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[ The Video Agenda ]
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Sesame Street or Commercial Ave.?
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by Mark J. Pescatore
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Like many of you, I grew up watching Sesame Street. Public television was pure back then. Member stations got their funding the old fashioned way: They begged for it.
The begging will continue, but now it’ll be augmented with a commercial cable network.
Last month, Comcast Corporation, along with PBS, Sesame Workshop, and HIT Entertainment, launched a new service for preschoolers called PBS KIDS Sprout On Demand. The announcement also touted the new 24/7 cable channel PBS KIDS Sprout, complete with commercials, that will debut this fall.
Pat Mitchell, PBS president and CEO, sees the new VOD and upcoming cable network as a “second home” for PBS children’s programming. Sesame Street will be joined by a number of PBS favorites, including Bob the Builder, Barney & Friends, and Teletubbies. (Forget the gay rumors; apparently the big secret is that Tinky Winky has been waiting to get midieval on Dora the Explorer’s ad revenues for years.) The plan is to have commercials before and after programs, not during them. VOD programming will be commercial-free, at least for now.
Lines, What Lines?
For PBS, this is neither a sunny day, nor is it chasing the clouds away. In fact, I think it’s a dark, dark day for “public” television. The lines have already been blurred so much — this move erases the line and puts PBS programming squarely in the commercial realm.
Let’s get personal. As a taxpayer, I’m been willing to overlook the commercials — excuse me, underwriting announcements — already appearing on PBS. I don’t even have a problem with video and DVD sales, not to mention the vast variety of books, toys, and other merchandise that promote Sesame Street and other PBS programs.
But if PBS is going commercial, why do I have to pay for it? And why did I help pay for an expensive digital transition for 349 stations? Who needs multicasting when PBS is expanding into the cable network marketplace?
Whether you support PBS during its regular membership drives or not, public broadcasters are getting your money. Mind you, it’s not as much as the defense budget or anything like that, but PBS is still supported by tax dollars.
The Public Broadcasting Service, which was founded in 1969, is a private, nonprofit corporation that offers programming to member stations in the United States. Many of these stations are licensed to colleges and universities, states, and local governments. According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public TV revenue for 2000 was $1.6 billion, much of which came from state governments, CPB and federal grants and contracts, and state colleges and universities.
A venture so blatantly commercial, so designed to compete head-to-head with cable networks like Nickelodeon, goes against the very convictions of public television. If profit comes first, and that’s generally how commercial television works, that means everything, including content, takes a back seat. What if Ernie and Bert can’t pull better numbers than SpongeBob SquarePants? Eviction?
And how choosy will executives be with regard to commercial content when there are sales numbers to meet? Just because PBS is a nonprofit corporation doesn’t mean that Comcast is going to suddenly change its profit-motivated philosophy.
The Slippery Slope
I understand that PBS member stations aren’t going commercial; rather, this is a different entity, a cable network venture just for preschoolers. I don’t care. PBS is synonymous with public television. And PBS is a partner in a commercial television enterprise. It’s a slippery slope and it stinks.
There are some critics out there who will say I’m being naive, holding on to a noncommercial idealism that is unrealistic in today’s society.
Hogwash.
Not every member station is following PBS blindly down the commercial trail. In Houston, for example, KUHT won’t be affiliated with the new network (affiliation requires stations to promote PBS KIDS Sprout and give up any digital channels specifically targeting preschoolers).
General manager John Hesse told me that the station has concerns about pointing viewers to a commercial service, especially one that targets preschoolers. While he acknowledged that public television needs to look for new entrepreneurial ways to fund the services it provides, PBS KIDS Sprout is not the right solution for HoustonPBS.
“It is certainly pushing the envelope beyond the commercial creep we’ve already been cited for,” he noted. “With this particular deal, I just don’t think it works. For us, it does cross a line.”
PBS KIDS Sprout goes against the spirit of public broadcast. I understand that times have been tough for public television and the coffers haven’t always been overflowing. But it never was supposed to be about the money. Now, it looks like public broadcasters are more interested in Wall Street than Sesame Street.
One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong.
Mark J. Pescatore is the editor. Contact him at mpescatore@cmpinformation.com.
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