Popular PBS-Archived Content Emerges on Free, Ad-Supported Streaming TV Platforms

Earlier in 2024, the Public Broadcasting Service's ("PBS") "PBS Distribution" https://pbsdistribution.org/ business unit launched a new free ad-supported channel which it calls "PBS Retro" (for more background on that, see https://www.thewrap.com/pbs-retro-fast-channel-roku-launch/ for the news).

Before I get to that, it is critical to clarify some important things. 

In spite of conservative belief that PBS is a government-funded broadcast network, that is a falsehood. PBS is often mistakenly confused with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which was created in 1967 in order to promote and help support public broadcasting particularly in rural parts of the country. But it is CPB which is government-funded (although it does not receive sufficient public funding to meet its operating expenses, hence it is better described as "quasi-public", and most of what taxpayers fund consists of grants made to local public television stations around the country to help them to pay to actually pay the costs to broadcast their signals in rural areas of the country. Some PBS Stations may also be publicly-funded by state taxpayers, but support varies widely from one state to another with large, rural states tending to have the most coverage gaps and therefore becoming the biggest CPB grant recipients.

By comparison, PBS produces a good portion (not all; some is locally-produced, while other content on PBS comes from third-party sources such as the BBC) which airs on CPB-bankrolled local PBS stations around the country, although PBS itself is funded by a combination of member station dues (it can be said, therefore, that some of that comes indirectly from federal taxpayers), donations from both private foundations and individual citizens, and of course, their annoying pledge drives. And more recently, PBS has added new revenue streams such as PBS Distribution.

Regardless, original PBS-produced content includes such award-winning content as "Sesame Street" as well as PBS Newshour and other widely-watched programs. However, some may recall that in 2019, Sesame Workshop (which was Sesame Street's producer) had signed a contract with (HBO) Max so that starting in 2020, Sesame Street, as well as the show's annual specials, and the show's historic 50-year library would migrate from PBS and instead be available on the subscription-based streaming platform known as Max (which is a business of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment). While old episodes of Sesame Street continue to air free on PBS, the new episodes of the award-winning educational show are available only to paying customers of Max.

Over time, much original PBS content had been archived in film vaults, but converting all of it to digital content had limited access to that content. So, a unit called "PBS Distribution" was created as a joint venture between PBS and GBH Boston (the latter of which receives taxpayer funding from taxpayers only in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but not a penny from federal taxpayers) but digitizing that archived content took time and effort. However, now that a big part of that conversion process is done, it also means that PBS Distribution is now able to reach viewers through transactional video-on-demand (TVOD), subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) licensing, advertising-based video on demand (AVOD), DVD and Blu-ray, theatrical releasing, educational platforms, non-theatrical and even in-flight sales. All of that is a pretty creative way to leverage existing content which was already created and paid for decades ago and monetize it now.

PBS Distribution currently operates a number of different streaming channels. A decent chunk of its cotent is available through its PBS Streaming App, and others, some of which are subscription-based. Among its specialty content apps include PBS Masterpiece, PBS KIDS, PBS Living, PBS Documentaries and PBS America, Antiques Roadshow, Antiques Road Trip and Julia Child and the French Chef archives. Beyond those are a number of FAST (the acronym for "free ad-supported streaming television") channels in the U.S. and U.K. Not every channel which PBS Distribution offers airs on every platform (and, as noted, some are paid-only). 

But, for example, PBS Distribution collaborated with the nonprofit Fred Rogers Productions to create a dedicated subchannel known as "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" available on the free, ad-supported streaming TV platform known as Pluto TV. It was a combination of PBS and Fred Rogers Productions which collaborated on digitizing those programs, and now, Pluto TV is carrying that particular channel. For example, the Roku Channel carries PBS Retro content (as does Plex). Some of the PBS Distribution channels are available on Hulu+ Live TV which is a subscription-based service.

In the end, because some lawmakers would prefer that government-funding for broadcasting did not exist at all, and public broadcasting remains subject to desired budget cuts, we have seen entities like PBS turn to more creative outlets to fund its mission. Because PBS has a considerable library of content, we are now starting to see new ways PBS is delivering that content. Now, a good portion of that legendary archived content is available to anyone with a broadband-internet connection, meaning that cord-cutters and occasional streamers alike will have access to some of that content library.