Current (https://current.org/tag/american-public-television/)
James Patterson, an author who knows how to entertain middle-schoolers, teamed up with South Florida PBS and American Public Television to launch a four-episode series.
The final season will be shot and broadcast in Britain in 2019 and will available here in 2020.
“There are lots of stories we want to explore, and we want to do them well,” series producer Philippa Braithwaite told Current.
The travel host discusses his business model, whether he feels pressure to follow Vice’s example, his advocacy for marijuana legalization and more.
Popular programs included A Place to Call Home, a 13-part series set in 1953 in rough and rural Australia — sort of an updated Outback Downton Abbey.
Vme is not the only public TV multicast channel that’s gaining traction with viewers. Create and World, channels featuring how-to shows and public affairs programs, have the widest carriage and remain the most popular. Although audience data on PTV multicast channels is limited — in part because only 20 stations are able to subscribe to ratings services for their channels — viewership has grown 18 percent over the past four years, according to TRAC Media, which provides ratings analyses to local pubcasters. Lifestyle-oriented Create is the most dominant of the three channels. Since its national launch via APT distribution 10 years ago, it has secured carriage on 106 licensees and now reaches 78 percent of television households.
SAN DIEGO — Mystery Science Theater 3000 could be headed for public television. It’s one of some 75 shows that public TV programmers are previewing at distributor American Public Television’s annual Fall Marketplace, running here through Thursday. In the cult comedy series, janitor Joel Robinson (played by series creator Joel Hodgson) is forced to watch grade-Z movies on a remote space station as part of a psychological experiment devised by an evil scientist. Robinson creates robot pals Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot and Gypsy to watch with him, and they pass the time by making snarky yet erudite comments throughout each film. Their shadows are superimposed along the bottom of the screen so viewers see the movie while hearing their quips.
Plus: Jian Ghomeshi and the CBC’s bigger problems; and Melody Kramer’s proposal for convening communities.
Rick Steves’ Europe Travel Skills from American Public Television was among the shows generating cash for stations.