PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programs to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as Nature, Nova, Frontline, PBS News Hour, Washington Week, Masterpiece, American Experience, and children's programs such as Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Sesame Street, Barney & Friends, Arthur, Curious George, The Magic School Bus, and others. Certain stations also provide spillover service to Canada and Mexico.
PBS is funded by a combination of member station dues, pledge drives, corporate sponsorships, and donations from both private foundations and individual citizens. From its founding in 1969 up until 2025, it also received funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source. PBS has over 350 member television stations, many owned by educational institutions, nonprofit groups both independent or affiliated with one particular local public school district or collegiate educational institution, or entities owned by or related to state government.
History
PBS was established on November 3, 1969, by Hartford N. Gunn Jr., John Macy, James Day, and Kenneth A. Christiansen. Fred Friendly was an integral figure in negotiations about the interconnection that would lead to the 1969 creation of the Public Broadcasting Service.It began operations on October 5, 1970, taking over many of the functions of its predecessor, National Educational Television, which later merged with Newark, New Jersey station WNDT to form WNET. In 1973, it merged with Educational Television Stations. Around the same time, the groups started out the National Public Affairs Broadcast Center, which offered news and national affairs to the service. The group was later merged into member station WETA-TV in 1972.
Immediately after public disclosure of the Watergate scandal, on May 17, 1973, the United States Senate Watergate Committee commenced proceedings; PBS broadcast the proceedings nationwide, with Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer as commentators. Although all of the Big Three TV Networks ran coverage of the hearings, PBS rebroadcast them on prime time. For seven months, nightly "gavel-to-gavel" broadcasts drew great public interest, and raised the profile of the fledgling PBS network.
In 1991, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting resumed funding for most PBS shows that debuted before 1977, with the exceptions of Washington Week in Review and Wall Street Week.
In 1994, The Chronicle of Philanthropy released the results of the largest study on the popularity and credibility of charitable and non-profit organizations. PBS ranked as the 11th "most popular charity/non-profit in America" from over 100 charities researched in the study conducted by the industry publication, with 38.2% of Americans over the age of 12 choosing "love" and "like a lot" for PBS.
Since the mid-2000s, Roper Opinion Research polls commissioned by PBS have consistently placed the service as the most-trusted national institution in the United States. A 20162017 study by Nielsen Media Research found 80% of all US television households view the network's programs over the course of a year. However, PBS is not responsible for all programming carried on public television stations, a large proportion of which may come from its member stations—including WGBH-TV, WETA-TV, WNET, WTTW, WQED, WHYY-TV, Twin Cities PBS—American Public Television, and independent producers. This distinction regarding the origin of different programs on the service presents a frequent source of viewer confusion.
In December 2009, PBS signed up for the Nielsen ratings audience measurement reports, and began to be included in its primetime and daily "Television Index" reports, alongside the major commercial broadcast networks.
In May 2011, PBS announced that it would incorporate breaks containing underwriter spots for corporate and foundation sponsors, program promotions and identification spots within four breaks placed within episodes of Nature and NOVA, airing episodes broken up into segments of up to 15 minutes, rather than airing them as straight 50- to 55-minute episodes. The strategy began that fall, with the intent to expand the in-program breaks to the remainder of the schedule if successful.
In 2011, PBS released apps for iOS and Android to allow viewing of full-length videos on mobile devices.
"PBS UK" was launched as a paid subscription channel in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2011, featuring American documentary programming sourced from PBS. Better identifying its subject matter, this channel was renamed "PBS America" on July 4, 2012. The channel has subsequently become available in other parts of Europe and Australia.
On February 28, 2012, PBS partnered with AOL to launch Makers: Women Who Make America, a digital documentary series focusing on high-achieving women in male-dominated industries such as war, comedy, space, business, Hollywood and politics.
PBS initially struggled to compete with online media such as YouTube for market share. In a 2012 speech to 850 top executives from PBS stations, Senior Vice President of Digital Jason Seiken warned that PBS was in danger of being disrupted by YouTube studios such as Maker Studios. In the speech, later described as a "seminal moment" for public television, he laid out his vision for a new style of PBS digital video production. Station leadership rallied around his vision and Seiken formed PBS Digital Studios, which began producing educational but edgy videos, something Seiken called "PBS-quality with a YouTube sensibility". The studio's first hit, an auto-tuned version of the theme from one of their most famous television programs, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, was one of YouTube's 10 most viral videos of 2012. By 2013, monthly video views on PBS.org had risen from 2 million to a quarter-billion, PBS.org traffic had surpassed that of the CBS, NBC, and ABC web sites, PBSKids.org had become the dominant US children's site for video, and PBS had won more 2013 Webby Awards than any other media company in the world.
On May 8, 2013, full-length episodes of PBS' prime time, news and children's programs were made available through the Roku streaming player; programming is available on Roku as separate streaming channels for "PBS" and "PBS Kids" content. Some content is only available with a member benefit subscription.
On July 1, 2016, Amazon Prime Video and PBS Distribution entered into a multi-year agreement which saw several PBS Kids series on other streaming services move to Amazon Prime Video.
PBS Distribution partnered with MultiChoice to launch PBS Kids on May 22, 2019, on DStv and GOtv subscription platforms across its Sub-Saharan Africa footprint. In mid-2021, the channel was added to Australia's Foxtel subscription platform.
At the summer 2019 Television Critics Association press tour day for PBS on July 29, 2019, it was announced that MVPD YouTube TV would begin to carry PBS programming and member stations in the fall of 2019. Member stations have the choice of having their traditional channel on the service with its full programming schedule received by Google over-the-air and uploaded to the service, a YouTube TV-only feed provided by the station with some programming substitutions due to lack of digital rights, or a PBS-provided feed with limited localization, though with no local programming or pledge drive programming.
In 2019, PBS announced plans to move its headquarters to another building in the Crystal Gateway complex, while remaining in Crystal City, Virginia, and did so in 2020, which included a top building sign visible off the Richmond Highway.
On August 4, 2020, the Amazon Prime Video platform added a "PBS Documentaries" package. As of that time it offered four separately-subscribable selections of PBS programming in the United States, "PBS Documentaries", "PBS Living", "PBS Masterpiece" and "PBS KIDS". In the UK, a "PBS America" documentaries package became available on Amazon Prime Video.
On September 3, 2020, PBS began to offer a livestream of its member stations for free via its website, on smart TVs, and on its mobile apps. However, only a small handful of stations currently do not have a livestream of their stations set up. Jefferson Graham of USA Today called it "arguably the best bargain in streaming".
In July 1, 2021, a PBS Julia Child channel was added to Pluto TV and Tubi in the United States.
The channels "PBS Antiques Roadshow", "Julia Child", "Antiques Road Trip" and "PBS Nature" were added to a number of American FAST platforms in January 2023. Antiques Road Trip later became available in Australia. The channels "PBS Food" and "PBS History" launched on certain FAST platforms in late 2023.
The channel "PBS Retro" was added to Roku's live TV channel lineup in the United States on April 23, 2024, airing PBS Kids shows from the 70s, 80s and 90s. The "PBS Science" channel became available in Australia in 2024. It is also available in the UK and Ireland.
On August 1, 2025, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, from which PBS gets much of its funding, announced they were going to end operations due to being entirely defunded by the Rescissions Act of 2025.
In September 2025, PBS announced a 15% staff reduction, cutting about 100 jobs, including 34 immediate layoffs, in response to a $1.1 billion decrease in federal funding for public broadcasting over 2026 and 2027. The cuts, which came after the elimination of CPB funding starting October 1, 2025, and the loss of an educational grant earlier that year, led to a 21% drop in PBS's revenue.