A Future for Public Broadcasting

[Commentary] When there were only three networks, there was a role for Public Broadcasting -- PBS in the US. In Britain, there was ONLY public broadcasting once -- The BBC. Today, there are hundreds of channels -- and millions once online video really takes off. Is there any longer any purpose for public broadcasters? There are plenty of channels to choose from -- infinite once you include Amazon, Netflix, Apple TV (and we're just getting started with those). Yes, The BBC makes some great programs -- period dramas, documentaries, news. It certainly has a role as a produce of content -- as a production studio, but frankly (and since they don't even sell ads), what is the point of having a public broadcaster? Who cares if you watch Blue Planet on PBS or The BBC (where its free) or on National Geographic (where they actually PAY The BBC for their work!) If we don't really have a broadcasting role for PBS or any other public broadcaster, then what are they good for?

Here's an interesting idea: Education. Not educational broadcasting (which tends to be rather unwatchable), but rather educating the public in what we might call television or video literacy. What Public Broadcasting could do is to become the video education center (or centre as we say at The BBC) for the world. Like the monks in the pre Gutenberg world, they have been tiny islands of literacy in a sea of illiteracy -- video illiteracy. This could be the greatest revolution in creativity in 500 years. As anyone at PBS or The BBC can tell you, great storyteling in video is more than just pointing a camera at someone and hitting the record button. It takes a certain skill -- in writing, in videography, in editing. The tools to do that are in 3 billion hands. What they are lacking is the training. This is a task worthy of public broadcasting.

[Michael Rosenblum is the founder of Current TV]