PBS Kids

PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS which is produced by independent public television distributors such as American Public Television are not labeled as "PBS Kids" programming, and it is mainly a programming block branding.

PBS Kids is also the name of a separate network which has had two iterations in the age of digital television; one which existed between 1999 and 2005, and the current version which was launched in January 2017.

History

PTV block

The framework for PBS Kids was established as part of PBS's "Ready to Learn" initiative, a project intended to facilitate access of early childhood educational programming to underprivileged children.^[1] On July 11, 1994, PBS repackaged their existing children's educational programming as a new block called "PTV".^[2][3] In addition to scheduled educational programming, PTV also incorporated interstitial content such as "The P-Pals", which featured animated characters shaped like PBS logos delivering educational content from their fictional world, "PTV Park". These interstitial shorts were aimed at younger children.^[2] Older children were targeted with live action and music video interstitials.^[2]

PBS Kids

On September 6, 1999, PBS launched the PBS Kids brand in several areas including its daytime Ready to Learn Service, PBS Online web pages for kids, and a home video label. Children's programming on the PBS network was then given unified branding. Along with the block of programming on PBS, PBS Kids lent its name to a separate television network, which launched on the same date^[4] and was targeted to children from 4 to 7 years old. The PBS Kids Channel ran for six years.^[5]

On September 30, 2000, the Bookworm Bunch programming block was introduced as PBS Kids' Saturday morning block.^[6] PBS Kids Go!, a programming block targeting older children, was launched in October 2004.^[7]

Block and local channels

The network was shut down on September 26, 2005, in favor of a new commercial cable and satellite joint venture channel, PBS Kids Sprout, which was developed in partnership with two producers and Comcast^[8] (who later bought full control of the network via NBCUniversal).^[9] PBS gave licensees an option to sign on Sprout promoters while most of the other half programmed their own children's channel.^[8] PBS offered a replacement early school-aged kids network based on the block PBS Kids Go! by April 2006 to be launched in October 2006,^[7] but was cancelled before launch.^[8]

On May 8, 2013, PBS Kids programming was added to the Roku streaming player.^[10] As of October 7, 2013, to coincide with the debut of Peg + Cat, PBS Kids received another graphic redesign and the PBS Kids Go! block and branding were dropped.^[11]

PBS Kids network was relaunched on January 16, 2017 with a live stream of the channel on the PBS Kids website and video app; no changes were made to the main PBS Kids block. The block is counter programmed from the network, thus the same show would not be shown at the same time on the network and block.^[12][13][14]

Programming blocks

• PTV (July 11, 1994–September 3, 1999)
• PBS Kids (September 6, 1999–present)
• The Game (1996–September 6, 1999) – afternoon programming block aimed at children aged 6 to 8.
• PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch (September 30, 2000–October 11, 2004) – a Saturday morning block consisting of six animated series produced by Nelvana Limited.^[6]
• PBS Kids Go! (October 11, 2004–October 7, 2013) – an afternoon programming block aimed at children aged 6 to 8.^[7][11]
• PBS Kids Preschool Block (September 4, 2006–October 7, 2013)

Network

PBS Kids is an American digital broadcast and online television network operated by the Public Broadcasting Service. The network features a broad mix of live-action and animated children's programs distributed to PBS by independent companies and select member stations, which are designed for improving the early literacy, math, and social-emotional skills of young children ages 2 to 11.^[15]

Network history

On September 6, 1999, PBS launched the PBS Kids Channel in several markets, in conjunction with the introduction of the PBS Kids brand to provide a unified branding for the service's children's programming offerings. The channel was launched on 33 PBS member stations: 19 of which offered PBS Kids Channel as a cable-only service, nine which carried the channel on their digital broadcast signals in standard-definition, and three which carried simulcasts of the channel on their analog signals. Of the initial 27 affiliates, sixteen of them planned to begin carrying PBS Kids Channel during the fall of 1999, with eleven additional stations choosing to debut it that winter.^[4]

FCC requirements mandated satellite providers to set aside 4% of their available channel space for noncommercial educational and informational programming. With these providers limited to offering one such service per programmer, PBS had put forth PBS Kids as a prospective channel to fulfill this mandate. However, El Segundo, California-based satellite provider DirecTV, which became the primary funding source for the channel, indicated that it would begin carrying the PBS Kids Channel outside of that mandate in early November 1999.^[16]

In the aftermath of DirecTV's decision not to renew its funding agreement with the channel, which ended in the third quarter of 2005,^[5] PBS decided to shut down the network on September 26 of that year. PBS Kids Channel was effectively supplanted on that date by PBS Kids Sprout, an advertiser-supported cable and satellite channel that PBS developed in a joint venture with HiT Entertainment, Sesame Workshop and Comcast. PBS gave licensees an option to sign on Sprout promoters, giving them cross-promotional and monetary benefits in exchange for giving up the ability to carry a competing preschool-targeted channel. 80 stations, making up about half of the member stations participants, signed up to be promoters; most of the remaining stations opted to develop independent children's programming services featuring programs distributed by PBS and through outside distributors such as American Public Television to fill space on digital subchannels that formerly served as PBS Kids Channel members. Many of the member stations that launched children's-focused subchannel or cable-only services reduced the amount of sourced programming from PBS Kids carried on their primary channel to a few hours of their weekday daytime schedules, in order to program more adult-targeted fare during the afternoon.^[8]

PBS relaunched children's network, PBS Kids, on January 16, 2017.^[14] Structured as a multi-platform service, it was made available for distribution to digital subchannels of participating PBS member stations, initially launching on 73 member stations (counting those operated as subregional PBS member networks), with an additional 34 agreeing to begin carrying the network at a later date. A live stream of the channel was also added to the PBS Kids website and video app upon the channel's debut, which will eventually allow viewers to toggle from the program being aired to a related educational game extending the interactivity introduced by Sesame Street. The network is counterprogrammed from the PBS Kids block, so that the same program would not be shown on either simultaneously. PBS Kids 24/7 mainly features double-runs of existing series on PBS Kids' schedule (including some not carried on the primary channels of certain member stations); as such, no additional programs had to be acquired to help fill the channel's schedule.^[12] The network will also launch a weekly block on Friday evenings, "PBS Kids Family Night," on April 21, 2017, which will showcase of family-oriented feature films and premieres of PBS Kids' children's programs.^{[15][14][12][17]}

Affiliates

References

External links

• Official website
• PBS Kids Play website