PBS and six stations are testing approaches for soliciting donations through COVE, PBS’s local-national video platform, according to PBS.
Five 15-second pre-roll ads will instruct users to click on a donation button that is linked to a local station’s fundraising page. PBS will compare results for each ad with click-through rates and donor conversions. It expects to report on results by the end of October.
Stations participating in the pilot are Iowa Public Television; KPBS in San Diego; KLRU, Austin, Texas; PBS SoCal in Los Angeles; WGVU, Kalamazoo, Mich.; and Chicago’s WTTW.