Public Broadcasting Service
- PBS redirects here; for alternate uses see PBS (disambiguation).
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service with 349 member TV stations in the United States. PBS headquarters are in Alexandria, 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 in October 1970.
Stations that produce a significant amount of PBS network programming include:
- WGBH-TV 2/19/43/44 Boston
- WNET 13/61 Metro New York
- WETA-TV 26/27 Washington, DC
- KCET 28/59 Los Angeles
- WHYY-TV 12/55 in Philadelphia and Wilmington, serving the Delaware Valley
- WQED-TV 13/38 Pittsburgh, and
- KQED 9/30 San Francisco.
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Introduction
PBS is not a broadcast network in the sense in which that term is usually used in the United States. Unlike the commercial television broadcast model of American networks such as NBC, CBS and ABC, 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 wildly 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 is one of the largest producers of educational programming; news programs are produced by WETA-TV, and the Charlie Rose interview show and Nature come from WNET. 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.
Logos
Main network logos
First logo (1970–1971)
In 1970, Macdonald Carey (known as Dr. Tom Horton on Days of Our Lives) would voice-over and say "This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service." This ident served the network for its first year.
Second logo (1971–1984)
In 1971, PBS introduced the long-running "people" ident, which still serves the network today. This logo starts wtih a blue P on the upper-mid screen, later with a head added facing left, and the word PUBLIC written below. Following it is an orange B with 2 black dots within it and the word BROADCASTING below PUBLIC. Then, a green S comes to the far right, with the word SERVICE at the bottom. Music accompanying it is a synthesizer.
Third logo (1984–1989)
In 1984, the logo introduced the "split identity" format, which has become the most popular revision in the people identity's history. In this logo, a blue P head, just like the one in the previous logo only backwards, starts the ident. Then, a piece of it gets copied to the right to form the new logo. The letters PBS come below it in a typewriter font. Music accompanying this logo is a piano chord.
4th logo (1989–1993)
The logo was remodeled to its fourth format in 1989. This same P-head from the previous logo, only now it starts to come up in a trail. It goes away as the logo now becomes extremely huge, with the text PBS in very small letters on the lower-left corner. Music now simply has a bell string, after that a man's voice says "This is P-B-S".
It is sometimes the earliest of the surviving PBS identities. (This logo was affixed on all new feeds of PBS shows in October 1989, replacing the "people" and "split identity" closings. In turn, when Parental Guidelines were instituted in 1997, much of the availability of the 1989 PBS tag, usually seen on PBS Kids shows, was removed.)
Subsequent logos (1993-present)
An identity now defunct was used from either 1989 or 1990 to 1997 as an alternative for the fourth, fifth, and sixth PBS identities. It was used on all NewsHour episodes from 1995 to 1997.
Introduced in 1993, the fifth PBS identity might appear on prints from local PBS stations, but is otherwise rather rare. A non-animated variant appeared on a few shows, such as Triumph of the Nerds.
Now only seen as the ending ident of Adventures from the Book of Virtues, the sixth PBS identity was introduced in 1996.
The first well-known identity in years was the seventh PBS identity, used from 1998 to 2002.
The eighth PBS logo is quite different from all of the previous logos. It features live-action footage and has many variants, including "Young People," "Performers," "Flowers," "Daddy and Son," and "Generations." The voiceover now says "We are PBS," or occasionally "I am PBS." It was introduced in 2002 and continues to be used today.
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PBS Kids Logos
Until 1993, PBS Kids had no official logo. Starting that year, PBS Kids had an ident that looked a lot like this:
First official kids ident from PBS; ident similar to the general 1993–96 ident |
Since 1999, however, these ident became more like these two:
Girl half | Boy half |
PBS Home Video logos
PBS Home Video's first distinctive logo was a "Transparent Blue P-Head" on the center of the screen, a sky. It was originally released in 1991. After this logo, where an announcer says "The following presentation is from PBS Home Video.", the screen would fade out, then cut to either the "Split Profile" ident ("Cowgirls" only), the "Transparent Blue P-Heads" (1991–1993), the "Orange CGI P-Heads" (1993–1996), or the "Windowsill" (1996–1998). The ident (minus the PBS Home Video part) would repeat itself at the end of the videotape.
In 1998, a whole new ident took form: a blue circle, a green circle, and a red circle (each one with the P-Heads on it) move together and turn purple once they touch and black when "PBS HOME VIDEO" ("PBS DVD" on DVD releases) fades in. No cut to any PBS ident in this one. Still, they placed the 1999 PBS Kids ident at the end of each one released by PBS Kids.
Sources of funding
The largest source of revenue for U.S. public television stations comes from donations by individual viewers. In addition to these member fees, PBS receives federal government money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). PBS-distributed programs may be funded in part by corporate sponsors and non-profit groups such as the Annenberg Foundation. Depending upon their location and licensee, local stations may also be funded in part by state governments, colleges and universities. They can sell small portions of their airtime in the form of underwriting, which differs from traditional advertising in terms of restrictions on language and product usage.
Programming
PBS' evening schedule emphasizes fine arts (Great Performances), drama (Mystery! and Masterpiece Theatre), science (Nova and Scientific American Frontiers), public affairs (Frontline) and independent films (P.O.V. and Independent Lens).
PBS has distributed a number of highly regarded children's shows such as Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Villa Allegre, Zoom!, The Letter People, Barney and Friends, Shining Time Station, Thomas & Friends, Reading Rainbow 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 series have since migrated to commercial television in the U.S., at least.)
But PBS is not the only distributor of public television programming to the affiliates. 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.
Member stations do not rely solely on PBS for their programming. Among the major U.S. syndicators is American Public Television (APT); from these public television syndication sources, stations acquire programming such as The McLaughlin Group. They also produce a variety of local shows, some of which subsequently receive national distribution through PBS or the syndicators.
They are known for rebroadcasting British television dramas and comedies (acquired from the BBC and other sources); so much of the exposure 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; the syndicators are more likely to offer this programming to the US public stations.
Other shows
- American Masters
- Antiques Roadshow
- Austin City Limits
- Charlie Rose
- Frontline
- Globe Trekker
- The Joy of Painting
- Live from Lincoln Center
- The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
- NOW
- NOVA
- Postcards from Buster
- The New Yankee Workshop
- This Old House
- Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered
- Washington Week in Review
Criticism
PBS has been the subject of some controversy.
- Some conservatives dislike its perceived liberal bias and its tax-based revenue and have periodically but unsuccessfully attempted to discontinue funding of CPB. Although state and federal sources account for a minority percentage of public television funding, the system remains vulnerable to political pressure. Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in November 2004 in Baltimore, told PBS officials "they should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate. Mr. Tomlinson said that his comment was in jest and that he couldn't imagine how remarks at a fun occasion were taken the wrong way." [1]
- Certain on the left dislike how much of its funding comes from corporate sponsorships and some are uncomfortable with shows such as Wall $treet Week which they see as promoting a corporate outlook without any corresponding series featuring opposing views from labor unions.
- Some of its documentaries on Islam and the Arab world, such as "Empire of Faith" are attacked as either fawning or factually challenged.
- Individual programs, particularly those dealing with the subject of homosexuality, have been the targets of organized campaigns by those with opposing views including United States Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.
- It was founded to provide diversity in programming at a time when all television was broadcast (as opposed to today's coaxial cable or satellite transmission methods) and most communities received only three or four signals. Today most households subscribe to cable TV or have satellite dishes that receive tens or hundreds of signals, including varied educational and children's programs. However, public television proponents insist that the service be intended to provide universal access, particularly to poor and rural viewers. It is also argued that many cable and satellite productions are of lower quality.
- Most stations solicit individual donations by methods including pledge drives or telethons which can disrupt regularly scheduled programming. Some viewers find this a source of annoyance.
- Criticism by left wing groups has been made at CPB and PBS for making room for conservative commentators Tucker Carlson, a co-host of CNN's Crossfire, and a show with Paul Gigot, an editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
New networks
PBS has also begun at least three new TV networks: PBS YOU, PBS Kids, and PBS DT2 (a feed of HDTV and letterboxed programming for digital affiliates), along with packages of PBS programs that are similar to local stations' programming, the PBS-X feeds. (See List of United States broadcast television networks). Some or all are available on many digital cable systems, on free-to-air TV via communications satellites [2], as well as via DirecTV direct broadcast satellite. PBS YOU is also available on Dish Network.
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; DT2 on the HD signals.
See also
- List of United States television networks
- Television in the United States
- National Public Radio
- List of PBS affiliates