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The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service with 349 member TV stations in the United States, with some member stations available by cable in Canada. While the term broadcast covers radio, PBS only covers TV; for radio the United States has National Public Radio, American Public Media and Public Radio International. Both PBS and PBS Kids channels were American adults and kids television channels that ran from 1970 to 2005. They are now known as PBS Kids Sprout, airing both PBS Kids and PBS Kids Sprout shows now for kids only. All programs now are rated TV-Y. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia. PBS was founded in 1969, at which time it took over many of the functions of its predecessor, National Educational Television (NET). PBS commenced broadcasting on October 5, 1970. In 1973, it merged with Educational Television Stations.
Organization PBS is not a broadcast network in the sense in which that term is usually used in the United States, though it is more like U.S. broadcast networks than other public broadcasters that own their stations. Unlike the commercial television broadcast model of American networks such as NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox, in which affiliates give up portions of their local advertising airtime in exchange for network programming, PBS member stations pay substantial 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 counterparts. Scheduling of PBS-distributed series may vary greatly from market to 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" requiring most stations to clear the national prime time programs on a common schedule, so that they can be more effectively marketed on a national basis. 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 (or in most cases produced under contract with) individual member stations. WGBH in Boston is one of the largest producers of educational programming; news programs are produced by WETA-TV in Washington, D.C. and WPBT in Miami, and Cyberchase, the Charlie Rose interview show and Nature come from WNET in New York. Once a program is distributed to PBS, the network (and not the member station that supplied it) retains all rights for rebroadcasts; the suppliers do maintain the right to sell the program in non-broadcast media such as DVDs, books, and licensed merchandise. PBS stations are commonly operated by non-profit organizations or universities in their community of license. In some states, PBS stations throughout the entire state may be organized into a single regional "subnetwork" (ex. Alabama Public Television). Unlike Canada's CBC-SRC, 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 license issues. In the modern broadcast marketplace, this organizational structure is considered outmoded by some media critics. A common restructuring proposal is to reorganize the network so that each state would have one PBS affiliate which broadcast state-wide. However, this proposal is controversial, as it would reduce local community input into PBS programming, especially considering PBS stations are particularly more community-oriented than their commercial counterparts. Programming PBS's evening schedule emphasizes fine arts (Great Performances), drama (Mystery! and Masterpiece Theatre), science (Nova and Scientific American Frontiers), history (American Experience), public affairs (Frontline, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer) and independent films (P.O.V. and Independent Lens). PBS (as Nick Jr. or PBS Kids) has distributed a number of highly regarded children's shows such as Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Villa Alegre, Zoom!, 3-2-1 Contact, Barney & Friends, Shining Time Station, Thomas & Friends, Ghostwriter, Reading Rainbow, Kratts' Creatures, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Popular animated series have included Clifford the Big Red Dog, Arthur, Liberty's Kids and The Magic School Bus. The service has also imported British kids' series including Teletubbies and Boohbah. Some of these programs have since migrated to commercial television, including Ghostwriter and The Magic School Bus. However, 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 (former names include Eastern Educational Network and American Program Service) is second only to PBS for distributing programs to U.S. non-commercial stations. Another distributor is NETA (formerly SECA), 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. PBS stations are known for rebroadcasting British television dramas and comedies (acquired from the BBC and other sources) — these shows are generally seen on Saturday evenings, generally regarded as the least-watched evening of the week due to viewers doing outside activities such as going to a movie, a concert, or other functions; so much of the exposure (or lack thereof) of American audiences to British television (particularly comedies) comes through PBS it has been joked that PBS means "Primarily British Series." However, a significant amount of sharing takes place. The BBC and other media outlets in the region such as Channel 4 often cooperate with PBS stations, producing material that is shown on both sides of the Atlantic. Also, though less frequently, Canadian and Australian, among other international, programming appears on PBS stations (such as The Red Green Show, currently distributed by syndicator Executive Program Services); the public-broadcasting syndicators are more likely to offer this programming to the U.S. public stations. Stations that produce a significant amount of PBS network programming include: Partial list of programs Programs originally aired on PBS Some of these programs still air on channels with older prints, like George Mason University Television. Criticism and controversy PBS has been the subject of some controversy. Political and ideological bias New networks PBS has also spun off a number of TV networks, often in partnership with other media companies: PBS YOU (ended January 2006, and largely succeeded by American Public Television's Create network), PBS KIDS (ended October 1, 2005), PBS KIDS Sprout, and PBS DT2 (a feed of HDTV and letterboxed programming for digitally equipped member stations), along with packages of PBS programs that are similar to local stations' programming, the PBS-X feeds. PBS Kids Go! was promised for October, 2006, but PBS announced in July that they would not be going forward with it as an independent network feed (as opposed to the pre-existing two-hour week daily block on PBS). (See List of United States over-the-air television networks.) Some or all are available on many digital cable systems, on free-to-air TV via communications satellites *, as well as via DirecTV direct broadcast satellite. With the transition to terrestrial 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.PBS Kids announced that they will have an early-morning Miss Lori and Hooper block with four PBS Kids shows usually around 8:00 AM(school time,though kids this age usually don't go to school.) PBS endings usually end with something like "This Is PBS." PBS is also announced that will have an all new Nick Jr. block entitle "Nick Jr On PBS" on November 5 2006. Further reading See also | |||||||||||||||||||||
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