I’m hoping this Mobile DTV business is all an engineering geek thing that dies before it reaches the executive offices, but that may not be the case. In public TV in particular (more than in radio) I get the sense that the engineers run the show much of the time. If PBS leaders are smart, they’ll kill anything beyond small R&D investments (<$100,000 annually) in Mobile DTV immediately.

Sadly, both NPR and PBS are controlled by member stations, which completely stunts their evolutionary growth as networks (it also stunts station evolution). NPR has, thankfully, broken free of much of the political drag when it comes to developing online/mobile services for national consumers. There may be a backlash coming to NPR soon, but so far most stations have thrown their hands up and said, explicitly or implicitly, "Go ahead — we don't have the resources to do online stuff anyway." And really, PBS has done more online than most stations, too.

But the long-term viability of the system is definitely in doubt if there isn't a major shake-up in the financial and political structures governing this 40-year-old beast.

Thanks for the comment. I only wish you'd had a better experience inside the system. And thanks for your work on Sprout!

I suspect the reason PTV groups are making grandiose plans here is that it’s a LOCAL digital channel which in theory does not disrupt the broken structure of public television. Unfortunately PBS, CPB, NETA and APTS are not able to view the complete marketplace because the vast majority of viable distribution paths to the consumer disinter-mediate the local station. As a result, they invest heavily and narrowly in channels that are politically safe but economically unstable and technologically immature. It is really unfortunate.

I was at PBS from 1999-2006 and left as VP of Digital Ventures. My undoing was the joint venture I spearheaded between Comcast, Sesame Workshop, HIT Entertainment and PBS that resulted in the launch of Sprout on cable. Today Sprout is one of the most successful digital preschool services in the market and I suspect will secure a home for educational children’s programming for decades to come (with or without PBS), thereby preserving the goal of public television but perhaps eliminating the inefficiencies.

I can tell you first hand that putting that deal together in public television’s antiquated system and political environment took every ounce of energy that we could muster to “save” PBS Kids from the downward slide.

I truly wish PBS the best because I passionately believe in the mission and the quality of programming; however, when I read an article like this I am so grateful to be removed from that environment. There are other amazing independent media brands (several of whom I represent through my digital consulting practice) who understand the market deeply and can act quickly. To that end, new distribution models will at least ensure that Americans can continue to receive the best in educational, cultural and independent media, irrespective of whether PBS is able to be a part of the landscape.

Thanks for article. It (painfully) took me back a few years and reinforced why I felt the need to do execute Sprout with the extraordinary support of a smart, market-savvy team… many of whom also left in 2006 to pursue their careers in more progressive, in-touch media companies.

Deron Triff
(Former Vice President of Digital Ventures for PBS)