Highlights of the
2009 Roper Public Opinion Poll on PBS

For the sixth consecutive year, a GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media poll shows Americans consider PBS the nation’s most trusted institution among nationally known organizations and the best choice in children’s programming for ages 2-8. The non-partisan, international research company released the comprehensive results from its national opinion survey, which was conducted to gauge the attitudes of Americans towards PBS and other major national institutions, including courts of law and commercial broadcast television networks.

• PBS remains #1 in public trust, with 49% trusting PBS a great deal. Second in trust are “courts of law,” which are trusted a great deal by 27%.
 
• Among those polled, 18% found PBS to be an “excellent” use of tax dollars, second only to military defense, which garnered 23%.
 
• Americans stated that they are the most satisfied with programs found on PBS compared to cable and commercial broadcast. Thirty-five percent stated they were “very satisfied” with PBS programs; compared to cable’s 22% and commercial broadcasting’s 16%.
 
• The poll found that Americans are “most satisfied” with PBS’ children’s programming, (ages 2-8), which garnered 48% of parents, while cable and broadcast networks lagged behind at 30% and 16% respectively.
 
• PBS remains the network with the most trusted news and public affairs programs, with 43% trusting its programs a “great deal.” CNN came in second with 28% and FOX News third at 27%.
 
• Forty-three percent of Americans rated the news coverage, investigations and discussions of major issues on PBS programs as “mostly fair.” CNN and CBS tied for second at 32%.
 
• The majority of Americans believe the federal funding PBS receives is insufficient. When informed that public broadcasting receives 15% of its funding from the government, and that this amount translates to about one dollar per person per year of government support, 48% believe this amount is “too little,” 38% say it’s “about right” and only 9% state that it’s “too much.”