Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV

Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by reaperducer on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:44PM (#21819232)

Can anyone explain why PBS television stations are local rather than nationwide?

The stations are locally-owned. Usually by a college, school district, or local government entity.

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a local program on one

Almost all PBS stations have local programming, even in small markets. Some of them award-winning programs.

And a lot of the "national" shows are actually productions of local stations. For example, Masterpiece is WGBH/Boston (in partnership with other broadcasters). Sesame Street started out as WNET/Newark.

Some PBS stations do a good job of providing unique programming to small markets. For example, in the 90's WVIA/Scranton aired Star Trek reruns because they weren't available in that market.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by lozaning on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @05:16PM (#21819501)

Cant let you leave my boy Huell Howser and his California Gold program produced at KCET off this list.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by jonny_eh on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @06:14PM (#21820032)

Don't forget Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting from WIPB in Muncie, Indiana.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by theremightbe on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @02:38PM (#21828462)

Also a really common type of local program is programming about gardening and other outdoor activities. They'll focus on plants that'll grow in the local climate and usually have specials to tell people that now is the best time to plant some plant or another because the ground has finally thawed or whatever. I've also seen specials about nearby state parks and birdwatching type programs.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by auiya on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @11:52AM (#21826757)

Georgia Outdoors is an incredible show local to the state of Georgia. http://www.gpb.org/television/shows/georgia-outdoors

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by cable2600 on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @01:02AM (#21822264)

Also Doctor Who, Blake's Seven, and Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, as well as Red Dwarf.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by akira2501 on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:51PM (#21819321)

This is a little flip of me.. but, mostly because Nixon's administration wanted it that way. [0]

[0] https://current.org/1979/02/the-nixon-administration-public-...

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by hateful on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:46PM (#21819259)

It's a broadcast station, meaning that they can only serve customers in the range of their antenna. The programming itself is syndicated - and maybe created by a different company as well as the local advertising.

I suspect that you'll have a lot of stations streaming the same thing at different times.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by lucky_cloud on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @07:20PM (#21820549)

I work for a PBS station. There are many bureaucratic hurdles, but distribution is actually one of the things we do best.

As some others have commented, the local/national split works well for PBS and NPR. The model is similar to how local broadcast affiliates work (like your local ABC or CBS station) but is more mutually beneficial.

I can try to answer any specific questions you have, if you want.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by blacksmith_tb on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:47PM (#21819275)

My instinct is the tie-in with public radio stations... which do a fair amount of local reporting (at least mine does). Presumably the cost of producing video programs is high enough that most local stations haven't traditionally done that.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by toast0 on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:51PM (#21819311)

CBS (for example) stations are also local; but with many stations corporate owned and many stations owned by a small handful of companies that operate in many markets. PBS stations are owned by local non-profits or often educational institutions and those have less of a motivation/ability to expand to multiple stations and multiple jurisdictions.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by heavyset_go on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @05:22PM (#21819559)

> Can anyone explain why PBS television stations are local rather than nationwide?

Local PBS channels cover local content. It's the same reason local news isn't broadcast nationwide.

PBS itself does nationwide coverage of news along with creating other content, which is syndicated.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by Spooky23 on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:46PM (#21819262)

No way, they do a ton of local programming. PBS is is really amazing institution.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by TurkishPoptart on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @05:22PM (#21819565)

It certainly is. I watch Newshour almost every day. It's a way better unbiased source of news than reading Twitter all day, that's for damn sure. Skies above CNN, MSNBC, and Fox combined.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by iamnothere on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:56PM (#21819364)

Many Americans don't like the idea of a national state-funded propaganda outlet. Not that a national PBS would necessarily be like that, but it has happened in many other countries, and it's a valid concern.

Edit: there are a number of other reasons as well, including the difficulty of coordinating national broadcasts at the time that PBS was founded. Major networks were once also primarily driven by local affiliates, with some differences in local programming. The US is a big place.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by heavyset_go on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @05:26PM (#21819610)

> Many Americans don't like the idea of a national state-funded propaganda outlet

This exists[1], but it isn't PBS.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by iamnothere on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @10:09PM (#21821417)

It's not aimed at a domestic audience, and until recently this was enforced by law. VOA is also explicitly propaganda, at least under Bernays's more neutral definition of propaganda: it is intended to influence foreign populations to view the US in a favorable light, using what VOA considers to be the most accurate point of view.

Propaganda isn't just Soviet posters describing the abundant harvest. Any widely broadcast messages with an explicit goal to influence populations, even if the messages are accurate, is propaganda.

The recasting of propaganda as "evil lies" (or "fake news") has poisoned the well when it comes to discussion of accurate propaganda, which still exists and is in use every day.

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by paganel on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @05:29PM (#21819641)

There's also Radio Free Europe [1], but I don't think that's what the OP had in mind, as neither BoA nor Radio Free Europe broadcast in the US afaik.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Libert...

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Re:Over 100 PBS local stations start streaming on YouTube TV by TurkishPoptart on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @05:22PM (#21819558)

>Many Americans don't like the idea of a national state-funded propaganda outlet.

Not if you frame it like that, no.

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