Noncommercial TV stations are telling the FCC that consolidation of MVPD headends is cutting off access to some of their audience and could threaten their carriage rights altogether. PBS and Americas Public Television Stations made that point in a filing with the commission in response to its proposed rulemaking on how to determine a TV station’s designated market area for must-carry purposes.
PBS has tapped a Big Tech exec to help steer content toward streaming and other new media platforms. Leili Boroumand, formerly senior business development executive with Amazon, will be the public broadcaster’s VP of business development. She is charged with expanding the noncom net’s digital footprint, as well as content from 24/7 channel PBS Kids, across multiple platforms.
Noncommercial TV station and network representatives said they are working hard to move to the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast transmission standard and its opportunities for enhanced emergency alerts, interactive educational programming and more, but that it is a challenging change and they can’t predict when a nationwide rollout will be accomplished.
Exclusives
Beyond his books, the handsome, white-haired McCullough may have had the most recognizable presence of any historian, his fatherly baritone known to fans of PBS’s The American Experience and Ken Burns’ epic Civil War documentary. Hamilton author Ron Chernow once called McCullough “both the name and the voice of American history.”
PBS on Wednesday revealed its programming plans for the coming year, including a second season of Native America and the premiere of the American Masters documentary about Anthony Fauci.
TVNewsCheck’s Michael Depp talks with Erika Dilday, executive producer of PBS’s POV documentary series as the show enters its 35th season, looking at what makes potent documentaries work and how local TV stations can make successful forays into the space by drawing on their strong community ties. A full transcript of the conversation is included.
NEW YORK (AP) — America has perfected the stressful TV cooking competition, pitting amateur or professional chefs against each other in such high-pressure, scream-filled shows as “Chopped,” “Cutthroat Kitchen” or “Top Chef.” PBS hopes to change that with an original food competition show, “The Great American Recipe,” which dispenses with the angst and scary knife graphics. It’s […]
A onetime campaign manager, Shields became one of Washington’s most respected political commentators, both as a syndicated columnist and as a genial liberal counterpart to several conservative sparring partners on the PBS NewsHour. He was 85.
Public television built its reputation for news on the Watergate hearings. But on many PBS stations, the hearings are losing out to the likes of Daniel Tiger and Curious George, being consigned to second-class status, airing them only on secondary digital channels instead of their better-known and more widely accessible flagship channels.
PBS’s long-running nightly newscast PBS NewsHour has found its new White House correspondent. The program, produced by WETA, announced that Laura Barrón-López will cover the Biden administration for the program beginning June 13. She was previously a White House reporter for Politico and also worked for the Washington Examiner, The Hill and HuffPost.
The National Memorial Day Concert will return as a live presentation on May 29, with plans including a tribute to General Colin Powell and commemorations of Gold Star families and to those who lost their lives in the Vietnam War. The 90-minute broadcast once again will be hosted by Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise and will once again feature a lineup of musical performances along with tribute segments. It will air on PBS and stream on YouTube starting at 8 p.m. ET.
Judy Woodruff, the veteran news anchor who logged time at NBC News and CNN before taking up anchor duties at PBS’ venerable NewsHour, is expected to leave the desk in early 2023, according to two people familiar with the matter. She is expected to continue to lead the program through this year’s midterm elections. If plans follow through as anticipated, she will be succeeded by Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett, these people say — a major shift at a public-media institution that is a daily part of its viewers’ news routine.
Streaming is important but complicated for PBS, according to Ira Rubenstein, chief digital and marketing officer for the public broadcasting network. “For the last eight years I’ve been at PBS, I’ve been very focused on broadening the distribution of our local stations to digital, and you have to do that at scale,” said Rubinstein, speaking at a session at NAB Show’s Capitalize Experimental Zone theater on Sunday.
DirecTV says the rollout of nearly 250 PBS member stations was completed nine months ahead of schedule.
Public TV broadcasters this week asked the FCC to give them more flexibility when it comes to offering their primary HD signal and multicast subchannels during broadcasters’ transition to NextGen TV (aka ATSC 3.0).
PBS today announced several new long-term initiatives to support diversity in public media. They include a commitment to create a pipeline of diverse documentary filmmakers and a pledge to include more diverse perspectives in key production roles. PBS also announced it will launch on the video-focused social media platform TikTok. PBS President-CEO Paula Kerger announced the initiatives Tuesday at the TCA Winter Press Tour.
The first group of public broadcasting stations to appear on DirecTV stream are being launched early this week by the virtual multichannel video programming distributor. DirecTV Stream and PBS reached a deal to stream PBS member stations in October.
TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp and LG Ads’ Justin Fromm discuss whether children’s specials like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which airs on PBS stations on Oct. 24, still have the power to draw audiences to linear TV in a streaming age.
Muhammad Ali called himself the greatest, and filmmaker Ken Burns, director of the upcoming PBS documentary series about the boxing champion, “global icon and inspiration,” is not one to disagree. The four-part, eight-hour series titled simply Muhammad Ali airs on consecutive nights on PBS beginning Sept. 19. (AP photo/John Rooney)
PBS on Tuesday introduced several new funding initiatives, revealed updated producing partner criteria and announced that it has hired an SVP of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Following a fan outcry over its untimely cancellation, Sanditon has been renewed for Seasons 2 and 3, PBS announced. The eight-part ITV series — based on Jane Austen’s final, unfinished novel — made its stateside debut on PBS in early 2020.
She succeeds Robert Costa at a program best known as the longtime home of the anchor Gwen Ifill.
