PBS Considers Putting Shows Online

PBS CONSIDERS PUTTING MORE SHOWS ONLINE
[SOURCE: Reuters]
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is considering making its television shows available on the Internet or portable devices like MP3 players, says new CEO Paula Kerger. PBS is also weighing whether to partner with technology companies, in the same way that Walt Disney Co. has teamed up with Apple Computer Inc. to sell episodes of some of its ABC television network series on iTunes for downloading to iPods. "My goal in running PBS is that no matter what choice consumers in the digital age decide to do ... we recognize the need to make content available to any of those platforms, and right now we're moving in that direction," Kerger said at a luncheon sponsored by the Media Institute. She also pointed to PBS's archive of educational shows like "Nature," "Frontline" and other documentaries as a possible resource that could be accessed "anytime, anywhere."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-04-17T212554Z_01_N17280309_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-PBS.xml
* PBS President Cautions On Ad Expansion
With some noncom stations taking ads on their Web sites, Kerger said that the Internet might give stations "the ability to experiment a little more on the advertising side than we do with broadcast," but she said that her concern is that "if we go to far, we become commercial television. Part of the reason that public television exists is to do the things that are not sustainable in a corporate environment."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6325496?display=Breaking+News