BOULDER, Colo.—Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) has launched TechBundle, its comprehensive, modernized, low-cost shared technology bundle packaged specifically for local public media station operations.

As public media organizations face increasing financial pressure and complex technology decisions, TechBundle provides stations with a bundle of best-in-class services to manage essential operational services at a low cost, without sacrificing reliability, control or long-term flexibility.

“In today’s rapidly evolving media landscape, stations need tools that reduce cost and complexity while supporting growth,” said Marc Hand, founder and CEO of PMVG. “TechBundle was designed to help local stations stabilize their operations and position themselves for what comes next.”

TechBundle consolidates four essential services into one offering. By combining shared infrastructure, expert support and revenue and audience-focused digital tools, stations can modernize operations without rebuilding from scratch. Services may be purchased individually or with an additional introductory discount when purchased as a complete bundle. PMVG negotiated substantially reduced pricing on behalf of the public media system, creating access to enterprise-level infrastructure at a fraction of the traditional cost.

TechBundle is supported by PMVG’s Solution Advisor model. PMVG will help participating station leaders evaluate options, select the right services and configurations for their needs and plan technology investments strategically.

“Our role is not simply to deliver services,” said Hand. “It’s to help stations make smart, informed decisions that support long-term sustainability and reduce operating costs.”

The TechBundle combines master control, transmission monitoring & maintenance, traffic, and streaming into a unified solution delivered on modern infrastructure and supported by one dedicated PMVG contact.

TechBundle offers includes PMM Cloud, TSG managed encoding and transmission site services, TRAC traffic services and Local Public Light.

PMM Cloud is a centralized, fully managed, cloud-based master control solution built for public media. It features national content delivery, quality control, live local operations and 365/24/7 expert monitoring — with no capital equipment costs for stations.

TSG managed encoding and transmission site services offers comprehensive, proactive monitoring across RF, MVPD, and streaming distribution, including 24/7 technical oversight, on-site maintenance, site evaluations, and signal integrity monitoring.

TRAC offers reliable PBS-focused traffic services delivering clean, compliant logs, automation compatibility, continuity protection and 24/7 response for urgent changes and live events. Service can also include station programming.

Local Public’s Light tier offers local public and dual-licensee stations the full capabilities of its apps, which are designed to mint Passport members and replace lost broadcast-driven audiences and revenue across select platforms, including Roku and the web with optional mobile support, for a greatly reduced price.

More information is available on the PMVG, Local Public, PMM, TRAC and TSG websites.

TORONTO—Eon Media, WCTE Central Tennessee PBS and Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) have announced a pilot project to evaluate the potential of Eon Media’s eonArchivesAI product to enhance programming, enrich local service and raise additional revenue in a local public television environment.

As part of the pilot, Eon Media with the assistance of PMVG will work with WCTE PBS, serving rural Tennessee, to deploy the product to index extensive WCTE archives using AI-generated metadata, PMVG said.

WCTE’s archives include years of public events, public service programming, cultural features and local sports. While the station has digitized much of its archives, the lack of any metadata encoding or indexing has presented a virtually insurmountable obstacle to WCTE’s ability to leverage these archives, it said.

The potential to create new programming or enhance current programming, to identify material that may have value to local government or public service organizations or to generate license revenue from archives is a significant opportunity for the station. The WCTE pilot will provide this metadata indexing, a user interface to extract content and a public-facing online storefront to allow interested parties to identify and license material that might be of interest to them, it said.

Eon Media has a successful record with commercial broadcasters. These efforts have enabled the company’s broadcast customers to generate over $50,000 in revenue in the past six months—a sum that excludes the value of leveraging archives in news reporting, creating nonbroadcast content offshoots and other benefits that add to the value of the stations, it said.

The pilot will help EON Media and PMVG identify challenges and opportunities unique to local public television stations and determine what features public television stations need to derive the most value from their archives. The pilot will also help stations develop and augment policies for responsible, ethical and journalistic uses of AI as well as respond to potential concerns of donors and the general public about stations’ use of AI.

More information is available on the Eon Media, PMVG and WCTE Central Tennessee PBS websites.

BOULDER, Colo.—Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significantly improve over-the-air reception of WQED for viewers in Pittsburgh.

As part of the agreement, VTG, a television and radio station group based in Pasadena, Calif, donated WBPA-LD to PMVG for the benefit of public broadcasting. PMVG offered an operating agreement to WQED to make WBPA available as an additional simulcast signal for the Pittsburgh station’s programming. The donation was approved by the FCC on November 26, and WQED is programming WBPA under a simulcast operating agreement.

This unique collaboration is meant to help WQED overcome the challenge of serving antenna viewers with a difficult-to-receive Low-VHF Channel 4 signal, a problem the PBS station has been striving to address for some time. Most recently, WQED tripled its power on Channel 4 to 35 kilowatts, three times its previous power.

With WQED’s programming now available on WBPA’s easier-to-receive channel 12, viewers have a new option to receive the station that is easier for viewers. Through the “Program and System Information Protocol” (PSIP) standard that is part of television broadcasting, viewers simply tune to the same channel they always have for WQED, “virtual” Channel 13. Their TV set will pull in whichever signal is stronger.

“We’re grateful to the Public Media Venture Group for helping make our television signal more accessible,” said Jason Jedlinski, president and CEO of WQED Multimedia. “Simulcasting on a higher frequency helps ensure that more viewers in our region can reliably receive our broadcasts and stay connected to trusted PBS programming.”

“Acquiring WBPA helps give WQED the reach it needs to serve the region effectively,” PMVG CEO Marc Hand said. “This is exactly why we exist—to help stations strengthen their local service and ensure that public media remains accessible to everyone.”

BOULDER, Colo.—The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), a business development consortium of 32 public stations, has launched NextGen broadcasting service on W35DZ-D, its low-power station in Cookeville, Tennessee. 

The launch was accomplished in collaboration with WCTE Central Tennessee PBS, a PMVG member station, which is hosting W35DZ’s transmitter and antenna at its Monterey tower location. W35DZ will bring cutting-edge ATSC 3.0 technology to the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee and Kentucky.

W35DZ will also serve as an active NextGen TV testbed to develop and demonstrate ATSC 3.0 applications and use cases, such as enhanced emergency alerting, interactive education, and datacasting, PMVG reported. 

In partnership with SpectraRep, W35DZ will host a dedicated datacasting stream for regional public officials that demonstrates the advantages of NextGen for emergency alerting and public safety. The stream will showcase NextGen TV’s ability to improve reception and data rates and to seamlessly integrate with other systems.

This project is made possible through a joint venture between PMVG and RAPA (Korea Radio Promotion Association), working alongside ATSC 3.0 solutions provider DigiCAP, project manager Jim Stenberg of Over The Air RF Consulting, and Korean manufacturer JM Broadcast which provided the W35DZ transmitter at a deep discount, the participants said. 

As previously reported, PMVG acquired W35DZ in 2022 thanks to the generosity of Jeff Winemiller (LowCountry 34 Media), who donated the construction permit and provided engineering know-how and staff to design and construct the station’s original ATSC 1.0 signal.

W35DZ’s new 3.0 signal is configured to provide a high level of resiliency, the group said. Tailored to meet the challenges of central Tennessee’s mountainous terrain, it can deliver a payload of approximately 15 Mbps per second that will reach over 466,000 residents. The station will carry WCTE’s primary feed in ATSC 3.0 and 1080p as well as additional WCTE multicast channels in both high definition and standard definition.

PMVG also announced that it is asking for proposals from equipment manufacturers and service providers who are interested in using PMVG’s ATSC stations in Cookeville and Beaufort, SC, to demonstrate innovative ATSC 3.0 technologies and applications.

Comprised of 32 leading public media organizations, PMVG develops scalable technology use cases to help sustain public media’s vital services in the long term.

BOULDER, Colo. and PALO ALTO, Calif.—Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) and Distributed Media Lab (DML) are partnering to build state and regional news content syndication networks with the aim of growing audiences and creating revenue for local news organizations and public stations around the country, PMVG said today.

The announcement follows the recent launch of a news web syndication network in California by public broadcaster KQED in San Francisco using the DML solution. Local news organizations around the state are taking advantage of the network to build audience reach and revenue, it said.

As part of PMVG’s shared services model, DML’s technology will be used to power these syndication networks to provide new audience channels for participating publishers and earn additional revenue, it said.

“New audience engagement and new revenue models are needed more than ever to sustain the journalistic mission of public media and local news,” says Tim Olson, senior vice president of digital strategic partnerships at KQED. “Combining the effort of local media companies and their audiences to share their content more widely is a strategy with immense potential to lift engagement and open up new fundraising opportunities.”

Pointing to DML’s technology as a way to create syndication networks easily, PMVG CEO Mark Hand said the offering also offers media organizations a new means to control their future.

“This is about giving local news and public media companies the ability to control their own destiny with a truly innovative web technology platform and business model that will bring in expanded audiences and new sources of revenue,” said Hand.

The partnership also offers private local media a new revenue model, said DML CEO David Gehring. 

“I think the corporate sponsorship and donor revenue models that are traditional for public media can be extended to support local news media more broadly in the emerging web economy, and we’re very excited to support that trend,” he said.

More information is available on the PMVG and DML websites.

The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) has released its preliminary program for Public Media TechConnect ‘24, which takes place April 11-12, immediately prior to the 2024 NAB Show in Las Vegas .

"Developed by some of the industry’s most respected leaders, the program is specifically geared toward public media technologists and executive leadership and will also be of interest to broadcasters, technologists, software developers, equipment manufacturers, and others in both commercial and non-commercial sectors," the organization, a nonprofit business development consortium of 25 leading public media organizations said. "The 2024 conference will focus on over-the-air and online content delivery optimization, IP- and cloud-based facility design, cybersecurity, technical staffing, NextGen TV, business and service opportunities for broadcasters, and much more.

Check out the preliminary program here.

Registration opens Nov. 1, 2023.

BOULDER, Colo.—The Knight Foundation has awarded Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) a $1 million grant to advance NextGen TV innovation and promote the impact of public media, PMVG said today.

“This is a significant endorsement of the work of PMVG and the importance of the ATSC 3.0 platform, as well as other technologies by the Knight Foundation,” said PMVG CEO Marc Hand. “This will enable PMVG to work with public stations, technology companies and application developers to ensure that the transition to this platform brings the full range of benefits to local communities.”

The grant will be used to boost PMVG’s efforts to promote innovation and sustainability by pioneering initiatives that strengthen the bond between public media and its audience. Through NextGen TV, stations will be able to deliver enriched public interest content tailored to their communities. This includes local news and public affairs programming, interactive experiences and geo-targeted emergency information, it said.

“Ensuring that public media is able to adapt to new technology is a critical part of ensuring communities are informed and engaged,” said Jim Brady, the foundation’s vice president of journalism. “That’s why we’ve invested in PMVG’s efforts to develop and deploy NextGen TV. It will allow public news stations to better serve their tens of millions of users.”

The Knight Foundation-funded PMVG effort will enable the group to collaborate with the Information Equity Initiative (IEI), a nonprofit organization that leverages television spectrum to deliver customized digital content to homes and facilities that lack access to the internet. IEI’s work includes K-12 education, educational initiatives for individuals experiencing incarceration and public health applications with a focus on communities where broadband is inaccessible, unaffordable or unreliable.

“As media and content distribution technologies continue to change rapidly, PMVG will bring collaborations with a broad range of technology companies to future focused developments that are essential for public media. We are deeply appreciative of this support and endorsement by Knight, reflecting the leadership role the Foundation plays in building strong and sustainable local media,” said Hand.

The broadcast infrastructure of public media “reflects decades and tens of billions of dollars of investment,” said IEI CEO Erik Langner.

“It [the infrastructure] is a reliable, virtually ubiquitous resource that is currently underutilized. Working in collaboration with PMVG, we can deploy new services that leverage public media’s broadcast spectrum for the customized delivery of digital information with a special focus on those without steady internet access. Our solutions can be delivered in months, not years,” said Langner.

PMVG is a consortium of 32 public media organizations dedicated to advancing public media’s mission and financial vitality.

More information is available on the PMVG website.

SEOUL, South Korea—Korea Radio Promotion Association (RAPA) and Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) have announced a two-year collaboration to examine and implement various NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, applications and use cases.

The move aims to facilitate full adoption of NextGen TV at public stations in the United States. The collaboration will leverage RAPA’s leadership as a primary architect of the NextGen TV transition in South Korea, they said.

RAPA and PMVG recently executed a Memorandum of Understanding. The two are working together to establish a 3.0 demonstration at a PMVG-owned low-power television station. The station, W35DZ-D in Algood, Tenn., was donated to PMVG in 2022 by Lowcountry 34 Media, an LPTV owner based out of Beaufort, S.C.

Constructed in collaboration with PMVG member station WCTE of Cookeville, Tenn., W35DZ-D will serve as a platform to showcase the capabilities and benefits of ATSC 3.0 technology. These use cases and applications will be designed to be replicated and expanded to stations throughout the public media system, PMVG said.

RAPA has designated DigiCAP, an ATSC 3.0 solution provider based in Seoul, to provide the necessary technology solutions for the demonstration station. DigiCAP will collaborate with PMVG to set up the Cookeville station and work with PMVG and RAPA to develop the applications and use cases that will run on top of the demonstration station.

PMVG and RAPA will also collaborate on securing deployment capital, equipment and new partnerships. The Cookeville demonstration station is slated to launch in August 2023.

“We are thrilled to embark on this partnership with RAPA, DigiCAP, and WCTE Cookeville,” said PMVG CEO Marc Hand. “This collaboration will showcase the full capabilities and benefits of NextGen TV and help pave the way for new, vital business applications to sustain public media and to enable an exciting range of new services to local communities.”

More information is available on the PMVG website.  

Public broadcasters have played a vital role in their communities and across the country for years, frequently bringing to the public programming and ideas that otherwise might not have seen the light of day on commercial television. 

So, it shouldn’t be too surprising that a pair of novel ideas about how public broadcasters can better serve viewers by advancing reception of 3.0 were proposed during the Public Media Venture Group’s Public Media Technology Summit on the eve of the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

First up is an idea from Jerome McDonald, chairman of the Western Sanders County TV District—a TV translator service district in Montana. 

McDonald proposed special districts, such as those responsible for firefighting and public safety, launch bond initiatives to fund deployment of NextGen TV receivers for residents in their service areas to ensure reception of ATSC 3.0-delivered Advanced Emergency Information (AEI) messages.

His proposal was particularly eye-opening for those unfamiliar with special districts. Currently, there are more than 30,000 single-purpose districts across the United States that deal with various public concerns ranging from mosquito abatement and sewage to fire protection, flood control and highways. That number does not include school districts, he added.

“Bonding,” as McDonald puts it—not the cellular IP type for ENG, but rather for funding public works—could be the right mechanism to advance the public’s uptake of NextGen TV. 

As McDonald sees it, funding 3.0 receivers—set-top boxes, HDMI dongles or even NextGen TVs—as part of a public safety service is reasonable and appropriate for certain special districts. What’s needed is a focused effort to educate the people on the boards of these districts about how 3.0 reception will advance their specific missions with the public. That’s a perfect mission for public broadcasters, said McDonald.

Next up is an idea presented on behalf of Madeleine Noland, president of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, by Jerry Whitaker, ATSC vice president for standards, during the PMVG conference. (Noland was scheduled to present the conference keynote on April 14 but was delayed in arriving in Las Vegas due to the torrential rains in Florida.) 

The idea is simple. Identify a market or portion of a market with a relatively small population. Under the leadership of a public broadcaster, in other words funding from that broadcaster, outfit all households in the market with NextGen TV receivers and do a flash cut to ATSC 3.0.

Not only would the broadcaster be able to advance its mission of better serving the public in its coverage area with additional programming and the other benefits the standard brings to broadcasting, but the effort could demonstrate to regulators a path forward for accelerating 3.0 and hastening sunsetting of legacy DTV.

Given the FCC’s announcement that it too is looking for ways to move 3.0 along and end 1.0 without disenfranchising millions of DTV households, these ideas—or a combination of the two—could prove to be important parts of the solution it seeks. 

The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) has added an important session to the program for the Public Media Technology Summit (PMTS), which will take place immediately prior to the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The event will be held at the Renaissance Las Vegas, adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center (site of the 2023 NAB Show), on April 13-14.

On April 13, noted industry analyst—and creator of the term “FAST Channel”—Alan Wolk will present a comprehensive talk on the rapidly expanding FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) ecosystem. The presentation will examine the various types of FAST platforms, their place in the greater TV environment, myths about FAST channels, where local broadcasters and news fit into this ecosystem, and why FASTs are poised to be a leading advertising vehicle of the future.

Mr. Wolk is co-founder of the media-industry consulting firm TVREV, and is author of the best-selling Over The Top: How The Internet Is (Slowly But Surely) Changing The Television Industry, which is used as a textbook at a number of top business schools. A much sought-after writer, speaker and consultant, Wolk has established himself as one of the industry's most influential thought leaders. He is a contributing writer at Forbes, NextTV, FierceVideo and other industry news sites, and has been interviewed and quoted by NPR, The New York Times and other media.

Other recently added speakers on the Summit program include John Burgett, a partner at the highly respected law firm of Wiley Rein LLP, and Joonyoung Park, senior vice president at the Korean manufacturer and software developer DigiCAP.

A previously announced agenda is available here. 

Registration for the Summit is offered for either one or both days, and includes breakfasts, lunches and refreshment breaks and a concluding reception on Day 1. Summit registrants also receive a $150 discount to the NAB Show Conference registration, and/or free access to NAB Show exhibits. 

Early registration discounts are available through March 31. A full program and online registration are available at https://www.publicmediaventure.com/tech-summit.

BOULDER, Colo.—The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) has added topics and speakers to the program for the Public Media Technology Summit (PMTS), which will take place immediately prior to the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas. 

The event will be held at the Renaissance Las Vegas, adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center (site of the 2023 NAB Show), on April 13-14, 2023.

On April 13, time on the program has been extended for consulting engineer and trainer Gary Sgrignoli’s Master Class on “Configuring the ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer,” to allow a deeper dive on the complex topic. 

Later that day, a session on “Artificial Intelligence in Public Media” has been added to the program, presented by one of the industry’s leading thinkers on the topic, Chad Davis, CIO at Nebraska Public Media. Davis will address some of the greatest concerns and opportunities AI presents to public media professionals and to journalism at large.

Day 1 of the Summit also includes a session on “Differentiating and Innovating with NextGen TV Content,” focusing on the system’s 4K/Ultra HD and interactive capabilities, plus a panel on “Improving Coverage with SFNs and On-channel Repeaters,” providing a sneak peek at new products in this sector that will be unveiled at the NAB Show. Later in the day a session on “Moving to the Cloud,” features presenters from Google, and the day’s keynote address will come from SMPTE president Renard Jenkins, senior vice president, Production Integration & Creative Technology Services at Warner Brothers Discovery.

Also on the Day 1 program is a session on “Public TV’s Early Lessons with ATSC 3.0,” in which early-adopting public TV stations will present real-world NextGen TV implementations currently on the air.

The program for April 14 begins with an up-to-the-minute report by Roger Lanctot, Director of Connected Mobility for the respected technology analyst firm TechInsights. Lanctot will address “ATSC 3.0 and the Future of Connected Cars,” in which he will describe how ATSC 3.0 has fundamentally altered the calculations of car makers on connectivity planning. According to Lanctot, “ATSC 3.0’s relevance for both content delivery and datacasting is a compelling one-two punch, made even more powerful with the addition of enhanced positioning. The path ahead will be challenging, but the opportunities are clear enough based on existing forecasts.” Lanctot plans to include identification of critical factors to the success or failure of ATSC 3.0 in the connected car.

Day 2 of the Summit continues with a panel on “Navigating the Transition to NextGen—LPTV Partnerships & Acquisitions,” featuring SuperFrank Copsidas, founder and president of the LPTV Broadcasters Association, multi-LPTV station operator Jeff Winemiller of Wave Central LLC, and Greg Petrowich, president and CEO of WFYI, Indianapolis.

The April 14 program continues with an “ATSC 3.0 Datacasting” panel including Erik Langner, CEO of Information Equity Initiative, Guy Hadland, CTO of UniSoft, and Skip Flenniken vice president and GM of technology business development at Sinclair Broadcast Group, along with a unique presentation on “Working with Joint Master Controls for ATSC 3.0” by Shadi Sabra, CEO of CentralCast Alliance; and Joe Walker, vice president of technology and product solutions at Crispin Corporation, representing the Public Media Management (PMM) platform.

Day 2’s keynote address will be presented by ATSC president Madeleine Noland, followed by a panel on “Emergency Alerting & Information over NextGen TV” moderated by John Lawson, executive director of the AWARN Alliance, and a panel on “CE Trends: NextGen Televisions and Accessory Receivers” moderated by Dave Arland, executive director of the Indiana Broadcasters Association, which will include panelists Alex Day of Tolka, Luke Fay of Sony, Anne Schelle of Pearl TV, and John Taylor of LG Electronics.

The Summit will close with an uninhibited discussion of regulatory and policy topics, featuring NAB’s vice president, Spectrum Policy, Robert Weller and others, and a rare look inside an enterprise’s recovery from a ransomware attack, in which two public stations that have suffered such hacks will share their experiences and recommendations.

Registration for the Summit is now offered for either one or both days, and includes breakfasts, lunches and refreshment breaks. Summit registrants also receive a $150 discount to the NAB Show Conference registration, and/or free access to NAB Show exhibits. Early registration discounts are available through March 31. A full program and online registration are available at https://www.publicmediaventure.com/tech-summit. 

BOULDER, Colo.—The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) has negotiated a donation of W29EN-D, a low-power television (LPTV) station in Beaufort, South Carolina and has announced that it will construct the station as an ATSC 1.0 facility and provide bandwidth to South Carolina ETV (SCETV) for its groundbreaking educational datacasting services and other public service content. 

The station will provide expanded television service to 280,000 people in the Beaufort and Hilton Head regions of South Carolina.

PMVG, which is a nonprofit business development consortium of 33 public media organizations, reached an agreement for the donation of W29EN-D from Lowcountry 34 Media, an LPTV owner based out of Beaufort, South Carolina. The FCC approved the assignment of the station to PMVG as the new licensee on March 28, 2022. PMVG will act quickly to build this station since, according to a limitation on the station’s authorization, it must begin on-air broadcast service by August 2022, the consortium said. 

The FCC has also approved the assignment of LPTV station W35DZ-D in Cookeville, TN, to PMVG from Lowcountry34. PMVG will build that station in conjunction with local public television station WCTE.

Once built, the two new stations will bring new broadcast assets with combined market values of nearly $1 million to PMVG and public television.

"PMVG is thrilled to coordinate and close on the donation of these stations to benefit WCTE and SCETV," said PMVG CEO Marc Hand. “The additional broadcast capacity will enable these two leading public television organizations to better serve their communities, an outcome that exemplifies our purpose and value as an organization."

“SCETV always seeks to find ways to best utilize our resources and to expand services to our local communities,” said SCETV president & CEO Anthony Padgett. “This could potentially be one of those opportunities. PMVG continues to be an innovative partner for SCETV and public media. We are excited to continue to explore the benefits associated with this license and as appropriate seek ways to leverage this opportunity to benefit the region and extend our services through datacasting.”

"Our company helps broadcasters achieve the highest and best use of their license assets," said Jeff Winemiller, owner and general manager of Lowcountry 34 Media. "Our partnership with public television has brought important resources to communities in Tennessee, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. We're proud to be working with the Public Media Venture Group to advance the important service that public television stations provide.”

Lowcountry 34 Media LLC is a broadcast engineering firm building infrastructure to support both LPTV and full-power stations nationwide. Lowcountry 34 Media owns 80 LPTV CPs in 27 states.

BOULDER, Colo.—Skip Pizzi has joined the Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) in a newly created role around ATSC 3.0.

Pizzi will serve alongside PMVG consultants Vinnie Curren and Liz Maestri and PMVG founder and CEO Marc Hand, the company said.

“After spending the last several years helping lead the development of the ATSC 3.0 standard, it’s extremely gratifying to now be joining a team that’s in the forefront of the standard’s actual deployment,” said Pizzi. “I’m also glad to be working with trusted, long-time colleagues whom I greatly respect, and pleased to again engage with the public broadcasting industry, where I began my career.”

The sole focus of PMVG, a nonprofit business development consortium of 32 public media organization, is leveraging NextGen TV and developing use cases to assist public broadcasters in sustaining their services over the long term, PMVG said.

Pizzi will focus on leading the ATSC 3.0 market transition planning and implementation of PMVG member stations. He will serve as an advisor to PMVG stations, board of directors and CEO on 3.0 strategy and opportunities. He also will lead PMVG’s NextGen TV Working Group of stations already broadcasting 3.0 or in the process of transitioning, it said.

“With the priority of moving the PMVG stations onto the ATSC 3.0 platform, we are thrilled to bring Skip’s wealth of skills, experiences, and long-time engagement with public media to our work,” said Hand. “Skip participated in the original planning meetings for PMVG in 2016 and has been a trusted advisor over the years as we navigate the needs of our stations, and the opportunities offered by ATSC 3.0. We’re very pleased to add the contributions that Skip will make to our efforts and in addressing the range of needs of the PMVG stations.”

More information is available on the PMVG website.

BOULDER, Colo.—The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) announced it will collaborate with Washington, D.C.-based Convergence Services Inc. (CSI) to identify and develop NextGen TV services and new revenue opportunities for PMVG’s nationwide collective of public media stations.

John Lawson, president of CSI, will advise PMVG with a focus on what the group has dubbed “techno-political strategy,” which it defines as the intersection of business, technology and policy. 

Together, the companies will develop new member revenue sources, including private and public funding, private investment and strategic partnerships. Their efforts will concentrate on expanding local program services, education and remote learning, emergency messaging, rural connectivity and data delivery, PMVG said.

“We are excited to join forces with PMVG,” said Lawson. “They have a national footprint with leading public television stations that reach almost 70% of U.S. households. Equally impressive is the organizational structure they’ve built that enables non-commercial licensees to pursue innovation and sustainability.”

Lawson also serves as executive director of the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance, a coalition of broadcasters, consumer electronics makers and B2B tech companies that is developing a voluntary framework for advanced emergency alerting, news and information using NextGen TV. Currently, four public broadcasters are members of the AWARN Alliance and PMVG, “a good indication of how the missions [of both organizations] intersect,” said Lawson.

“This collaboration with CSI will bring an important set of strategic links to PMVG and the PMVG stations.” said Marc Hand, CEO of PMVG.

“We think that by working together we can help to accelerate the adoption of NextGen TV among PMVG stations and the broader public television community, a priority for both our organizations. Viewers and communities around the country will benefit,” he added.

More information is available on the PMVG website.  

Last week, the Public Media Company, a non-profit consulting company focused on fostering the growth of public media, announced the kickoff of the Public Media Venture Group.

The group aims to help public broadcasters realize the potential of the ATSC 3.0 next-generation TV standard. 

Given the rich menu of features the next-gen TV standard offers broadcasters, that’s a pretty tall order. But Marc Hand, CEO of Public Media Company says the new venture is up to the task.

In this interview, Hand discusses what the new venture is all about, its likely first steps, ways public broadcasters might generate new dollars to diversify their revenue via ATSC 3.0 and how public broadcasters might one day work with commercial broadcasters to realize some of these goals.

TVTechnology: Last week the Public Media Company announced the launch of the Public Media Venture Group, a coalition of public media TV stations, which will focus on investing in ATSC 3.0 and, among other things, plan an effective conversion to next-gen TV. What do you see as the primary elements of an effective ATSC 3.0 conversion?

Marc Hand:Our focus is to work with, plan and educate stations so they can look at what their needs are and essentially at what their primary goals are in considering a transition.

In some cases, some of the stations we are working with might want to convert early and in other cases, they might want to do a slower conversion. So, our goal is to assemble all of the resources, expertise and information needed so stations can make well-planned and well-informed choices.

I think layered onto that are some of the stations that are being repacked to make sure they knew what the important considerations were so they could get equipment that would enable them to convert over to ATSC 3.0.

TVT: What’s top of mind regarding the ways the next-gen TV standard might help public broadcasters diversify their revenue streams?

HAND: I think there are two levels to that. One is obviously looking at what is going on in the commercial world—whether that’s datacasting or data distribution like Sinclair is working on. So one is making sure we are involved in those conversations and potentially what public television could do with commercial entities in developing options that are going to be revenue-producing.

Then, the second are those elements that might be more unique in terms of revenue and mission focus for public television. So, the whole realm of educational services, targeted audience services or emergency services. A big part of this is knowing that there are going to be things that develop and evolve as the platform is implemented that we don’t know about now.

It’s really wanting to pull together the resources to know what the possibilities are now and being engaged in what the possibilities might be as they are developed post implementation.

TVT: I couldn’t help but think of the spectrum consortium Sinclair is developing when I read this sentence in the press release you issued last week: “Areas of potential collaboration with commercial groups include the establishment of single frequency network facilities and maintenance of ATSC 1.0 service.” Is that the sort of cooperation you envision—pooling spectrum resources to continue serving legacy DTV viewers while rolling out new ATSC 3.0 services?

HAND:Yes, and probably the underpinning of all that is the advantage of the public television system, which is its reach to about 93 percent of the population of the country. The disadvantage is that it’s not like the major networks or the major group owners on the commercial side.

For public television to explore these things in the past would have been single stations or smaller groups of stations. Part of what we wanted to do was assemble a good, forward-thinking entrepreneurial group within the public television system and be able to help represent that group in conversations with some of the major players on the commercial side. So, it gives us the potential to have a group representing the public television system, which reaches 150 million people. That’s probably much more effective when having conversations nationally with group owners.

TVT: Are there any unique FCC restrictions public broadcasters face that commercial broadcasters don’t regarding how they use their bandwidth not devoted to their primary program stream?

HAND:You are right in the overall framing from a regulatory perspective that most public TV stations in the system are on reserve band channels, so non-commercial channels.

But the FCC does allow limited commercial uses if substantially the spectrum is being used for non-commercial purposes.

The difference is if it is targeted in the way stations will be able to do under 3.0—so the difference between a general broadcast and a targeted use that stations have the ability to do with ATSC 3.0.

Data distribution, for example, would be a permitted commercial use for public television because of how the data is distributed.

TVT: Will one of the revenue explorations include pooling of spectrum regionally or nationally to support regional or national data distribution services—something a third party might find more attractive than simply local distribution?

HAND:Exactly, that capacity for the public system to reach most of the country gives the potential for us to link up with commercial entities that might be in data distribution because public television effectively reaches almost the entire population of the country.

Even within the Public Media Venture Group, what we wanted to do was assemble a smaller group that could test out some of those things and explore the ventures that might be compatible with public television and show potential for generating revenue.

If they work, then we will look at how we can engage the rest of the system in some of those things.

TVT: Tell me about seeking out partners and investors. Does that cloud the distinction between public and private and is that a problem for public media?

HAND:When you look over the history of public television there have been some of those public-private partnerships that have developed within the public television system.

It’s certainly a structure that has been used historically, and you probably saw it when the ITFS [Instructional Television Fixed Service] channels were leased out to commercial entities. There is that kind of history within the public television system.

I think what we are looking at is the possibility of a combination of foundation support that’s interested in supporting some of the targeted mission-related uses of ATSC 3.0 and commercial options that might be a little more unique to public television that could involve outside financial resources outside the traditional foundation route.

TVT: When can we expect to see the first fruits of this new venture and what do you expect them to be?

HAND:Over the next few months what we are really focusing on is the first group meeting Oct. 16 in Washington, D.C., and we are planning a webinar in the next couple of weeks just to get everybody up to speed on where the standards and regulatory issues are.

So it’s a combination of getting the group together and getting the group up to speed. We also have just joined the Advanced Television Systems Committee, and we are reaching out to the commercial groups and groups like Pearl TV to make sure we are closely connected with them.

We are also right now going through a series of onboarding conversations with each one of the members get a sense of what their issues are, what they are interested in and what their circumstances are.

The areas we are primarily interested in exploring are certainly the broad realm of educational potential with ATSC 3.0. We want to start talking with equipment manufacturers and those on the technology side to see if there are additional uses [for the standard] that might be applied to public television.

At this stage, we are looking at all of the possibilities but it is too soon to identify what the specific options will be other than those general categories.

TVT: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

HAND:We have always been a group focused on stations and station activities ranging from acquisitions and financing to new project development.

For us, this fits very well as a station-centric effort. We felt there was a real need for this within the public television system.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.

BOULDER, COLO.—Public media stations are looking to jump on to the ATSC 3.0 bandwagon, as Public Media Company has announced the formation of the Public Media Venture Group. This new group is a coalition of public media television stations collaborating on next-generation TV.

The goal of the Public Media Venture Group will be to develop a plan for conversion to ATSC 3.0, build and expand next-gen TV operating models to expand local public service, and boost station revenue to support the expanded service. The efforts will focus on educational services, emergency communications, increased program streams, local content and interactive television. There are also plans to coordinate activities with other commercial and public companies in relation to next-gen TV, including the establishment of single frequency network facilities and maintenance of ATSC 1.0 service.

Marc Hand, CEO of Public Media Company, will serve as the leader of the Public Media Venture Group. He said in the official announcement: “The new system [next-gen TV] offers public television stations the opportunity to create innovative and exciting new public services, to improve operations, save costs, generate new revenue, and invest more money in content and services that will better serve local communities.”

To date, there are 18 public stations that are a part of the Public Media Venture Group: Alabama Public Television; Iowa Public Television; KCET, California; KVIE, California; Mississippi Public Broadcasting; Nebraska Network; Nine Network of Public Media; Missouri; Rocky Mountain PBS, Colorado; UNC-TV, North Carolina; Utah Education Network; Vegas PBS, Nevada; WCTE, Tennessee; WFYI, Indiana; WGBH, Massachusetts; WJCT, Florida; WNET, New York; WOSU, Ohio; and WTTW, Illinois.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.