BEYOND TRADITIONAL BROADCAST
DTV
PBS HD, V-me, World and Create are the next generation of public television programming available as part of local public television stations’ multicast offerings. Multicasting enables digital public television stations to expand upon the rich diversity of high-definition, international, educational and children’s programming they provide.
Create, which debuted from American Public Television (APT) in January 2006, is a dynamic round-the-clock channel of popular lifestyle and how-to programming.
V-me (which means “see me” in Spanish) is a groundbreaking broadcasting venture that debuted in March 2007, presenting the world’s highest quality programs to Spanish-speaking viewers in the U.S.
World, a 24-hour, digital broadcast channel featuring an array of non-fiction programming from the science, history, nature and news genres that debuted nationally in August 2007. Developed in collaboration with WGBH and WNET and in association with APT & NETA, World includes PBS signature series such as NOVA, FRONTLINE, THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, AMERICAN MASTERS, NATURE, NOW, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL AND WASHINGTON WEEK.
PBS HD was launched in March 2004, making PBS the first broadcaster to provide a fully packaged 24/7 channel consisting entirely of high-definition and widescreen content. PBS HD offers hundreds of hours of programming per year with an exciting collection of HD and widescreen programs in genres that include science, nature, drama, performing arts and children’s programming.
In late fall 2008, PBS will complete the conversion to all high definition programming (HD) that began in 2007. The initial phase began with the complete NPS (National Programming Service) primetime schedule being mirrored on the HD Channel. The transition will continue gradually through the remaining nights of the week until all of the entire 24-hour schedule will be available in high definition.
Under the terms of the 2005 digital TV carriage agreement among APTS (Association of Public Television Stations), PBS and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), every major U.S. cable system will carry both the analog channel and up-to four digital programming streams from at least one public television station in each market.
Video-on-Demand
Some PBS stations provide local cable operators a diverse package of VOD titles ranging from primetime favorites such as FRONTLINE, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, NOVA, and AMERICAN EXPERIENCE to locally-produced public television series. All programs are available to viewers free of charge, up to seven days after their broadcast premieres.
Download-to-Own
PBS has made available an array of content on the iTunes Store and Amazon’s UnBox service, making it possible for users to purchase and download documentary specials and episodes from popular PBS primetime and children’s programming.
Currently available for download-to-own are primetime programs: ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, NOVA, NOW, HISTORY DETECTIVES, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS, CARRIER, e2, WIRED SCIENCE and documentaries from KEN BURNS; as well as PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! shows such as ARTHUR, SUPERWHY, CAILLOU, BARNEY, BOB THE BUILDER, THOMAS & FRIENDS, CYBERCHASE, DESIGN SQUAD and FETCH!
Streaming Video
www.pbs.org offers a broad array of streaming video programming, including entire programs online for selected episodes of FRONTLINE, NOVA, EXPOSÉ: AMERICA’S INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, WIDE ANGLE and NEWSHOUR.
Late in 2008, PBS will launch an online video initiative that will significantly increase the amount of PBS video available on both pbs.org and local PBS station web sites.
In addition, PBS makes available selected programs on free streaming services including Hulu, Joost, and Babelgum.
PBS also provides an increasing number of program excerpts and promotional spots on a variety of video aggregation sites, including YouTube (www.youtube.com/pbs). The PBS channel on YouTube has more than 1,000 videos, and has received more than 7 million views.
Home Video/DVD
PBS Home Video furthers PBS’ mission of lifelong learning by expanding the availability of PBS’ top-quality programs to viewers and educational institutions.
PBS has produced home video and DVD products for more than a decade, with hundreds of titles covering all genres in circulation and approximately 100 new DVD and video releases per year. In addition, PBS Home Video releases numerous new-to-DVD programs, for classroom use only titles and DVD-on-Demand content.
Viewers can purchase products from PBS Home Video online at the ShopPBS Web site — shoppbs.org — through the PBS Home Video catalog and PBS on-air offers, as well as through national retail outlets such as Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and Netflix.
PBS KIDS GO! Broadband
This fall, PBS KIDS GO! (www.pbskidsgo.org) will vastly expand to include online clips and full episodes of more than a dozen PBS KIDS GO! series, including ARTHUR, WORDGIRL and CYBERCHASE. As part of this expansion — funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — these clips will be connected to games targeting a variety of educational goals, giving kids a chance to watch and play on the same screen. Viewers will also be able to rate clips, email them to friends and play interactive games within the video window. For example, an overlay will appear on some of the videos, giving viewers a chance to solve problems alongside the characters they are watching. In 2009, kids will be able to create their own playlists, save favorites and much more.
Blogs
PBS offers a number of popular blogs: PBS MediaShift, Learning.now and Remotely Connected.
The PBS MediaShift blog (www.pbs.org/mediashift) explores how new forms of digital media are dramatically changing American society and culture. Hosted by industry expert and longtime new media commentator Mark Glaser, MediaShift offers a continuing look at how digital media such as blogs, RSS, virtual worlds, citizen journalism, wikis, news aggregators and video repositories are altering the way Americans live, play and work.
PBS’ popular education blog, called Learning.now (www.pbs.org/learningnow) addresses how new technology and Internet culture are significantly affecting the ways educators teach and children learn. Hosted by prominent educational technology thinker and writer Andy Carvin, Learning.now offers a continuing look at how the forces of new technology, such as wikis, blogs, RSS, podcasts, social networking sites and the always-on culture of the Internet are affecting teachers’ and students’ lives both inside and outside of the classroom.
Another educator blog provided through PBS Teachers, Media Infusion (www.pbs.org/mediainfusion), focuses on practical ways to integrate multimedia resources and technology into the classroom. Each month guest experts discuss and invite educators to share ideas about how using multimedia resources in the classroom can assist in common instructional challenges.
PBS has coordinated the launch of an entirely new kind of blog, in which a diverse group of external bloggers comment on PBS programming. During the course of the blog, called Remotely Connected (www.pbs.org/nights/blog), a number of the most popular bloggers in the world took the opportunity to comment on and explore a broad variety of PBS programming. Remotely Connected will be expanded to include new shows and new bloggers in the coming year.
PBS Engage
PBS has launched “PBS Engage”, a broad, multi-year initiative to harness the power of social media to give the PBS audience a voice and allow users to interact with PBS, member stations, television program producers and each other. The first phase of Engage included the launch of a Web site (www.pbs.org/engage). Currently in a test phase, the Engage site will be a laboratory for experimentation with social media and a hub of all social media activity around PBS. (Users already have a direct line of communication to PBS through the Engage blog.) Recently PBS launched a new feature called “Five Good Questions”, which allows people to submit questions to PBS talent and insiders. PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger and NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHER senior correspondent Gwen Ifill have already fielded queries and comments from the online audience.
Podcasts
PBS is a leading provider of content using the increasingly popular podcast platform. Many podcast users say they are downloading PBS podcasts, and are returning to PBS programs they had previously stopped watching on television because of busy schedules.
One PBS podcast alone — THE NEWSHOUR— has nearly 200,000 downloads each week.
PBS now offers more than 30 individual audio and video podcast feeds from more than a dozen PBS primetime programs. All are available at www.pbs.org/podcasts.
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Board of Directors
