Under the terms of the 2005 digital TV carriage agreement among APTS (Association of Public Television Stations), PBS and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), every major U.S. cable system will carry both the analog channel and four digital programming streams (if a station chooses to provide that many) from at least one public station in each market.

V-me, World and Create are the next generation of public television programming slated to be made available as part of local public television stations’ multicast offerings, in addition to an expanded PBS HD service. World and V-me target communities and interests that were under-represented in the single channel world.

• Create, which debuted from American Public Television (APT) in January 2006, is a dynamic round-the-clock channel of popular lifestyle and how-to programming. The do-it-yourself genres include viewers' favorite public television series and specials on cooking, renovating, painting, crafts, travel, gardening and other interests.
• V-me (which means “see me” in Spanish) is a groundbreaking broadcasting venture that debuted in March 2007, presenting the world's highest-quality programs to Spanish-speaking viewers in the U.S. Programming includes arts and culture, science and nature, public affairs, history and biography, kids, lifestyle, cinema and sports, and a mix of programs from abroad as well as Spanish-language versions of PBS programs.
• World is a 24-hour digital broadcast channel featuring an array of non-fiction programming from the science, history, nature and news genres. Developed in collaboration with WGBH and WNET and in association with APT & NETA, World includes PBS signature series such as NOVA, FRONTLINE, THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, AMERICAN MASTERS, NATURE, NOW, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL AND WASHINGTON WEEK. World is slated to debut nationally in August 2007.

PBS offers hundreds of hours of programming per year with an exciting collection of HD and widescreen programs in genres that include science, nature, drama, performing arts and children's programming. Upcoming HD content includes JAKERS! THE ADVENTURES OF PIGGLEY WINKS; IT'S A BIG, BIG WORLD; and episodes of AMERICAN MASTERS, NATURE and FRONTLINE.

PBS has announced the addition of seven PBS programs to its existing roster of primetime titles available for viewing via local free video-on-demand. With these additions, including a number of hallmark PBS series, PBS stations now can provide local cable operators a diverse package of 10 VOD titles, available to viewers on demand, free of charge, up to seven days after their broadcast premieres.

PBS has made available an array of content on the iTunes Store, Open Media Network and Amazon's UnBox service, making it possible for users to purchase and download documentary specials and episodes from popular PBS primetime and children's programming. Currently available for download-to-own are primetime programs: ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, NOVA, NOW, HISTORY DETECTIVES, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS and documentaries from KEN BURNS; and PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! shows such as ARTHUR, TELETUBBIES, CAILLOU, CYBERCHASE and FETCH!.

PBS Home Video furthers PBS' mission of lifelong learning by expanding the availability of PBS' top-quality programs to viewers and educational institutions.

• PBS has produced home video and DVD products for more than 12 years, with hundreds of titles in all genres in circulation and approximately 100 new DVD and video releases per year. In addition, PBS Home Video releases numerous new-to-DVD titles, audio visual (A/V) only titles and DVD-on-Demand programs.
• Viewers can purchase products from PBS Home Video online at the ShopPBS Website, through the PBS Home Video catalog and PBS on-air offers, as well as through national retail outlets such as Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and Netflix.

• pbs.prg offers an array of streaming video programming, including entire programs online for selected episodes of FRONTLINE, NOVA, EXPOSÉ: AMERICA'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT and NEWSHOUR.
• PBS is also making available an increasing number of program excerpts and promotional spots on a variety of video aggregation sites, including YouTube, Veoh.com and Grouper.com.

PBS offers three popular blogs: PBS MediaShift, Learning.now and Remotely Connected.

• The PBS MediaShift blog (www.pbs.org/mediashift) explores how new forms of digital media are dramatically changing American society and culture. Hosted by industry expert and longtime new media commentator Mark Glaser, MediaShift offers a continuing look at how digital media such as blogs, RSS, podcasts, citizen journalism, wikis, news aggregators and video repositories are altering the way we live, play and work.
• PBS’ popular education blog called Learning.now, addresses how new technology and Internet culture are significantly affecting the ways educators teach and children learn. Hosted by prominent educational technology thinker and writer Andy Carvin, Learning.now offers a continuing look at how the forces of new technology, such as wikis, blogs, RSS, podcasts, social networking sites and the always-on culture of the Internet are affecting teachers’ and students’ lives both inside and outside of school. It’s at www.pbs.org/learningnow.
• This past year PBS coordinated the launch of an entirely new kind of blog, in connection with the debut of the new TV season, in which PBS invited a diverse group of external bloggers to comment on PBS programming. During the course of the blog, called Remotely Connected, a number of the most popular bloggers in the world took the opportunity to comment on and explore a broad variety of PBS programming. Remotely Connected will be expanded to include new shows and new bloggers in the coming year.

• PBS is a leading provider of content using the increasingly popular podcast platform. Many of our podcast users say they are downloading our podcasts, and are returning to PBS programs they had previously stopped watching on television because of busy schedules. For example, many listen to the entire WASHINGTON WEEK podcast while taking a walk or on their commute to work.
• Two PBS podcasts -MOYERS ON AMERICA and the Shields and Brooks interviews from the NEWSHOUR - were included in iTunes' top 100 most popular podcasts of 2006.
• One PBS podcast alone - THE NEWSHOUR- offers nearly 200,000 downloads each week.
• PBS now offers more than 30 individual audio and video podcast feeds from more than a dozen PBS primetime programs. All are available at www.pbs.org/podcasts.

July 2007