I wonder how much they pay for the extra programming on Create, World, Kids, and Learn? Forty years ago, I watched “This Old House”, “Masterpiece Theater”, “Mystery”, and “Sneak Previews”, all on the same channel. Now, “Sneak…” is gone, “Mystery” has been mashed into “Masterpiece”, and “TOH” has been banished from prime time. The local PBS station didn’t even run the farewell to Norm special, when he retired. One month out of every three is “pledge drive”, a combination of concerts that have been in the can for decades, and charlatans hawking their self-help books. It will be interesting to see what impact enforced austerity has on PBS.
Much of it on subordinate channels is repurposed from past broadcasts elsewhere, and therefore essentially free. There is a bit licensed from foreign sources and that costs, but the prices are low compared to doing an all original production.
In today’s media landscape you can’t survive having “a channel”. You will be lost in the din. ESPN has 5 or 6. HBO expanded to a half dozen, Showtime likewise, and even Discovery found it couldn’t survive with just Discovery, so they have TLC and now a slew of others. And they multi-run some programming on more than one channel to save on costs.
PBS has a pledge drive twice a year. (Some local PBS stations do more.) The concerts are licensed and PBS gets a cut of any sales that result, either from the DVDs or CDs sales, or the books that are hawked. In the can or not, these things spike viewing, and that’s why they are used this way.
Sure about that? They don’t need to pay the copyright holder every time they broadcast a program?
The foreign news programs are on “World”, but, my new-ish Samsung TV came with Samsung’s free streaming service pre-loaded, so I can watch the Beeb or Sky News any time I want. The cost to the local station to run “World” may be low, but not having “World” would cost even less.
The one in Detroit runs a month long pledge drive every quarter. The station here doesn’t even follow the PBS schedule very well. When I first moved here, I missed the last two or three seasons of “Inspector Morse”, because, instead of showing “Mystery” in it’s Thursday prime time spot, channel 56 ran it randomly, in the middle of the night.
I can’t imagine why. How can promoting a charlatan like “Dr Amen” burnish the station’s image as a source of unbiased, fact-based, information?
Amen has built a profitable business around the use of SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography imaging for diagnostic purposes.) His marketing of SPECT scans and much of what he says about the brain and health in his books, media appearances, and marketing of his clinics have been condemned by scientists and doctors as lacking scientific validity and as being unethical, especially since the way SPECT is used in his clinics exposes people to harmful radiation with no clear benefit.
…and the local PBS station gives this character a platform to spread his nonsense and fleece people.
Not if they ARE the copyright holder. At HGTV we owned 90% of what was aired. We had individual production companies make it, but we owned it. We could run it forever, slice and dice it (and did), do anything we wanted. (The other 10% was licensed, some from PBS, some from Japan or Europe or wherever. Always cheap.)
Sure, because Samsung made a deal to pre-load it on their TVs to get distribution and paid for the privilege. They have an ad-supported channel, I think Samsung’s is Samsung TV+. I have Vivio+ on my Vivio sets. And TiVo has a free TiVo+ option. Everybody wants in on the ad money that’s flying around. It won’t last, they will consolidate or close (they’re all “startup” channels) going around the cable systems which now charge big bucks to launch your swell new channel. (Rupert had to pay $11 per household to get Fox News launched, and that was in addition to $300 million in “investment” in cable operators at the time. Fox is now a gusher, and cable ops pay Fox monthly for the privilege. )
Oh I was talking about the concerts and oldies-repackage shows. I know nothing about the so-called “health programs” they carry. There must be a lot of money in it; all the right wing podcasts make beaucoup dough off supplements and survival food that’s for sure.
What did you think of the US destroying the huge pile of emergency rations stashed in Dubai, that hit their expiration date, blaming the waste on the previous administration, instead of delivering the food to Gaza, or any of several other famine spots, before it expired?
The station in Detroit originates rather little. “Masterpiece” shows the logo of WGBH, in Boston, which originates the feed. Of course, WGBH obtains most of the “Masterpiece” programming in Europe. TOH was originally produced by WGBH, but Time Inc bought the property some years ago. TOH is now distributed by WETA in Washington DC. “Austin City Limits” is produced by KLRU in Austin, TX.
The Detroit station does produce “Under The Radar Michigan”, which is mostly about a guy traveling around the state, touting hotels and restaurants in tourist destinations…I wonder how much of a kickback they receive from the businesses they tout?
NPR should be alright with the funding cuts. They say they get less than 1% of their funding from the Feds.
NPR operates independently of the U.S. government. And while federal money is important to the overall public media system, NPR gets less than 1% of its annual budget, on average, from federal sources.
To hear the local station carry on, you would think the government is cutting their heart out. Other sources say PBS receives about 15% of it’s budget from the government.
Ever been through a budget cut? It ain’t fun and it ain’t easy.
But for reference, at the most optimistic, DOGE cut $180 billion. (Most estimates are lower, except for DODG’s own, of course.) That equates to about 2% of the Federal Budget. The real figure is more like 1%.
Now go find another 14%, so yeah, they’re not happy. I’m not either, but that’s just me.
I enjoy quite a few programs on World. Ian Bremmer’s G-zero world. Energy Switch. Public Square. Several more.
I notice all programs have a list of sponsors. They probably contribute to production. Donations support station operations. Rural stations depend on fed funds for operating costs.
What happens next. Mad scramble for funds from other sources. Will stations close? Be sold? More religious broadcasting?
We just had this happen with a local public radio station. Disgruntled volunteer deejays resulted in loss of donations and bk. Station and radio frequency sold to Christian broadcasting network.
I remember when the only sponsorship for “Masterpiece Theater” was a few seconds long look at a slide of the Mobil Oil logo, and a voiceover “this program is made possible by a grant from Mobil Corporation”. Now, I need to sit through about 5 minutes of adverts, plus a rollup of the names of the patrons who support the program. Same thing with TOH. They used to have a slide for Corning Glass, and they always used Corning fiberglass insulation. Now, it’s about 5 minutes of advertising from Home Depot, GMC, and I forget who else, for a half hour program.
And some of it is infomertials. I mentioned before “Under The Radar Michigan”, which is produced by the Detroit PBS station. Apparently, that program is carried by PBS, and in neighboring Canadian provinces. all over the Great Lakes region, as it promotes Michigan tourist traps, and related hotels and restaurants.
World now has a Great Lakes series that covers Michigan and the area. Lots of regional programming is available but often not shown every. Most people know of the Boston programs but Philadelphia and Pittsburgh also have some good ones.
Side channels give PBS stations more space but still not enough for everyone. You would think many would be available on the internet if you knew where to look.
An army can not march on an empty stomach. As long as the US ships food into war zone all sides in the zone can fight.
People around the world expect food from the US to continue the battle. What do you think of that?
If Gaza held elections since 2005 there would be no war today. If the PO held proper elections there would be agreements in place and no taking of land.
The bad guys are not who you are assuming? Or are they? It is not bullet rips, and now we know.
I went through two rounds of pay cuts at RS, because corporate wanted to fluff up their bottom line. There was a RIF every year I was at WPI. No pay cuts, but no raises either. Then another pay cut, and a RIF, at the moving company, because it was 2009 and companies weren’t buying office furniture.
The reason for pay cuts and pay stagnation is a low corporate tax rate. Invest in America and pay rises. Economies of scale are created. We make the country very wealthy. But TPTB got people to vote against the entirety of the country.
I remember when RV traveling years ago, before we had a Sirious satellite radio in the vehicle, or cell phones, the only radio stations one could find out in the boondocks were the crazy RW/NJ stations, Limbaugh and worse, so there was always a search for either public radio or maybe an FM station to dodge the BS… So a lot of the backroads were swamped with all the RW junk, it’s no wonder that’s where they picked up their ‘news’… Sad, really sad…