PBS Living, a new over-the-top streaming channel featuring lifestyle and how-to content, will launch Thursday on Prime Video Channels, an Amazon subscription service. PBS Distribution, which is overseeing the channel deal, is also “restructuring and extending” its partnership with Amazon on PBS Kids content, PBSd Co-President Andrea Downing told station GMs.
The Knight Foundation says it will invest $300 million in local journalism over the next five years. Among the beneficiaries are the American Journalism Project, which provides grants to local nonprofit news organizations; the investigative site ProPublica; Report for America, a service organization that pays for the hiring of local journalists; and PBS’s Frontline, the documentary program that’s making its first foray into local news.
PBS Eyes Streaming Agreements
PBS, already offering programs on streaming outlets such as Amazon, Netflix and Roku, is considering additional agreements with Sling TV and YouTube TV. “We’ve been in discussions with them,” said PBS President Paula Kerger Saturday during the PBS portion of the annual winter press tour for TV writers. “I’m not making any announcements today, but stay tuned. … We think that’s certainly a place that our viewers would appreciate.”
PBS has signed a long-term lease on a new headquarters less than a mile from its current location in Arlington, Va., and will move in summer 2020. The broadcaster has been housed at 2100 Crystal Drive since 2006. That lease expires in 2021, PBS President Paula Kerger told GMs in an email.
Exclusives
President Trump has asked the broadcast networks to clear 9 p.m. ET Tuesday, during which, based on his tweet, it is presumed he will make good on his threat to declare a state of national emergency to build his southern border wall.
Small Town Oil Boom Documentary Airs On PBS Tonight
Noncommercial TV stations want the FCC to let them spend the money on a post-incentive auction repack campaign funded by Congress in the Ray Baum’s FCC reauthorization act. That would include coordinating the campaign for both noncommercial and commercial stations.
Discovery and ABC both rely on the cloud — one public, one private — to deliver their cable networks. Now broadcasters are looking at how the cloud can benefit not just distribution but also production, whether that means live news or sports coverage or post-production applications like editing.
On PBS, The Truth About Illegal Election Funding
The ousted anchor can’t force PBS to hand over internal documents dating back decades and two of his claims have been dismissed.
The BBC, Fox News and PBS are the most-trusted TV news brands in the U.S., according to Research Intelligencer by Brand Keys, which surveyed 4,012 viewers who rated broadcast and cable brands that they watch more than three times per week “to determine how much trust those brands engendered.”
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Betty White sees no point in slowing down at age 96, as long as her phone keeps ringing with offers to work. The actress known […]
PBS has named Perry Simon has been named chief programming executive and general manager, general audience programming. In his new role, Simon will oversee all non-children’s programming for the public broadcaster. Simon was general manager of BBC America from 2010 to 2015.
The host, whose contract was suspended and has since been terminated, is suing the public broadcaster for dropping him. PBS has issued a response to his lawsuit — and it details witness accounts about the talk show host’s alleged sexual harassment and dalliances with subordinates.
The drama from PBS Distribution is coming exclusively to the PBS Masterpiece Amazon channel And PBS Passport beginning March 23.
In Principle, with columnist Michael Gerson and commentator Amy Holmes, will air Friday nights starting April 13. PBS will decide after an eight-week run whether to continue.
Smiley claims PBS used a sexual misconduct investigation as a pretext to get rid of him, but the network says the decision to suspend his show was justified.
The golden anniversary of America’s favorite neighbor’s appearance is being celebrated with a PBS special next month, a new postage stamp, a feature-length documentary coming out this summer and plans for a Tom Hanks-led biopic. “It’s just a wonderful, thrilling time for me,” said his widow, Joanne Rogers. “I’m just sorry that Fred’s not here to share it. But I think he would be just as amazed as I am.”
President Donald Trump’s newly unveiled 2019 budget again proposes the elimination of funding for the three major entities that award federal funding for public broadcasting and the arts: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts. (AP photo/Susan Walsh)
A coalition of top public broadcast organizations formally withdrew a recommendation Friday that the FCC ease equal employment opportunity requirements for public stations. America’s Public Television Stations, NPR, CPB and PBS jointly recommended the review in a joint response to the commission’s request for comments on its agenda to modernize media regulations. After supporters of the EEO rules objected last week, the organizations formally withdrew it.
PBS To Mark ‘Mister Rogers’ 50th Anniversary
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Michael Keaton is narrating a 50th anniversary tribute to the late Fred Rogers and his beloved children’s program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” “Mister Rogers: It’s You I […]
Cumberbatch Back As Sherlock? It’s A Mystery
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Benedict Cumberbatch had a ready answer when asked when he might star in another “Sherlock” on PBS. “Goodbye,” he said, pleasantly, as he darted out of […]
PBS Is Eyeing New Latenight Fare
PBS President Paula Kerger told journalists Tuesday at the annual TV critics’ winter press tour that the network has tightened its policies for preventing and reporting sexual harassment. In addition, PBS announced a five-part series starting Feb. 2 that will consider changes that need to be made in every American workplace. Meanwhile, Kerger said, PBS will take a long look at possible programs to fill the time slots previously held by Charlie Rose and Tavis Smiley. No deadline has been set for a decision, she said, but options include retaining Christiane Amanpour.
Paula Kerger Talks About Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley
PBS Announces Three New Shows
PBS will broadcast a BBC news program featuring Washington correspondent Katty Kay for the second half of Charlie Rose’s vacated time slot, pairing it with a Christiane Amanpour program that began airing last week. The program, titled Beyond 100 Days, features the London-based Christian Fraser as co-anchor.
Following his firing from PBS after allegations of sexual relationships with subordinates, Tavis Smiley told ABC’s Good Morning America Monday that he’s never coerced anyone into a relationship but has had consensual relationships in the workplace. He added that PBS made a mistake. The public broadcaster shot back, “Tavis Smiley needs to get his story straight,” it said in a statement, which also promised more accusations: “Additional allegations are continuing to come to light since last week’s announcement.”
“PBS made a huge mistake,” Tavis Smiley told ABC’s Good Morning America today, in his first live interview since PBS suspended distribution of his interview program indefinitely, over sexual misconduct allegations. The Tavis Smiley Show has aired on PBS for 14 seasons.
PBS has suspended its longtime latenight talker Tavis Smiley after looking into allegations of sexual misconduct against its host. PBS said it had engaged an outside law firm to investigate “troubling allegations” against the host.
