PBS UK

In case anyone's interested, I've heard our friends from the crimson wasp will be handling the playout.

Hear, hear. British TV produces amazing documentaries -- it's the world leader in this field --, but it tends to be rather parochial when it comes to importing documentaries from other countries -- even world-class documentaries.

Thanks for reminding me about Frontline . Here are some of the diverse topics recently covered by this excellent PBS documentary series: international bribery, the economic meltdown, the secret history of credit cards, the growing popularity of high school football, crime in post-earthquake Haiti, the history of religion in America, an investigation of airline maintenance problems, suicide tourism in Switzerland, controversial death penalty cases in Texas, etc.

For those unfamiliar with Frontline , here is a sample edition (most editons of Frontline have an hour devoted to a single topic, but some contain several reports, like this one):

Also, a new channel just being given a high EPG placing wouldn't exactly be fair to those channels who took the next slot when they launched and ended up in the high 200's.

Does Sky tend to do things fairly though? It normally comes down to money, in my opinion.

The EPG placings are pretty fair it seems to me*, if one of their customers (and that includes the bit of Sky that runs their channels) wants to swap or buy a slot then that's up to them


*originally of course they were allocated in order of popularity

I imagine much of the channel's content will be similar in style to BBC Four.

PBS, along with member stations, produce world class programming.

Some good shows are:

Austin City Limits
P.O.V.
Independent Lens
Frontline
Need to Know
American Experience
Great Performances
Nova
Nature

There's a lot of content for this channel to show, and I'm certain that it won't disappoint. Nearly all PBS shows are produced in HD, or at the very least, widescreen.

You'll have probably seen quite a few BBC co-productions with them at least (usually through WGBH Boston).

Should be interesting... but that logo!
Just because it's been around for forty years doesn't mean it's any good or relevent today. That scary face is just horrible and screams 1973. Almost literally.

The logo is as iconic as the CBS eye or the NBC peacock. It may be old, but they use it well.

The current PBS look is quite good:


Most PBS stations use other graphics though. Another thing to note about Public Television in the US is that PBS only produces some of the programmes shown on stations across the country. Many stations derive content from other public syndicators, such as American Public Television, much like NPR only produces some of the shows on the radio, with stations taking programming from American Public Media and other syndicators.

It's a silly system, I'd much rather see something akin to the CBC here.

A new channel has appeared on SKY 231 named Rosa that's carrying PBS programming from 2-4am each morning so this is probably their place holder.

The channel is operated by PBS UK LTD.

Will be recording tonight.

FYI they also totally fail to broadcast anything in the right aspect ratio and its VERY annoying.