Programs/Content

Roku, Xbox pick up pubTV shows

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PBS is jumping into the “over-the-top” video-streaming space with a pair of deals to distribute public TV programs through apps on Roku boxes and Xbox Live.

Programs/Content

Cocktails to honor Big Bird and friends? That’s the spirit

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When public radio managers gathered for November’s Super-Regional Meeting in New Orleans, home to Bourbon Street and the drive-through daiquiri bar, NPR Chair and ideastream COO Kit Jensen mentioned in passing during a panel discussion that her station has its own official cocktail. The “ideaScreamer” is a mix of Grey Goose orange vodka, cranberry juice and a twist of lime, garnished with a lightstick stirrer, according to Peg Neeson, ideastream community relations director. “It’s really quite pretty in a martini glass,” she said. No one at ideastream can recall when the ideaScreamer was created, possibly due to overindulgence in the drink. But bartenders at The Passenger in Washington, D.C., still remember exactly when and how they decided to make a Big Bird, even though the drink was created as a special offering several months ago.

Programs/Content

Hoppe brings ‘outward focus’ to new role as PBS’s chief programmer

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PASADENA, Calif. — The special package of primetime shows about gun violence that PBS unveiled to television critics Monday offers an example of how Beth Hoppe intends to operate as the network’s new chief programmer. Hoppe had been promoted to chief program executive and g.m. only three days before the Dec. 14 shooting in Connecticut claimed the lives of 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School. As news of the tragedy unfolded, Hoppe was on the phone with producers, “trying to figure out what the appropriate PBS response was,” she told Current.

Programs/Content

PBS inks deals for on-demand access to local station content

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PBS unveiled deals to distribute public TV programs on two additional on-demand video streaming platforms — Roku and Xbox Live. The contracts, unveiled last week by PBS Digital chief Jason Seiken, lay the groundwork for apps that will feature local station programming and a limited selection of national content. To gain access, Xbox and Roku users will provide email addresses and choose their local station. The graphic interface on both services will be cobranded with PBS and local station logos. “Xbox and Roku are leaders in the fast-growing ‘over-the-top’ television phenomenon, in which viewers access television programs on-demand on their TV sets using an Internet connection,” Seiken wrote in Jan.

Programs/Content

Nightly Business Report cuts jobs, closes Chicago bureau

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A new round of layoffs at Nightly Business Report, initiated last week, pared full-time staff to 22, down by half from two years ago. Cutbacks included shuttering the show’s Chicago bureau, where chief correspondent Diane Eastabrook has worked for the weeknight financial show since 1993. Also gone is Michele Molnar, a New York–based photography editor since 1996, and Johnnie Streets, longtime senior stocks producer at headquarters in Miami. In all, six positions were eliminated. “We had to do this streamlining on behalf of our investor,” Rick Ray, NBR chief exec, told Current.

People

APT cites top series for programming excellence, names Robert Scully ‘Person of the Year’

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During last month’s Fall Marketplace conference in Sanibel Harbour, Fla., APT honored Doc Martin, Nightly Business Report, Rick Steves’ Hidden Europe and New Scandinavian Cooking with Programming Excellence Awards, recognizing the four series for their positive impact on public TV based on a number of factors, including scope of content, execution, originality, creativity and effectiveness. APT also recognized Robert (Bob) Scully, host and producer of Scully/The World Show, for his outstanding contributions to public television. Scully has provided “10 years of smart television programming” to stations through APT distribution, APT said. He’s also awarded $80,000 in travel scholarships to 63 local station programmers over the years, making it possible for those whose stations couldn’t afford to send them to APT’s Fall Marketplace to attend the event. APT President Cynthia Fenneman presented “Savvy Scheduler Awards” to programmers at five public TV stations, honoring those who have used APT programs to greatest advantage.

CPB Board

Life cycle of a reform: independence of CPB Program Fund

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Ron Hull, a former director of the Program Fund, reflects on the value of buffer from partisan politics
 

Jan. 2, 1979 — Robben Fleming, a university president and an authority on (labor) negotiations, comes to CPB as its third president. Also in January, the politically appointed CPB Board suspends its committees to reevaluate their roles. This decision shelved the board’s Program Committee, which traditionally had voted aye or nay on national production proposals for public TV. Even before Fleming arrived, the CPB Board had been rethinking this process.

Programs/Content

Unleash TV grantmakers and creativity thrives

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Ron Hull, a leader in Nebraska public television since the 1950s, recommends that CPB consider reinstating the semi-autonomy of its grantmakers in TV programming. That was how CPB’s Television Program Fund was set up in 1982 when he succeeded Lewis Freedman as the fund’s director. Hull bases this commentary on a chapter of his new book, Backstage: Stories from My Life in Public Television, published in October by the University of Nebraska Press. When CPB’s Television Program Fund began operating with a measure of autonomy, it inspired “an outpouring of heartfelt creative ideas from myriad producers, both independents and those at PBS stations,” Hull writes.  

During the 1980s I was the fortunate guy in the right place at the right time when the CPB Board appointed me director of the CPB Program Fund for public television.

People

Elmo puppeteer remains on leave; allegations of improper relationship recanted

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Following this week’s  media scandal over allegations that were aggressively rebutted and later recanted, award-winning Sesame Street puppeteer Kevin Clash remains on a leave from his role as Elmo, one of the show’s most beloved characters. An accusation that Clash had an inappropriate relationship with an underage boy, published online early Nov. 12 by gossip news site TMZ, prompted Clash to request leave so that he could defend his reputation. Sesame Workshop, which looked into the allegations after learning of them in June, granted the leave and issued a statement:

“We . .

Programs/Content

KAET: 30 years from The Operation to The Latest Procedure

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In February 1983, Phoenix’s PBS station KAET aired the world’s first live telecast of open-heart surgery. The station marks that upcoming 30th anniversary with a pilot for its new occasional medical series, The Latest Procedure, featuring an anterior total hip replacement. For the hourlong surgery, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ted Firestone of Scottsdale recorded the entire operation through a minicam strapped to his head. Viewers are with him as he meets with the patient, scrubs in, explains surgical tools and provides a personal tour of the operating room before surgery begins. They also observe what Firestone sees as he operates.

Programs/Content

Tiny KEET’s Big Bands reveals musical life in incarceration camps

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KEET in Eureka, Calif. — one of the smallest TV stations in the pubcasting system — has produced a unique documentary featuring woodcut animation: Searchlight Serenade: Big Bands in the Japanese American Incarceration Camps. The 58-minute film provides first-person accounts of nine detainees who played trumpet and saxophone and sang for their fellow prisoners. Their stories are animated with traditional Japanese woodcuts and drawings by local artist Amy Uyeki, whose parents had lived in the camps. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, in 1941, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced into the holding areas during World War II.