PBS partners with telecom company to deliver business training to the desktop
Originally published in Current, Sept. 16, 1996
PBS announced Sept. 12 [1996] a joint venture that aims to bring video-on-demand training courses to desktop computers in businesses across the nation, building upon the existing PBS Business Channel.
The Williams Companies, a $2.8 billion-a-year gas-pipeline and telecom firm based in Tulsa, will invest approximately $20 million in a 50-50 joint venture with PBS called "The Business Channel, L.L.C."
Sun Microsystems Inc. will provide MediaCenter video-server computers to dispense the courseware, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology signed up as an initial content provider.
Public TV stations will be invited to produce programming for the service and market it locally. Steve Bass, station manager at WGBH, will chair a station advisory group, according to John Hollar, PBS executive v.p.
The alliance is one of several that PBS is pursuing to give public TV new revenue sources and extend its services in education.
The Business Channel, operated for seven years by the PBS Adult Learning Service, already has an inventory of 450 hours of business training seminars, videoconferences and courses, distributed largely over the public TV satellite system, often direct to employers' satellite dishes.
Within less than a year, by the time service begins July 1, 1997, that content will triple and much of the courseware will become available through Williams' extensive fiber-optic network, said PBS President Ervin Duggan, in a Manhattan press conference. The Business Channel also will use satellite and the Internet as appropriate, he said.
Under a 20-year agreement between PBS and Williams, they will split its gross cash flow equally and jointly choose its management committee. PBS will hold sole editorial control, Duggan said.
Putting on-demand video courseware into workers' office computers will help solve a paradox for business employees today, said Keith Bailey, chairman of Williams. "Never before has the need for ongoing training been greater, and never before has the time to do that been more precious."
Scott McNealy, chairman of Sun Microsystems, agreed: "Our employees are facing a 20 percent annual skills obsolescence. Every five years you have to completely retrain your people."
And MIT economist Lester Thurow--piped in by fiber from Massachusetts--underlined the importance of worker training in global competition: it's "the only key strategic asset" that gives an edge to a company these days. The strategic advantages important in the past are less crucial today: natural resources don't matter so much in many booming industries; capital is equally available from the same transnational sources; and technological advances are quickly undercut by competitors' reverse engineering.
Besides money, Williams contributes important ingredients to the partnership. The WilTech Group Inc., will provide transmission services--including the 11,000-mile fiber optic network of its subsidiary, Vyvx Inc.--as well as archiving services and software. Vyvx is a major provider of broadcast-quality transmission services for TV networks, including sports channels. The partnership will also have access to products of Williams Learning Network Inc., supplier of CD-ROM and computer-based training materials to the chemical, refining, utility and manufacturing industries.
WilTech also completed purchase last month of ITC mediaConferencing, a Denver-based firm that provides audio and video conferencing services and will help deliver Business Channel programming.
To Current's home page
Days before the Business Channel announcement PBS announced a separate adult education project for the low-skills end of the workforce: LiteracyLink.
Outside link: The Business Channel's home page at PBS
Outside link: The Williams Companies web site
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