This might make you a little less aggravated about public TV and radio pledge drives (or not):
Assuming they are correct, these dollar comparisons were stunning:
How to Save the News, by William F. Baker, September 23, 2009 (This article appeared in the October 12, 2009 edition of The Nation.)
“… Total federal support for American public broadcast media in 2007 was about $480 million. That might seem sufficient or even impressive until you compare it with the BBC, which serves a nation with one-fifth the US population but which received the equivalent of $5.6 billion in government money in 2007. When it comes to public media, the United States is decisively outspent by the governments of most other major democracies. Japan, whose population is less than half the size of the United States’, spent the equivalent of $6.8 billion for public broadcasting in 2007; Germany, with one-third the size, spent about $11 billion; and Canada, a tenth the size, spent $898 million. Even Denmark and Ireland, with populations smaller than New York City, far outspent the United States per capita, with respective budgets equivalent to $673 million and $296 million…. ” (read full article)