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PBS Launching Streaming Service on Amazon Prime
- jak92 8y agoPBS content should be free everywhere
- syntaxing 8y agoSeriously, especially since it's funded with tax money. I watched a good amount of PBS when I was younger since we couldn't afford cable. This should be available free online through a government maintained portal.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoContact your representative to ensure PBS has the necessary funding to do so. They are working on over the top streaming [1]. PBS could not afford Sesame Street, which is why it's on HBO now [2]. Disclaimer: Staunch supporter of PBS and other public broadcasting (streaming now I guess?) [1] https://current.org/2018/06/pbs-and-stations-working-on-first-skinny-bundle-ott-agreement/ https://current.org/2018/06/pbs-and-stations-working-on-firs... [2] https://www.vox.com/2015/8/13/9149091/sesame-street-hbo-pbs https://www.vox.com/2015/8/13/9149091/sesame-street-hbo-pbs
- timthorn 8y agoSome content is developed as a co-production with other broadcasters, so the rights will be complicated by that.
- maverick5 8y agoOnly ~20% comes from tax money. The rest is provided by CPB and private sources. If you don't want it to turn into another corporate-captured YouTube, viewer-subscriber model is the only way to go.
- bbatha 8y agoOr you could increase the portion that comes from tax money, a model proven successfully in dozens of countries.
- hedora 8y agoThat’s hard. They have a lot of educational programs, and, at least in the US, that implies a liberal bias.
- lkbm 8y agoWikipedia says of CPB: "The CPB's annual budget is composed almost entirely of an annual appropriation from Congress plus interest on those funds."[0] So that portion should still be considered tax revenue. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_for_Public_Broadcasting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_for_Public_Broadca...
- fuzzybeard 8y agoThey should be more honest about their other funding sources. They accept advertising, but couch it as "underwriting".
- 0815test 8y agoPBS may be "funded with tax money", but apparently the funding doesn't go far enough as to allow for complete independence. It's a common story, that also explains why crowdfunded video projects have been mostly a failure - but I do wonder how the costs can be so high, when so many people publish self-made videos on social media sites for no payment at all other than some pretty nominal "monetization" revenues.
- maverick5 8y agoAnd yet with their app you have to watch commercials and "funding provided" by the fossil-fuels industry, i.e., the Koch brothers. They should divest from dirty money too.
- twblalock 8y ago> PBS content should be free everywhere Then PBS needs a lot more money. They operate on about $445 million per year in total, and that gets split between PBS and NPR: https://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/financials/budget https://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/financials/budget That's not enough, and it's a bit lower than public broadcasters in other countries who manage to make things free everywhere.
- metamet 8y agoWell, especially since the Trump administration is again trying to zero out all funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: > “PBS and our 350 member stations across the country have earned bipartisan Congressional support over the years due to the high value the American people place on the services we provide their communities. For a modest investment of about $1.35 per citizen per year, public television provides school readiness for children, support for teachers and caregivers, public safety communications and lifelong learning through high-quality content. > “For the 16th year in a row, Americans named PBS and member stations #1 in public trust among nationally known institutions. The same survey revealed that Americans rank PBS and our member stations second only to the country’s military defense in terms of value for taxpayer dollars. PBS and its supporters across every region of the country will continue to remind legislators that federal funding is critical for public television to do this essential work.” http://www.pbs.org/about/blogs/news/pbs-statement-on-administrations-proposed-elimination-of-federal-funding-for-public-media/ http://www.pbs.org/about/blogs/news/pbs-statement-on-adminis...
- rfinney 8y agooh well. downvote shadow banned this comment for saying government should be out of propaganda business. whatev. The stuff dey downvote on hacker news.
- reaperducer 8y agoTo be fair, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a mess. It's so bad that member stations are defecting. Los Angeles is a good example. It used to be like most other cities - A single, large PBS flagship and one or two secondary stations. That flagship bolted because CPB can't keep its finances in order and is demanding crazy amounts of money from the member stations. There are a surprising number of very good public television stations across the country that are not part of PBS/CPB. I'd be happier with PBS if the programs created with my tax dollars weren't spun off into "independent" companies that then make millions on the intellectual property that my tax dollars created.
- js2 8y agoAgreed that free viewing should be included in our tax dollars, but it's not likely to happen without Fred Rogers to convince our representatives. Especially with a loud minority of our citizens convinced that PBS and NPR are biased.
- simplezeal 8y agoI really hope PBS is working with other service providers (Apple? Google Play?) to bring the same programming. I don't want to pay Amazon tax (additional $10 per month prime fees) to be able to use this service.
- hhs 8y agoI hope so, too. I wonder if PBS is going strategic with this to build wealth. I know that they're also putting useful free content on YouTube. They have a channel called "PBS Space Time", which I've seen HN folks here sharing to engage in physics discussions (i.e., especially quantum).
- Dextro 8y agoPBS Space Time is in part crowd funded via Patron though. I know I backed it for a long time
- jermaustin1 8y agoThere are a few good PBS channels on YouTube. I'm a big fan of "Eons".
- gkoberger 8y agoIt seems similar to what they did with HBO and Sesame Street. It's revenue stream since they know they can't depend on government funding. I don't think PBS has gotten greedy; they're just looking for ways to survive. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/b-is-broke-why-sesame-816105 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/b-is-broke-why-sesame...
- pryelluw 8y agoYes, they are. Two years ago I worked on a project to open up their catalog to streaming services. It was an interesting project. Python 3/Django/Postgres/Redis.
- tylerjwilk00 8y agoCheck and see if your local PBS station has implemented Passport. Passport is a streaming service specific to PBS and there is no tax aside from the $60 or more annual donation to your local station. Public media needs your help.
- subpixel 8y agoSadly, today, PBS is an infomercial for ancillary products, so it makes perfect sense that they have been partnering with Amazon. (You don't get rich by producing a show for PBS, but plenty of people have gotten rich(er) through the promotional power of parading their own products on national tv inside a pseudo 'non commercial' bubble.)
- tombert 8y agoAs a kid watching Arthur and Dragon Tales, they would have ads for 7-eleven afterwards, due to them being a sponsor. I didn't really realize it as a kid, but it's kind of weird that an ostensibly public project was promoting a place that sells the least healthy food on the market.
- Wowfunhappy 8y agoUnless your channel was different than mine, yes they had ads but they were quite benign compared to other channels. In addition to being very short and infrequent, the ads never attempted to sell a product—they just stated the company name and how proud they were to support PBS. I'm sure these types of ads can have some psychological effect, but it's hard to see them inspiring a child to start begging their parents for a certain product.
- tombert 8y agoYou're not wrong; the ads for 7-eleven (if I remember correctly) were some dude walking around, and then the logo, followed by the line "Oh Thank Heaven!". I doubt my habit of eating unhealthy fast food all the time stemmed from those commercials. I just found it a bit bizarre.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago> I just found it a bit bizarre. Put another way: lots of government projects are a cooperation of public and private interests. Highways contain billboards, for instance. I don't have a problem with these types of projects, provided they don't turn into pure corporate giveaways of public money. I really think PBS has struck a good balance.
- beef234 8y agoDoes this content differ from what is already available on the PBS app with the paid "Passport subscription"?
- duxup 8y agoIt's not clear from this article. I'm going to take a guess and say that it might be the same content, or very similar.
- hedora 8y agoI do wonder if this will be revenue positive or negative for them. I’m paying $5/month for passport (though I think it’s tax deductible...)
- jermaustin1 8y agoI am not an accountant, but my accountant yells at me enough to impart a few pieces of wisdom. This is a common misconception of "donations." Only the excess of the "donation" minus the fair market value of the "gift" is tax deductible. So a $120 donation that gets me a nice $20 tote, will have a tax-deductible receipt of $100. So for a video streaming service I'd expect none of it to be deductible, because if you look at other TV streaming services, you pay $10/mo for the service, so the fair market value of PBS passport might actually be higher than the donation amount.
- AdmiralAsshat 8y agoAnecdotally, I've got a PBS Passport account and I don't see Milk Street in my library. But it could well depend on one's geographic location or local station.
- vgoh1 8y agoWait, is Amazon the US government now? Should I send my tax money to Amazon instead? This is not cool, we should not have to pay Amazon money to watch our publicly funded television. I don't buy that PBS doesn't "have the money" to make programs freely available. Running radio antennas back in the day costed money. At the very least, PBS could seed torrents, or upload to YouTube. I understand that neither of these methods are exactly free from any cost, but at least give us the choice.
- duxup 8y agoNot all PBS money is government money.
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoPBS already limited free access to its streaming content. You only had access to a handful of most recent shows without a paid Passport account. Much of what PBS has in its catalog is licensed from the BBC. Streaming those programs for free in perpetuity isn't a realistic option.
- Dowwie 8y agoBob Ross? Mr. Rogers? Charlie Rose?
- systematical 8y agoAs long as this doesn't effect the free streams of News Hour to youtube or accessing FrontLine off their website for free.