In news that’s a positive joy to report, it seems PBS has decided to show the rest of TV how it should be done. This glorious channel, currently celebrating its fortieth year, has decided to join Hulu and YouTube and offer its content online.
Their new video hub allows both regular viewers and those not currently blessed with PBS service, to enjoy such peerless creations as Frontline, Nova and the largely BBC-sourced ‘Masterpiece Theatre.’ Over 130 episodes are already online, and LA Times confirms that thousands of hours of additional content will be added later this Summer.
The cost of the service will be totally covered by limited in-stream commercials, so this wonderful chance to finally enjoy some intelligent television won’t cost the legions of viewers it deserves to attract even so much as a dime.
I applaud PBS to the rafters for this, and they can count me in as a fan. But their ingenuity raises two questions: 1) Why don’t they offer the content through Miro and save themselves $1,000′s in bandwidth? And 2) If PBS — often snidely regarded by the three major networks as a ‘minor’ contender — has the intellectual depth to create and finance free online TV, what exactly is stopping the majors??
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Photo by BotheredByBees
