People

Burson-Marsteller executive moves up to chair PBS Board of Directors

By |

The PBS Board of Directors elected Don Baer of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide as its new chair Wednesday, promoting him from vice-chair during a meeting at headquarters in Arlington, Va. The board also confirmed Baer, c.e.o. of the public relations and communications firm, for a second term on the 27-member governing body. His career includes nearly a decade at Discovery Communications, in roles from producer to senior executive, and working as senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and as a journalist for publications including U.S. News & World Report. Continuing as general vice-chair is American Council on Education President Molly Corbett Broad, also re-elected to the board. Jack Galmiche, president of Nine Network in St.

Programs/Content

Downton Abbey once again helps generate big budget surplus for PBS

By |

PBS closed its books on fiscal 2013 with an extra $24.5 million — more than twice the $11 million surplus that bolstered its bottom line in FY12. Earnings generated by distribution deals for the hit drama Downton Abbey once again brought in much of the extra revenue, along with ancillary revenues from PBS Kids’ properties, short-term investment gains and reimbursements for overhead costs tied to grants. Molly Corbett Broad, chair of the PBS Board’s finance committee, announced the positive financial results Nov. 6 at a PBS Board meeting. The meeting, at PBS headquarters in Arlington, Va., was the first of the network’s new fiscal year and marked the beginning of a new board term for directors elected or re-elected to new terms. In addition to electing a chair and two vice chairs, directors were briefed on PBS’s expanded efforts to diversify its content, workforce and audience.

System/Policy

PBS won’t raise dues income again next year; Kerger warns it may lose capabilities and impact

By |

Paula Kerger wants public TV stations to know that the combination of flat station dues, dwindling resources and balanced budgets may be slowly strangling PBS’s ability to fund new-media innovation. “We can’t continue to go down this path,” the network president told her board March 26 [2010]. PBS’s member stations are strangling, too, and the network probably can’t count on them to contribute more in dues for fiscal year 2011, which starts in July. The board endorsed a balanced budget — to be sent to stations for comment — that relies on no increases in assessments for member services, program services or fundraising programming.The board also capped at 5 percent any dues increase or decrease levied on an individual station. Fiscal 2011 will be PBS’s second year in a row without an increase in station support.

Public Media Policybase

By-laws of Public Broadcasting Service, 2000

By |

This is the PBS Board’s governing document as amended Feb. 6, 2000. For comparison, see also
the original PBS bylaws of 1969, and the most recent version, amended November 2011. Article I
Name
The Corporation shall be known as the PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE (PBS). Article II
Offices
2.1 Registered Office.

Public Media Policybase

Public Broadcasting Service By-Laws, 1969

By |

On Nov. 11, 1969, eight days after a quartet of public broadcasters signed PBS’s Articles of Incorporation, they adopted these initial bylaws. See also the network’s amended bylaws as of 2000. The initial By-Laws of the Public Broadcasting Service have been preliminarily adopted by the Incorporators to permit Public Broadcasting Service to begin to function under the laws of the District of Columbia. They are subject to ratification or modification by the Public Broadcasting Service Board of Directors upon its election.