Increasingly, we operate in a world in which universal, even global service is attainable at the click of a mouse button, where communities are as much about shared interest as common geography, where local no longer means just our town. These same questions remain relevant more than twenty years later. To Gunn's questions we might add some variants of our own. Though we have no agreed-upon answers to these questions, we do know that where we are today is not where we will be three, five or ten years hence. As we consider what may lie ahead for public television, we should be mindful that however threatening change may seem, it also represents opportunity.
Public television has many strengths.
Public television has nearly unimpeachable standing as a safe harbor for children and adults alike, a trusted member of the family, an educator, and a contributor to civic and civil discourse. Public television's audience is loyal. We know a lot about our viewers. They keep coming back to us, wanting to see what we are doing, if we have something new or different to say to them. Nearly five million of them are members and donors, and three times as many have told us who they are, where they live, what they watch.