PBS today announced the launch of PBS content on the iTunes Store, making it possible for users to now purchase and download documentary specials and episodes from popular PBS primetime and children’s programming. Episodes are priced from $1.99 each and immediately available for the following shows: Primetime Programming: ANTIQUES ROADSHOW; NOVA; NOW; and SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS and PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! shows such as: ARTHUR; CYBERCHASE; and FETCH!.
PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger said in the press release, “Working with our member stations and producers, PBS is excited to deliver a variety of PBS’ award-winning primetime and kids’ television programs through iTunes. The remarkable success of PBS podcasts on iTunes over the past year indicates that PBS members and viewers of all ages are enjoying the new, expanded access to the content they want, when and where they choose.”
“The success of TV on iTunes continues and we now offer over 220 hit TV shows from more than 40 networks,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, in the press release. “We are thrilled to partner with PBS to bring such educational and entertaining programming to iTunes Store customers.”
Additional content attached to episodes will underscore the unique role consumers can play to ensure the continued creation and multi-platform delivery of PBS content by becoming a member of their local PBS station.
The iTunes Store has quickly become the world’s most popular video download store, selling over one million videos per week. The iTunes Store began selling TV shows with five shows from ABC/Disney less than a year ago, in October 2005, and rapidly expanded its library to over 220 television shows from over 40 networks today. The iTunes Store now features over 3.5 million songs, 65,000 podcasts, 20,000 audiobooks, over 5,000 music videos, more than 75 feature films and 220 television shows.
PBS is a media enterprise that serves 354 public noncommercial television stations and reaches almost 90 million people each week through on-air and online content. Bringing diverse viewpoints to television and the Internet, PBS provides high-quality documentary and dramatic entertainment, and consistently dominates the most prestigious award competitions. PBS is a leading provider of educational materials for K-12 teachers, and offers a broad array of other educational services. PBS’ premier kids’ TV programming and Web site, PBS KIDS Online, continue to be parents’ and teachers’ most trusted learning environments for children. More information about PBS is available at pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.
See PBS programs via Apple’s iTunes+iTunes Store here.
All the shows that you’ve not watched on PBS are now available for you to not buy on the ITS! You’ve paid for them once – now pay for them once again!
Seems to me there’s some pretty big momentum building behind iTunes…
What were you watching? Highbrow content like WWF?
PBS viewers have a demographic much like that of the traditional Mac user. More educated, more affluent, less likely to be a NeoCon…
Go back to your diet of Faux Newz Channel, MTV & USA.
No Sesame Street? What else is worth watching on PBS?
I’ve been waiting a longtime for this (Nova). Now, just waiting for Frontline.
I like PBS, but I’m surprised the downloads aren’t free. I’m mean, one might think a commercial-free, free-to-air, public channel would be … free. But I’m not saying the programs aren’t worth the price.
Bring on Mr Rogers!!!
The future of the Internet is up for grabs. Last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) effectively eliminated net neutrality rules, which ensured that every content creator on the Internet-from big-time media concerns to backroom bloggers-had equal opportunity to make their voice heard. Now, large and powerful corporations are lobbying Washington to turn the World Wide Web into what critics call a “toll road,” threatening the equitability that has come to define global democracy’s newest forum. Yet the public knows little about what’s happening behind closed doors on Capitol Hill.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/index.html
And they are not commercial free . . .
“Additional content attached to episodes will underscore the unique role consumers can play to ensure the continued creation and multi-platform delivery of PBS content by becoming a member of their local PBS station.”
I think this means they all have ads for PBS attached to them.
What about the classic Sesame Street or Electric Company?
They are not commercials, they are “ENHANCED UNDERWRITING”
Although it is the same exact video, commercials are not allowed on PBS…
“I’ve been waiting a longtime for this (Nova). Now, just waiting for Frontline.”
Agreed. Frontline is one of the best programs on TV.
You can stream them from PBS website now if you aren’t afraid to put Realplayer or Windows Media Player on your system.
“The iTunes Store has quickly become the world’s most popular video download store, selling over one million videos per week.”
Hey, Apple just gave us a new data point on the relative “success” of their video store. Apple has been pretty stingy about giving us data on video sales, unlike with music where Apple seemed to announce another milestone passed every other month.
Zoom from WGBH. Huh-bye Fruh-bends.
I was excited about NOVA being available, but it’s $8 a pop. Oh well, back to my VCR…
MW: eight, how appropriate.
Frontline, Independent Lens, Now, P.O.V. and sometimes even Nova cover the news in a way rarely seen on commercial TV anymore. The difference between data and useful information. Context- not just content.
What amazes me is that the taxpayer’s support to NPR and PBS via CPB is less than the news budgets of any one of the commercial networks. They are able to leverage the public money, viewer’s contributions and commercial/foundation underwriting to produce a huge amount of high quality content. Repeated polls have shown that Americans trust the accuracy, balance and fairness of PBS programming above all other broadcast media. The fact that they do not have $15 million/year anchors is probably a good start at an explanation.
PBS is probably one of the best uses of public money going. The NeoCons have been savaging it for years. Why they would oppose an efficiently run service that is freely available to all Americans tells you more about NeoCons than it does about public broadcasting.
…hmmm…nova is $7.99 each. A bit too much for me. $1.99 would have been a sell
“Repeated polls have shown that Americans trust the accuracy, balance and fairness of PBS programming above all other broadcast media.”
…which explains why Jim Lehrer has such high ratings.
PBS and NPR are an incredible waste of money. After taxpayers are forced to crank out more and more cash each year to prop up these little projects, we are then subjected to incessant pleas for more money.
The US Government needs to get out of the arts and entertainment business. It doesn’t know what it is doing. If Jim Lehrer and NOVA are so beloved by viewers, they can make it in the real world without having to latch onto the taxpayer teat next to Bill Moyers.
As for the phrase, ‘efficiently run’, it should be against the law to utter it in connection with PBS, especially after all the lost funding, nepotism, and backdoor donations to the DNC that PBS has become famous for.
It’s time for Big Bird to grow up and get a f**king job.
yuk yuk yuk – I just read your lst sentence, News, about how PBS is ‘freely available to all Americans’ – sorry, milk just came out of my nose.
PBS is only free to those who don’t pay taxes.
“Hey, look! This TV picks up PBS – must be free to all Americans!”
Yes yes, very true. PBS and NPR are the last refuges of truth. We MUST get rid of them, in order to fully destroy this country from within. If you hate America, then you are with me on this!!!
Ok, that was sarcasm.
Re-Grok,
I am a mac using, pbs loving, cnn and fox news watching, college educated, conservative. I am very happy that PBS is now on iTunes. I watch Nova, Scientific America but they don’t have my favorite shows like This Old House and New Yankee Workshop. Being a mac user doesn’t affiliate you with any party, even “the evil overlord” Bush uses an iPod. My dad is a conservative lawyer who makes use of keynote and his 15″ powerbook everyday. In fact he has gotten 3 or 4 people to switch to a Mac in his department, including someone who got my old iMac. So lets keep the “Faux news” and Neocon labels out of a Mac fan site.
Thanks,
Conservative Mac Fanatic
NPR and PBS aren’t the last refuges of anything. They are simply a hole in the US’ pocket. They have carved out their little section of the public trough and gorge themselves happily on the labor of others. I, for one, think these ‘little projects’ should be kept around as a reminder of how pitiful socialized institutions can become without any sort of meaningful oversight.
The tax money invested in PBS/NPR is less than 1/3rd of it’s budget. For that money, everything from programming students, from home schoolers to public students can use, to adult literacy, arts, cultural, news & other programming not replicated anywhere else. PBS programs more educational programming daily than the entire cable industry does through Cable in the Classroom.
You will not find Jackass, TRL or WWE on your local PBS station, but you might learn the difference between spin and what is really going on in the world. Last night, for example, American Experience aired an episode of Eyes on the Prize, detailing the long struggle for civil rights in this country. Tonight, Bill Moyers will show you how TelCos and others are trying to hijack the internet, which could radically effect you web experience (including this web site).
The audience of The NewsHour is not as large as that of the network newscasts, but the Mac market is not as large as that of Windows. I figure someone who uses a Mac might be able to figure that out.
As to commercial TV, you pay for it many times over. The networks and cable distributors get to use the public airwaves for little or nothing and then make billions from it. The cost of their advertising is priced into every consumer item you buy. Then you get to pay again to your cable or satellite distributor for their delivery service, where they make more money and kick back a significant portion to the networks and cable channels. The fact is, commercial broadcasters and cable satellite channels get more public assistance via tax breaks, rights of way , licenses, etc. than PBS/NPR ever have.
The tax money invested in PBS/NPR is mine (at least, some of it). Nobody at CPB asked me if they could rape my wallet after I get home from work to help out home schoolers or promote whatever art and music that has received the PBS stamp of approval this week. If it’s just for education, include it in the educational budget.
Bill Moyers is the king of hypocritical bs. He promotes figures on his documentaries with softball questions and adoring profiles, then lines his pockets with the money received from promotional ads given to him in return, re Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club, Public Agenda Foundation, Democracy 21, etc., etc., etc. I don’t want to pay him to rant about capitalism. He can, I just don’t want to pay for it.
PBS is a publicly-owned farce, while Apple is a private, capitalist country. I would have thought anyone over the age of 9 could have figured that out. There is no comparison between the two.
As to commercial TV, no matter how many times I pay, it is my choice to pay at all, and they provide a service that I asked for. CPB just takes my money and says it’s for my own good. This is unforgivable.
Cutting tax funding for PBS is RETARDED. It’s monkey logic. I’ll admit, every now and then, a monkey will get under my skin, and one of them just did. I had to remind myself “They’re just monkeys, they can’t think of anything beyond fear and bananas”