Highlights from the 2004
RoperASW Public Opinion Poll on PBS

• Public trust in PBS is extremely strong. PBS receives the highest rating of seven public institutions asked about in the survey. One half of the public say they trust PBS as an institution "a great deal." The second most trusted are courts of law (28%). People place commercial television networks (17%), newspapers (11%) and cable television networks (10%) much lower in terms of according them a great deal of trust.
  
  
• PBS is seen as an "excellent value" for the tax dollar, second only to military defense on a list of 20 tax-supported entities asked about. Indeed, one in five Americans rate PBS an "excellent" value, surpassed only by military defense at 34%. With an additional (54%) calling it a "good" value, three-quarters of the public (74%) rate PBS an "excellent or good" value.
  
  
• If the PBS station in their local community were no longer available, a majority say it would affect their quality of life. Close to four in ten Americans feel it would affect them a lot (39%), and another 34% say it would affect them somewhat.
  
  
• PBS is ranked as much more important than commercial television and cable television. Close to six in ten rate PBS "very important" (59%), versus four in ten or fewer who feel this way about commercial (40%) or cable (36%) television.
  
  
• PBS garners much higher ratings of satisfaction than either commercial television or cable television. About one third say they are "very" satisfied with PBS (34%), versus one quarter (24%) who feel this way about cable television and just 16% for commercial television
  
  
• PBS is the most trusted source of news and public affairs programming among the television networks. Four in ten say they trust PBS a "great deal" in this regard. The next closest network, CNN, is judged this way by one-third (33%), followed by Fox (30%). When those who rate PBS news and public affairs programming as "somewhat" trusted are combined with the "great deal" ratings, the extent of trust people have in PBS news rises to 83%, again the highest overall trustworthiness rating of all of the networks.
  
  
• Overwhelmingly, people believe that funding given to PBS is worthwhile. Nearly eight in ten Americans answer affirmatively that funds given to PBS is money well spent (79%).
  
  
• A majority of the public feels that government support of PBS is too little. When told that PBS receives 15% of its funding from the federal government, translating to about one dollar per person per year of government support, 51% of Americans said the government was giving too little money.