The Public Broadcasting Service is an American broadcast television network.
The non-profit public broadcaster has 354 member television stations, which share collective
ownership.
The network's headquarters is located in Arlington, Virginia.
PBS is the most prominent provider of television programs to public television stations in
the United States, distributing series such as NOVA, Sesame Street, PBS NewsHour, Masterpiece,
Nature, American Masters, Frontline, and Antiques Roadshow.
Since the mid-2000s, Roper polls commissioned by PBS have consistently placed the service
as America's most-trusted national institution.
However, PBS is not responsible for all programming carried on public TV stations; in fact, stations
usually receive a large portion of their content from third-party sources, such as WGBH, American
Public Television, WETA-TV, WNET, WTTW National Productions and independent producers.
This distinction is a frequent source of viewer confusion.
PBS also has a subsidiary called National Datacast, which offers datacasting services
via member stations; this helps PBS and its member stations earn extra revenue.
Overview PBS was founded by Hartford N. Gunn Jr. on
October 5, 1970, at which time it took over many of the functions of its predecessor,
National Educational Television, which later merged with Newark, New Jersey station WNDT
to form WNET.
In 1973, it merged with Educational Television Stations.
Unlike the model of America's commercial broadcast television networks, in which affiliates give
up portions of their local advertising airtime in exchange for network programming, PBS member
stations pay fees for the shows acquired and distributed by the national organization.
This relationship means that PBS member stations have greater latitude in local scheduling
than their commercial broadcasting counterparts.
Scheduling of PBS-distributed series may vary greatly depending on the market.
This can be a source of tension as stations seek to preserve their localism, and PBS strives
to market a consistent national lineup.
However, PBS has a policy of "common carriage," which requires most stations to clear the
national prime-time programs on a common programming schedule to market them nationally more effectively.
KCET's management cited unresolvable financial and programming disputes among its major reasons
for leaving PBS.
Unlike its radio counterpart, National Public Radio, PBS has no central program production
arm or news department.
All of the programming carried by PBS, whether news, documentary, or entertainment, is created
by other parties, such as individual member stations.
WGBH in Boston is one of the largest producers of educational television programming, including
American Experience, Masterpiece Theatre, Nova, Antiques Roadshow and Frontline, as
well as many other children's and lifestyle shows.
News programs are produced by WETA-TV in Washington, D.C., WNET in New York and WPBT in Miami.
The Charlie Rose interview show, Secrets of the Dead, Nature, and Cyberchase come from
or through WNET in New York.
Once PBS accepts a program offered for distribution, PBS retains exclusive rebroadcasts rights
during an agreed period.
Suppliers retain the right to sell the program in non-broadcast media such as DVDs, books,
and sometimes PBS licensed merchandise.
PBS stations are commonly operated by non-profit organizations, state agencies, local authorities,
or universities in their city of license.
In some U.S. states, a group of PBS stations throughout the entire state may be organized
into a single regional "subnetwork" called a state network; some states may be served
by such a regional network and simultaneously have PBS member stations in a certain city
of license that operates autonomously from the regional member network.
As opposed to the present commercial broadcasting model in which network programs are often
carried exclusively on one television station in a given market, PBS may maintain more than
one member station in certain markets, which may be owned by the licensee of the market's
primary PBS member station or owned separately from that station.
In markets where more than one member station exists, the amount of PBS programs are divided
between the stations through the network's Program Differentiation Plan; the primary
PBS member often carries a larger portion of the PBS schedule than the secondary members
in these markets under the plan.
Unlike public broadcasters in most other countries, PBS does not own any of the stations that
broadcast its programming.
This is partly due to the origins of the PBS stations themselves, and partly due to historical
broadcast license issues.
In the modern broadcast marketplace, some media critics consider this organizational
structure outmoded.
A common restructuring proposal is to reorganize the network so that each state has one PBS
member that broadcasts statewide.
However, this proposal is controversial, as it would reduce local community input into
PBS programming, especially considering how PBS stations are significantly more community-oriented—according
to the argument—than commercial broadcaster counterparts.
In 1994, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, an industry publication, released the results
of the largest study on the popularity and credibility of charitable and non-profit organizations.
The study showed that PBS was ranked as the 11th "most popular charity/non-profit in America"
from over 100 charities researched, with 38.2% of Americans over the age of 12 choosing "love"
and "like a lot" for PBS.
In December 2009, PBS signed up for the Nielsen ratings audience measurement reports for the
first time.
On May 8, 2013, PBS as well as PBS Kids programs were made available through the Roku streaming
player.
Programming
PBS stations are known for rebroadcasting British television costume dramas and comedies;
consequently, it has been joked that PBS means "Primarily British Series".
However, a significant amount of sharing takes place.
The BBC and British broadcasters such as Channel 4 often cooperate with PBS stations, producing
material that is shown on both sides of the Atlantic.
Less frequently, Canadian, Australian and other international programming appears on
PBS stations; the public broadcasting syndicators are more likely to offer this programming
to the U.S. public stations.
PBS stations are also known for broadcasting British comedy and science fiction programs
such as 'Allo 'Allo!, Are You Being Served?, The Benny Hill Show, Doctor Who, The Fall
and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Father Ted, Fawlty Towers, Harry Enfield and Chums, Keeping Up
Appearances, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Mr. Bean and Red Dwarf.
PBS is not the only distributor of public television programming to the member stations.
Other distributors have emerged from the roots of the old companies that had loosely held
regional public television stations in the 1960s.
Boston-based American Public Television is second only to PBS for distributing programs
to U.S. non-commercial stations.
Another distributor is NETA, whose properties have included The Shapies and Jerry Yarnell
School of Fine Art.
In addition, the member stations themselves also produce a variety of local shows, some
of which subsequently receive national distribution through PBS or the other distributors.
Rerun programming is generally uncommon on PBS or its member stations, with some exceptions.
The Lawrence Welk Show has run continuously in reruns on PBS almost every weekend since
1986.
Other reruns are generally from past PBS series whose hosts have retired or died.
Primetime The evening and primetime schedule on PBS
features a diverse array of programming: Fine arts
Drama Science
History Music
Public affairs Independent film
Home improvement Interviews
PBS Kids
Launched in 1993, PBS Kids is the brand for children's programs aired by PBS.
The PBS Kids network, which was established in 1999 and ran for seven years, was largely
funded by DirecTV.
The channel ceased operations on October 1, 2005, in favor of a new joint commercial venture,
the digital cable and satellite television channel Sprout.
Sprout was later acquired in full by NBCUniversal.
However, the original programming block still exists on PBS.
PBS Kids has imported British children's series from the BBC and ITV, as well as children's
shows from Canada.
On June 4, 2007, many PBS stations cleared the syndicated offering of the imported Australian
children's television series Raggs.
Some of the programs have subsequently been syndicated to commercial television outlets.
Sports Many PBS member stations, including Mississippi
Public Broadcasting, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Nebraska
Educational Television, and WKYU-TV, locally broadcast high school and college sports.
From the 1980s onward, the national PBS network has not typically carried sporting events,
mainly because the cost of most sports broadcast rights have become prohibitive in that timeframe,
especially for nonprofits with limited revenue potential, and starting with the 2006 launch
of the MountainWest Sports Network and 2007 launch of the Big Ten Network, athletic conferences
have taken local sports rights for their cable channels, restricting their use from PBS member
stations, even those associated with their own university.
From 1976 to 1988, KQED produced a series of Bundesliga matches as Soccer Made in Germany,
with Toby Charles announcing.
PBS also carried tennis events, as well as Ivy League football.
Notable football commentators included Upton Bell, Marty Glickman, Bob Casciola, Brian
Dowling, Sean McDonough, and Jack Corrigan.
Other sports programs included interview series such as The Way It Was and The Sporting Life.
Participating stations
Most PBS member stations have produced at least some nationally distributed programs.
Current regularly scheduled programming on the PBS national feed is produced by a smaller
group of stations, including:
PBS networks PBS has spun-off a number of television networks,
often in partnership with other media companies.
PBS YOU was offered until January 2006, and was largely succeeded by American Public Television's
Create; PBS Kids was replaced with Sprout at the start of October 2005.
PBS World started operations in 2007 as PBS service, but is now managed by American Public
Television.
PBS has also restructured its satellite feed system, simplifying PBS-DT2 into an western
timeshift feed, rather than a high-definition complement to its formerly primary SD feed.
A proposed network, PBS Kids Go!
was cancelled in 2006.
Some or all are available on many digital cable systems, on free-to-air TV via communications
satellites, as well as via direct broadcast satellite.
Programming from the PBS Satellite Service has also been carried by certain member stations
or regional member networks to fill their overnight schedules, in lieu of providing
their own programming sourced by outside public television distributors and repeats of local
programming.
With the transition to over-the-air digital television broadcasts, many are also often
now available as "multiplexed" channels on some local stations' standard-definition digital
signals, while DT2 is found among the HD signals.
With the absence of advertising, network identification on these PBS networks were limited to utilization
at the end of the program, which includes the standard series of bumpers from the "Be
More" campaign.
Independent networks While not operated or controlled by PBS proper,
additional public broadcasting networks are available and carried by PBS member stations.
From 2002 to 2011, WNED-TV produced ThinkBright TV, carried on several stations in upstate
New York.
A separate but related concept is the state network, where a group of stations across
a state simulcast a single programming schedule from a central facility, which may include
specialty digital subchannels unique to that broadcaster.
Criticism and controversy On-the-air fundraising
Since 53% to 60% of public television's revenues come from private membership donations and
grants, most stations solicit individual donations by methods including fundraising, pledge drives
or telethons, which disrupt regularly scheduled programming.
This annoys some viewers, since normal programming is often replaced with specials aimed at a
wider audience to solicit new members and donations.
Underwriting spots are aired at the end of each program, and they differ from traditional
commercials in several ways.
Each spot must be approved to meet several guidelines.
The main guidelines state that underwriting spots cannot be qualitative in any way, nor
can they have any call to action.
Accusations of political/ideological bias A 1982 broadcast of the United States Information
Agency program Let Poland be Poland about the martial law declared in Poland in 1981
was widely viewed in the U.S., but met with skepticism on the part of eastern European
broadcasters due to concerns that the show, "provocative and anticommunist," was intended
as propaganda.
Individual programs have been the targets of organized campaigns by individuals and
groups with opposing views, including former United States Secretary of Education Margaret
Spellings.
Bill Moyers resigned in 2005 after more than three decades as a PBS regular, citing political
pressure to alter the content of his program and saying Chairman of the Board of the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting Kenneth Tomlinson had mounted a "vendetta" against him.
Moyers eventually returned to host Bill Moyers Journal, after Tomlinson resigned.
Subsequently, PBS made room temporarily for conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, formerly
of MSNBC and co-host of CNN's Crossfire, and The Journal Editorial Report with Paul Gigot,
an editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page to partially balance out the perceived
left-leaning PBS shows).
Warning, Alert and Response Network PBS provides an alternate path for CMAS alerts
to wireless carriers.
The alerts are transmitted through the PBS satellite network on the AMC-21 satellite
to PBS stations who broadcast the messages over their transmitters for reception by wireless
carriers at their cell sites.
The network is funded by a grant through National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
See also
References
Further reading B.J.
Bullert, Public Television: Politics and the Battle over Documentary Film, Rutgers Univ
Press 1997 Barry Dornfeld, Producing Public Television,
Producing Public Culture, Princeton University Press 1998
Ralph Engelman, Public Radio and Television in America: A Political History, Sage Publications
1996 James Ledbetter, Made Possible by: The Death
of Public Broadcasting in the United States, Verso 1998
External links Official website
PBS "Red Book" Video interview with PBS President Paula Kerger
Current, the newspaper about public TV and radio in the United States
PBS on Facebook PBS on Google+
PBS on Twitter PBS's channel on YouTube