CPB backing producers' DTV experiments
Originally published in Current, Aug. 24, 1998
By Karen Everhart Bedford
CPB unveiled its strategy to begin developing content for the digital TV era, announcing last week a two-pronged initiative that will back experiments in enhanced TV and multicasting, as well as traditional analog programs.
"Going Digital" funding guidelines that CPB issued Aug. 17 ask television producers to focus their creative energies on digital projects that emphasize education, innovation, diversity and local relevance--four qualities that CPB has established as its "overarching priorities" for all future TV program grants. [Text of guidelines on CPB's web site.]
Depending on the proposals it receives, CPB will commit $3 million to $4 million in grant rounds this fall and next spring, according to Katie Carpenter, v.p. of programming. Proposals for the fall round must be submitted between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30.
In April CPB halted its television program grant-making to launch a strategic review of TV content for the digital era, a consultative process involving producers, tekkies and others. During the PBS Annual Meeting in Miami, where CPB executives discussed digital conversion and gathered feedback, some producers worried that, in its enthusiasum to explore digital TV's potential, CPB would divert its already limited program dollars from traditional programs. [Earlier story.]
But the guidelines released last week create two categories--"TV of Today" and "TV of Tomorrow." CPB describes these guidelines as "transitional" because future television initiatives will be informed by an evaluation of "Going Digital" projects, and an assessment of PBS's pipeline needs, according to Peggy O'Brien, CPB v.p. of education. Only projects funded as "TV of Tomorrow" will be eligible for research and development grants.
"What it was, nobody could say"
During its strategic review, CPB found that "substantial work had already been done" to assess the capabilities of high definition television and datacasting, said Carpenter. "Enhanced TV is the one that we zeroed in on as needing the most experimentation. It's this rare hybrid of television and computer that's better than TV and better than computer--but what it was nobody could say because there were no prototypes."
Keen interest among public TV stations to develop customized program services influenced CPB to include multicasting in the digital initiative. Stations "want to develop strands for important audiences but lack the materials," said Carpenter.
In addition to the niche digital channels PBS has developed--for kids and life-long learners, for example--many stations want to offer a Spanish-language service; others are looking at channels for teens, according to Carpenter. CPB intends to fund research and development of projects that would result in specific multicasting plans.
Carpenter anticipates that the fall grant round will elicit more traditional projects than the one to follow in spring 1999. But she's already heard from producers who are "inspired by enhanced TV" and want to revise their proposals to make them interactive or participatory.
In the incubator
Some demonstrations of digital enhancement are already underway. This summer CPB put 10 such projects--from producers in Iowa, Boston, Texas, Seattle and elsewhere--into its so-called "digital incubator." Producers received limited grants for digital enhancements of programs already in the pipeline. The end products will be short demos--less than 10 minutes--of what these programs would look like if produced for enhanced television in 2003.
Once finished, producers and tekkies will be invited to tinker with the demos to "get a notion of what may be possible," said O'Brien. CPB may take the demos on the road for presentations to groups of producers, or publish them on its web site.
Carpenter described the demos as "design consultancies" and said CPB's investment in each one is "very small."
"We offer a little bit of financial incentive to enter into this frontier with us, but really it's 'go at your own risk'," she said. "Only the willing and well-prepared can really make the journey at this point. The point of this initiative we've just announced is all about getting everybody into the game."
"Third and Indiana" is one such demo being produced by WHYY in Philadelphia in collaboration with a local theater company and MIT's Media Lab. Carpenter described it as a "multi-linear cross-over project" with both dramatic and documentary aspects.
The project evolved from the Arden Theatre's production of "Third and Indiana," a play about inner city problems that was based on a novel by Steve Lopez, a former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist. WHYY-TV/FM contributed to the stage presentation by shooting video scenes from the North Philly neighborhood depicted in the play; these pieces brought "the real world into the theatrical performance," explained to Glenn Holsten, producer/director.
On its own air WHYY broadcast a multipart radio series discussing issues raised by the play, and "Voices from Third and Indiana," a TV documentary about real people who live in the neighborhood. CPB asked WHYY to adapt these materials into a digital prototype, and brought Heidi Gitelman, a graduate student at MIT's Media Lab and former TV producer, into the project. Arden's director Aaron Posner also is collaborating on the prototype.
Plans call for WHYY to re-shoot some scenes from the play in the neighborhood, and develop "sidebars and back-stories that expand on the linear story, fusing documentary and fictional elements," explained Holsten.
"Heidi and I are not interested in a CD-ROM experience," said Holsten. They aim to streamline the materials and "still make something that is a powerful story, that enhances the drama and the technology."
Even though "Third and Indiana" is about a specific Philadelphia neighborhood, the end product will be relevant to other communities that suffer the same hardships, Holsten said. "It's a little story with national interests."
WNET is incubating a digital prototype from a Great Performances film about Itzhak Perlman, "My Life in Music," according to Ruth Ann Burns, v.p. of education. The film follows Perlman to a school in East Hampton and to the Juilliard, where he works with music students. "He talks about his commitment to music education and the importance of music in a child's life," explained Burns.
The digital prototype, while still in the formative stages, may feature interactive elements that allow students in the viewing audience to participate in Perlman's lessons, offer additional material on-screen in a web-page format, or display an interactive, on-screen keyboard. Both Jac Venza, executive producer of Great Performances, and Perlman will contribute creatively to the prototype.
"To be able to work with someone like Jac and with someone of Perlman's background is a unique opportunity," added Burns. "They'll both be very much involved in shaping this."
In addition to "Going Digital," CPB continues to pursue other ideas that surfaced during the review. Proposals to create a DTV Lab that would experiment with DTV technologies, and to establish a so-called "convergence fund" through which CPB and like-minded foundations would support digital content development, are "still in the mix," said O'Brien.
"A number of other ideas are in the hopper," she acknowledged. "We are talking to lots of different folks," including media innovators at Columbia University and MIT, generating a "mad stew of possibilities."
High-def joins schedule, interactivity in tryouts
By Steve Behrens and Karen Everhart Bedford
Originally published in Current, June 22, 1998
MIAMI BEACH -- With DTV broadcasting coming in November, PBS plans to begin presenting one high-definition program a month, while pubcasters try early on-air experiments with the interactive side of DTV.
PBS announced the plans this month at its annual meeting in Miami Beach, while station executives warned that many lack the cash to convert to digital transmission, and some producers worried that DTV mania will divert money from program production.
Believers were also very much in view, as PBS screened clips from forthcoming HDTV productions on a massive projection screen in a hotel ballroom, and presented WebTV developer Steve Perlman, who wowed many pubcasters with the latest version of his consumer product that impressively demonstrates many of DTV's expected interactive features.
PBS's high-def feeds begin Nov. 9, during what publicists call PBS Digital Week, with "Chihuly Over Venice," an extravaganza showing the making of glass artist Dale Chihuly's massive chandeliers, produced in analog HDTV by Gary Gibson of KCTS, Seattle.
The same night, computer columnist Bob Cringely will explain DTV in a half-hour HDTV show, "Digital Bob: Cringely on HDTV" (working title). On Nov. 10 and 11, a number of stations will demo the interactive side of futuristic TV with an enhanced digital version of the two-part "Frank Lloyd Wright," next in Ken Burns' bio series on great Americans. The demo will use Intel's Intercast technology, which combines over-the-air TV with interactivity in today's personal computers. And on Nov. 12, PBS will unveil a new part of the PBS Online web site, about digital TV.
CPB, meanwhile, is backing interactive experiments, including digital supplements to the national "PBS Debate Night" broadcast that would deal with local dimensions of the political issues under discussion, said Katie Carpenter, CPB v.p. of programming.
And CPB has invested in creation of an interactive component for Anna Deveare Smith's "Twilight L.A.," a one-woman performance piece about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, adapted for PBS. The design will "create a multi-linear trip through the script," said Carpenter, with documentary coverage of the riots, follow-up interviews with the real-life people that Smith portrays in her work, and reports on how other cities reacted to the riots. Producer Cherie Fortis of Hipster Entertainment Inc. is working on the project with MIT's Media Lab.
Later HDTV feeds will include such specials as WETA's Kennedy Center Presents tribute to bluesman Muddy Waters, taped in high-def and scheduled for Jan. 27, and "Sahara," a two-hour natural history special produced on Super 35mm film by Mandalay Media Arts and Devillier Donegan Enterprises, scheduled for late 1999.
"We're convinced viewers will come to these programs in droves and will be glued to their seats," said Bob Ottenhoff, PBS chief operating officer.
Click on the little "i"
"Take the web seriously," advised Howard Cutler, director of WGBH Interactive, in a June 14 session at the PBS conference. Major high-tech companies already are learning how to produce for DTV's anticipated computer-TV convergence by adapting Internet technology, he said.
"PBS and member stations can drive convergence as well as anyone," said PBS Executive Vice President John Hollar, citing PBS Online and the web offerings of 160 public TV stations. The PBS site is drawing 2.4 million visitors a month, making it one of the top 30 web sites on the Internet, he said.
But while Cutler and a few other pubcasters could show examples of their own interactive TV experiments, the best demo was of WebTV, a $200 box (plus $24.95 a month for online service) available in doohickie stores across the country. PBS gave the stage to Perlman, president of WebTV Networks, Inc., a firm that started less than three years ago and since has become a key Microsoft acquisition and built a WebTV subscribership of 350,000, including many folks who'd never own a harder-to-use, more expensive computer.
To an intent audience, Perlman showed how his intricately thought-out product lets people jump from a TV show to a related information site on the web (click on the "i" icon and the picture does a somersault), search the local TV listings, order a product online, or send text, photos, audio or video by e-mail (he zapped a RealAudio file of NPR's Carl Kasell to Tokyo). Perlman said the box can also start and tune your VCR to record shows. And when you're online, it can genially step aside while you take a phone call.
Perlman was recruiting stations to provide those little "i" links in the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of their signals. But his most important point, he said, was a warning that broadcasters should push for FCC must-carry rules that would require cable systems to carry data streams in their broadcast signals, such as VBI or the larger streams that will be possible with DTV.
"If you don't win cable carriage of data, you will be left in the digital backwater," Perlman said.
America's Public Television Stations (APTS) also is on that case. The FCC is expected to begin a must-carry rulemaking as soon as July, said Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis, APTS v.p. for policy and legal affairs, in a June 14 session.
It's not going to be a simple transplant of the present must-carry rules that govern analog TV, she said. The commission will have to decide whether the must-carry rules apply to cable systems that are jam-packed with channels already, among other tough calls.
"Built for convergence"
It may be years before a sizeable share of Americans have DTV receivers that can handle new data and interactive enhancements of programs, or many stations are on-air, but CPB plans to back a series of experiments in the new, converged medium.
"Try to think of us like we're the Future Fund on the content side of digital," said Cindy Browne, an executive v.p. heading CPB's digital strategies study, in a June 14 session.
An environment of flat audiences and falling revenues doesn't inspire innovation, but the coming of digital gives public TV a "leverage point" to reinvent itself, she said, quoting her boss, CPB President Bob Coonrod.
If pubcasters move quickly, they can define how DTV can be used to serve public interests, Browne said. CPB itself won't do the defining, but aims to "start the dialogue," she said.
"Public television was built for convergence," commented CPB's Katie Carpenter. The technology lends itself to convey outreach materials, print supplements and feedback mechanisms along with the programs, she said.
Since the FCC did not specify what DTV format must be used, pubcasters have to figure out "which technology fits our mission best," Carpenter said in another session.
"We don't want commercial television to dictate what our service will look like."
After CPB completes its strategic review of digital programming--a fact-finding process initiated earlier this year--Carpenter intends to begin funding prototypes of digital content this fall.
CPB programmers want to fund different types of digital programming--including small demos as short as five minutes--as well as traditional analog projects. Producers of the latter will not be required to increase their budgets 25 percent to add enhanced television applications, Carpenter said, but she urged all producers to develop educational uses for their programs. "The education piece is key to everything we do."
With its supplementary bitstreams, DTV can also give viewers the educational content they want, when they want it, said WGBH's Cutler, who screened a segment from A Science Odyssey, a recent series his staff is retrofitting with digital enhancements as an experiment.
The video segment recounted how scientists discovered the workings of genetic material, and didn't have time to go into the strictly biological workings of DNA, he said. But an optional digital text supplement could let viewers choose their own teachable moments. This would let public TV add new layers of information not suited for the general audience, Cutler said, including soundtracks in foreign languages.
Diverting program money?
"This business has always been and will always be about content," said WETA President Sharon Rockefeller, making a point heard frequently at the PBS conference. But skeptical program producers were worried that CPB's and PBS's eagerness to fund innovative digital content will divert already-scarce resources from program production.
Henry Hampton, producer of Eyes on the Prize, expressed this view most prominently during his June 14 keynote. Technology can be "marvelous," he acknowledged, but public TV must remain true to its mission and "sustain interest in programs, because that's why people come to us." Well-told stories, solid research, insistence on facts, and belief are "absolutely critical to the power of this work."
Similar views were delivered less diplomatically in a CPB-sponsored brainstorming session June 13, when a table of independent producers called for PBS to put more effort into improving today's programs and promoting them effectively. The "table of skeptics," as they were later dubbed, expressed concerns that economic pressures and the rush to create digital content would push public television toward "lowest common denominator" programs.
With its increased focus on digital programs, CPB will have fewer dollars to invest in fewer projects, noted one producer at a June 15 "dialogue" with content creators. "You'll be less able to invest in less-established producers," he added.
CPB wants its pool of television grants to include a mix of different projects, responded Peggy O'Brien, v.p. of education. "But, obviously, that's a challenge."
As for the overall effect on content, O'Brien predicted that digital programs will dispel notions that traditionally separate education and entertainment on television: an educational show has low production values, a teacher's guide, or targets kids under six; an entertaining one is simply "good TV." "What the technology does is collapse some of these things."
"We think we'll be able to get people to spend more time with the content you're creating," said Katie Carpenter.
Conversion stress
PBS announced in a release that six member stations plan to switch on their digital transmitters later this year: WETA in Washington, D.C.; Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland; KCTS in Seattle; WLRN in Miami; WITF in Harrisburg; and WMVS in Milwaukee.
And they will have access to a digital feed that PBS already maintains on satellite.
But public TV as a whole is "a system under stress"--a $1.6 billion industry faced with having to spend $1.7 billion within a few years to buy and install digital equipment, said Fred DeMarco, CPB executive v.p. The system's current economic model "may not be able to carry us into the future," DeMarco warned.
Congress seems unlikely to ride to the rescue--this year, anyway. The budget picture is not very rosy, said Mary Dewhirst, v.p. for government relations of APTS, in a June 14 session. Under last year's Balanced Budget Act, every appropriations subcommittee can only spend as much as the previous year's total, so DTV aid would have to be taken out of other pockets in the Labor-HHS area. "Public television will be competing with many other ... worthy programs for a shrinking pool of dollars," she said.
"One of my fears," volunteered Jon Cooper, g.m. of KNME, Albuquerque, during the same session, "is that we'll get money [from Congress] without the understanding that it is not enough."
"Understood," replied APTS President David Brugger.
Though the FCC has given pubcasters a 2003 deadline to put DTV stations on the air, congressional staffers believe there will be "no immediate fallout" if Congress lets the funding question slip, said Dewhirst.
Even the supporters of DTV transition aid are suggesting amounts much lower than the $600 million that pubcasters sought. The Clinton Administration put forward a draft bill this month proposing $450 million, as announced months ago, including $375 million to CPB and $75 million to PTFP. And the House telecom subcommittee chairman, Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), offered a somewhat larger DTV subsidy in a CPB reauthorization bill, proposing $475 million over five years from CPB alone; the amount presumably could be supplemented with a PTFP authorization from another subcommittee.
Funds for public radio's less-expensive digital transition--a cost estimate of $50 million has been mentioned--would come from the same congressional appropriation. Pubcasters plan to allot most of the TV money in equal matching grants for every public TV transmitter. Ten percent of the TV funds would go to a special grants fund for hardship cases among the stations and for PBS's transmission facilities, the APTS Legislative Advisory Group has proposed. CPB, which has appointed a task force to consider the issue, hopes to have recommendations by March, according to DeMarco.
Current Briefing on the digital TV transition.
Later news: CPB plans to base DTV experimentation in New York City.
Outside link: Guidelines for producers on CPB's web site.
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