public television

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.

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.

The FCC’s TV spectrum auction is producing unusual and unexpected gifts for a handful of fortunate noncommercial broadcasters in major markets.

The Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary premiere also garners more than 2 million streams across PBS Digital Platforms, making it the highest-streamed series premiere in PBS history.

Public broadcasters are sending equipment and engineers to the hurricane-ravaged island this week, while nonprofits and foundations are organizing to combat government corruption amid the disaster.

A Santa Rosa, Calif., PBS station, KRCB, is the winning bidder for the San Mateo County Community College District’s KCSM, offering $12 million for the noncommercial station. The $12 million is a far cry from the $114 million the college district could have received had its employees not botched the sale of the station’s spectrum in an FCC auction last November.

PBS member station WCTE Nashville (DMA 29) has ordered a Comark Parallax transmitter from Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark. The new DTV transmitter, which will be delivered in early September, will […]

Even in a fractious era, the filmmaker still believes that his documentaries can bring every viewer in. “Documentaries are traditionally advocacy,” Burns says. He sees his films as acts of “emotional archeology” that aspire to be art. When Paula Kerger, PBS’s president, recently introduced Burns in Los Angeles, she quoted a tweet that described him as “the Marvel Studios of PBS.”