Pubmedia consulting company Public Radio Capital has rebranded as Public Media Company and announced a pair of upcoming projects that reflect its desire to expand its client base.
The 12-year-old Denver-based operation announced the name change April 22, along with a website redesign. Public Media Company will also grow its operations with Channel X, an online marketplace for public media video content, and the Public Media Database, a performance-metric platform for stations.
“The scope of our work has broadened pretty dramatically,” said CEO Marc Hand. Public Media Company had been working with joint licensees and pubTV stations for years before its name change. In addition, public radio and public TV are increasingly overlapping as technology evolves.
“Historically, there has been that division between radio and television,” Hand said. “Increasingly, with the [digital] transition and media platforms and distribution platforms and everything else, we feel like the distinction is getting blurred.”
But the company’s next big project is explicitly geared toward pubTV. Launching in May, Channel X will be a hub for independent producers to post broadcast content for station programmers to browse and purchase.
Channel X is being funded with help from the Wyncote Foundation, which followed up a $500,000 two-year grant with an additional $200,000 grant last year, and the MacArthur Foundation, which is giving PMC $350,000 over two years. In addition, Kansas City’s KCPT is investing funds into the platform and has committed to using its services, and more than 300 indie producers plan to display their content on Channel X, according to Hand.
PMC has yet to set a launch date for the Public Media Database. The project will aim to provide stations with tools to measure metrics related to community impact and other factors not currently tracked by traditional analytics.
Hand also mentioned another future project, “Music X,” but when asked to elaborate, PMC Managing Director Erik Langner declined further comment.