very red state,” budget cuts have been unpopular, largely because of the public outcry about sports cuts.

SDPB recently faced a potential $3.6 million budget cut proposed by former Gov. Kristi Noem — who is now secretary of Homeland Security. In March, members of the legislature’s main budget committee voted against the cut. Republican South Dakota state Rep. Liz May reportedly vowed to keep SDPB funding safe “because I have got to watch basketball.”

SDPB receives $2.2 million in federal funding, and $5.6 million from the state. While the state dollars cover most of the infrastructure costs, the money that comes through the CPB is what pays for most production costs and local coverage, according to Overgaard.

The broadcaster has been airing high school sports championships for more than 20 years, and other state directors credit Overgaard as their inspiration for adding sports content.

Pledger of Arkansas said she ended up talking to Overgaard at an event years ago about high school sports.

“I thought that is something that would really work in Arkansas. It turned out to be one of those things that everybody loves, but isn’t necessarily a moneymaking venture so commercial networks aren’t going to really commit to high school sports,” Pledger said.

PBS stations often see a spike in viewership during games. The stations also air the games via streaming and on their websites outside of state lines, allowing extended family members to watch.

Overgaard said streaming hasn’t hurt the networks. In some instances, traditional TV broadcasts are the best option for viewers in rural areas that still don’t have broadband connections — and in other instances the addition of digital platforms has just meant more viewers who wouldn’t normally watch PBS, she said.

“I joke that some times of the year public broadcasting is the only thing on in every South Dakota bar,” Overgaard said.