The Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted to dissolve in early 2026 following the rescission of federal funding, ending the primary federal funding mechanism for over 1,500 public broadcasting stations. This paper uses IRS Form 990 filings to analyze the revenue structures, operating performance, and financial reserves of 201 U.S. public broadcasting organizations, including local stations and the two national distribution networks (PBS and NPR). The analysis develops a four-part revenue typology (Content Producers, Donation Primary, Donation Dependent, and Diversified) and finds that vulnerability to funding disruption is shaped less by organizational size than by revenue concentration, cost alignment with the revenue model, and reserve depth. Over half of all organizations (52%) operate at a deficit, yet the sector holds $6.23 billion in total assets. This coexistence of aggregate wealth and widespread operating losses reflects structural variation that aggregate statistics obscure. By shifting the unit of analysis from national funding aggregates to organization-level financial structure, this paper offers a replicable framework for assessing financial vulnerability among U.S. public broadcasting institutions.
We examine whether investor sentiment on social media carries different informational value based on geographic proximity to firms. Using geo-tagged Twitter data on UK-listed firms from 2017 to 2022, we construct local and non-local sentiment measures via FinBERT model and analyze their association with stock price synchronicity. We find that only local sentiment is significantly negatively related to synchronicity, suggesting stronger firm-specific information incorporation. The effect is weaker for larger firms. Our results highlight the role of geography in shaping the informational content of social media sentiment in financial markets.
Media consumers now combine multiple channels under time and budget constraints rather than choosing a single medium. This study maps media platform portfolios in the South Korean online video market, using 5 years of survey data and a multivariate probit model in which consumers may select any combination of four service categories: global SVoD, domestic SVoD, UGC/social media, and TVoD/others. The estimated correlations reveal complementary associations within the paid categories and substitutive associations between UGC platforms and every paid category, driven by unobserved latent preferences. Content preferences sort consumers along a premium hierarchy: movie preference raises global SVoD use by 18.5% points while reducing UGC use. Non-usage reflects capability rather than cost: daily smartphone use lowers its probability by 49 points, and non-users are concentrated among older, television-oriented consumers. Theoretically, this study extends platform-competition research beyond paid services by placing paid subscription services and free UGC platforms in a single choice model, with non-usage analyzed as a companion outcome. The correlations give audience fragmentation an economic interpretation: multi-homing within the paid segment, attention competition between UGC and paid services, and a market boundary set by capability-based entry barriers. These findings inform platform strategy and digital-inclusion policy.
We analyze the effects of social attention on investment behavior. Using an original dataset covering 3,782 funds and over 240,000 news articles, we show that media attention, separated into traditional news media and social media, is associated with greater fund visibility and net inflows, consistent with a salience mechanism motivated by agenda-setting theory. Moreover, the impacts of news and social media attention are mutually reinforcing. In addition to media coverage, we analyze the role of fund-side marketing effort and find that it predicts net inflows during bull-market periods, while no such effect occurs in bear markets. Finally, we find a mutually reinforcing effect between fund-side marketing effort and external news attention. This multi-channel social attention generates a synergistic impact beyond the effect of either type of attention alone.
This article examines the evolution of public media financing in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on the transition from state-controlled systems under communism to contemporary hybrid models. It analyses historical legacies, including centralized budget allocations and the use of media as propaganda, and traces subsequent reforms introducing license fees and mixed funding structures. Using a comparative approach, the study evaluates financing models in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, and Latvia, highlighting differences in stability, transparency, and political independence. Findings indicate a strong correlation between predictable, sufficient funding and the ability of public broadcasters to maintain audience trust and market relevance. The article argues that unstable or politically dependent funding undermines both viewership and credibility, while stable financing mechanisms linked to GDP or indexed license fees foster resilience. Recommendations emphasize the need for transparent governance, protection against political interference, and EU-level safeguards, particularly within the framework of the proposed European Media Freedom Act. This research contributes to media economics by providing insights into how financial structures shape the performance and legitimacy of public service media in post-communist societies.
