PHOTO: The Arkansas PBS Commission and executive leadership meet on Dec. 11, 2025. | Screenshot from livestream
By TESS VRBIN | Arkansas Advocate
The governing board of the educational television network formerly known as Arkansas PBS voted Thursday to separate the agency, rebranded as Arkansas TV, from the national network.
Six of the eight members of the Arkansas PBS commission voted to notify the federal Public Broadcasting Service of its intent to disaffiliate effective July 1, 2026, the start of the state’s 2027 fiscal year. The commission voted in June to renew its membership for the current fiscal year after considering disaffiliation to save the agency $2.3 million in national dues.
The network lost $2.5 million in programming and operational funds after the Corporation for Public Broadcasting lost federal funding this summer. CPB announced in August that it would start the process of shutting down, to be complete in January.
Federal funds are the primary source of the agency’s payment of dues, Marge Betley, CEO of the Arkansas PBS Foundation, said in September.
The foundation collects and distributes money from PBS donors, and it provided the network with a one-time emergency fund of $1.5 million between June and September, supporting both operating expenses and about half of the national dues.
Betley said Thursday that the foundation is grateful for the “outpouring of generosity” from PBS donors since CPB lost its funding, even though Arkansans’ donations did not make up for the $2.5 million the agency needed.
James Downs, Arkansas TV’s chief financial officer, echoed Betley’s gratitude but said the way the agency has maintained its financial status quo is not sustainable in the long term. He said the network would have a $6 million deficit by the 2030 fiscal year.
“We just do not see a way that our network and our foundation can continue at that rate, to continue to incur more than $2 million every year, continuing on into a deficit in PBS membership dues while also providing the financial support we also need to remain operational,” Downs said.
PBS membership allows state-level networks to purchase programming from the federal agency to broadcast, and Betley said in September that programming drives donations.
Carlton Wing, who became Arkansas TV executive director and CEO in September, said the programming would still be available through the free PBS Passport app.
“Nobody in Arkansas will lose that programming,” Wing said. “They’ll just have different routes that they will go to [in order] to get that programming.”
The network announced both the rebrand and the upcoming disaffiliation in a news release Thursday morning. The effort to bring “more Arkansas stories, more Arkansas voices and more Arkansas experiences” to the public inspired the network’s name change, according to the release.
“Arkansas TV is our promise that visual storytelling — centered on the people, places and experiences of our state — remains at the core of everything we do,” Wing said in the release. “As we embrace our new identity as Arkansas TV, we are also making strategic decisions to ensure a sustainable model for public television in Arkansas and our ability to serve Arkansans for generations to come.”
Commissioner Cynthia Nance of Fayetteville questioned during the meeting whether the potential loss of donor support without certain PBS programming would be worth the savings in dues. She and Annette Herrington of Little Rock were the only commissioners to vote against disaffiliating from PBS.
The commission agreed in June that this trade was not worth it, and Maria Sullivan of Jonesboro and West Doss of Fayetteville were the only members to vote against renewing the PBS contract. The June meeting was Doss’ last due to his term expiring, and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed Charlene Fite of Van Buren to fill his seat.
Fite is a former Republican state representative who left office this year and is running to regain her former House seat next year. She, Wing and Sullivan all have ties to the Legislature and have all taken on their roles at Arkansas TV since Sanders took office.
Sullivan’s husband is Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, the Legislature’s most vocal critic of Arkansas PBS. He unsuccessfully tried to reduce Arkansas PBS’ spending authority in the 2022and 2024 fiscal sessions. He also introduced a bill in February that would have dissolved the PBS Commission, but he and Doss, the commission’s chairman at the time, said in March that they reached an agreement to keep the commission in place.
Wing, a Republican from North Little Rock, resigned from the Legislature in September after Sanders confirmed his nomination from the commission as Arkansas TV CEO. He and his wife co-founded a video production company, and he also is a former sports broadcaster for KARK.
Wing succeeded Courtney Pledger, who resigned in April after eight years in the position.