In the fall of 2005, CPB hosted a series of meetings with the General Managers from public television stations around the country to launch a station-led strategic planning effort. The goal of a station-led strategic planning effort is to help each station individually answer, "What is the future of my public television station?" At the meetings, the General Managers were asked to consider what the long term future of the media industry might be through a series of scenario planning exercises. They were also asked to identify the critical few issues that they needed to address in the short term if they were going to ensure the viability of their station. At each of the meetings, the issue of digital rights management was at the top of this list.
Given the intense interest in the system in this topic, CPB is launching a Digital Rights Task Force, comprised of leaders from the public television system, to address the issues that surround digital rights.