PBS' Kerger argues for pubcaster's relevance

PBS is becoming ''more important than ever'' due to the way in which commercial channels have moved their agendas toward less consequential reality programming, pubcaster prexy Paula Kerger suggests. ''Channels which were designed to replace PBS by providing history, drama, and arts programming have progressively switched to reality television,'' Kerger stated at PBS' Television Experts Assn. panel Saturday, ''and the popularity is just speeding up. When the relaxation from the media proceeds its current trajectory, PBS and our stations would be the only enterprise whose sole purpose would be to provide content of consequence both across the country and in your area to any or all People in america.'' Kerger thanked everyone for reaching to chosen authorities to assist preserve federal funding for public broadcasting, which received serious threat last winter. ''We notice that they are difficult occasions and Congress is confronted with remarkable options, but we'll keep our situation for support,'' Kerger stated. She added that regardless of the multiplicity of television stations, interest in PBS was just growing, with primetime viewership rising 7% in the last year , 23% among children 2-11. ''Please don't misunderstand me , I believe there's lots of good television that's being created both for cable and broadcast,'' Kerger stated, ''and I'm particularly thinking about seeing the rise, frankly, in a few of the scripted dramas, most of which I believe are extremely congratulations. ''I consider the commitment that we have designed to the humanities, the most apparent example, and there has been cable channels which have renedered a effort to try and bring arts programming towards the American public. That's how AandE began. That's the A in AandE does still are a symbol of the humanities. The job that Bravo displayed if this first continued the environment was greatly centered on arts content as opposed to the types of programs that they are doing now, that are also about creativeness, however, a different sort of creativeness.'' Though confident in the mission, PBS is constantly on the search for methods to maintain and increase viewership, Kerger stated, specifically in a global by which awareness could be tricky to find. One approach would be to convey more designed nights, for example on Wednesday, that is now devoted to science programming moored by ''Nova.'' That series' ''Japan's Killer Quake'' episode came roughly 7 million audiences, the biggest audience for Nova in 5 years. Fridays, meanwhile, is going to be oriented toward performance art, using the approaching launch from the PBS Arts Fall Festival because the focal point. PBS can also be rethinking how you can transfer audiences in one program to another. Commercial channels have lengthy since adopted the concept of getting one program start right because the previous one was ending, to ensure that there's no break to allow audiences to change away. With PBS, there's been more definitive separation between programs , an expense of not getting commercial breaks throughout shows, aside from pledge drives. ''We have that certain break between your programs to be able to get our business done,'' Kerger stated. ''to thank our underwriters, to complete any promotions about what's approaching next and so on. We have had this same structure for 4 decades, so it just feels as though it's a minimum of worth wondering: Is, actually, the easiest method to present programming, and it is there one other way that people can attempt to improve that have for that audiences to ensure that they are doing possess the chance to determine what's approaching next in ways that does not violate what happens to be a characteristic of public broadcasting people truly value, that is that we are not breaking in each and every ten minutes by having an advertisement whose seem level is even louder and much more jarring compared to program?'' ''We're going to check out it carefully, and hopefully in the these studies, we'll a minimum of be superior informed, even when we make not one other switch to the main one break than steps to make that the better spot to travel through, to ensure that we are able to, again, get our business done but additionally keep individuals with us as we are dealing with that period.'' Before ending her session, Kerger addressed the tumultuous alterations in public broadcasting in Los Angeles, which saw the defection of KCET from PBS and also the alliance of other public broadcast stations. She accented KCET's carriage of worldwide news sources for example Al Jazeera, NHK and BBC, but was pleased at how rapidly the brand new PBS SoCal, moored by KOCE, had get together. ''They've done an incredible job in an exceedingly short time to actually step-up like a full service station,'' Kerger stated. ''They could not just obtain the schedule drawn together, however they needed to completely rebuild everything to ensure that they might serve the entire community, ensuring these were transported on all the cable services, getting all the breaks and everything built within just a couple of several weeks.'' Contact Jon Weisman at jon.weisman@variety.com