Lunch at Michael's with PBS' John Boland

quotPBS is ready in that all of our stations have their digital transmitters in placequot PBS Chief Content Officer John Boland told me over a recent Lunch at Michael39samp8482 quotThe physical transition will happen But what we39re very concerned about is the general public By some estimates upwards of 20 percent of the public still gets overtheair TV The surveys we39ve seen indicate the public has no idea of what39s to comequotLocal public television stations are going to become information centers and education centers for the public to help them through the transitionquot Boland continued quotThere will be onair spots and callin lines One of the ideas we just came up with is to have local public television stations team up with other community organizations mostly volunteer organizations like The Rotary Club for example and form groups of people who will answer phones around the February 2009 cut off and talk people through it or if they hear from someone who doesn39t know how to hook up the overtheair digital converter box actually send someone to their house to helpquotBoland admitted that PBS39 motivation is in part rooted in quota certain amount of selfinterest We know from our research that a significant percentage of those overtheair viewers are heavy public television viewersquot he said quotAnd a significant number of them are public television members This goes beyond mere public service Our stations are getting very mobilized around thisquotOnce the switch takes place Boland is curious to see quotif there is any kind of rebirth of overtheair TVquot He has seen a demonstration of digital overtheair television with one of the converter boxes that consumers without cable will have to buy and was impressed by the quality of the image He is in fact acquainted with people who insist that the overtheair digital signal is superior to that received via cable and satellitequotI actually know people who are getting antennas and putting them on their roofs to receive digital television direct from the transmitter because they don39t like the way it39s being compressed on cable or satellitequot Boland saidThe traditional perception that overtheair television offers only a handful of channels will change as well he noted quotLet39s say there are six stations in a particular market and three of them are transmitting four different signals and all of them are doing HD You can do overtheair and end up with 20 stationsquotAs Paley Center for Media president and chief executive officer Pat Mitchell New York Post gossip queen Cindy Adams and Gossip Girl star Blake Lively lunched nearby our conversation turned to the status of allimportant sponsorships for PBS programming quotThe future is very brightquot for PBS and its sponsors Boland said in part because so many PBS programs are now available onlinequotThe corporate sponsorships that we have are essentially embedded in our programs so they travel with them onlinequot he explained quotIt39s an added benefit for our sponsors the whole idea of the long tail A show isn39t just a show that39s on Tuesday night at 8 o39clock It39s available forever That39s great for us Almost everything we do can stand the test of time for a long long time People will still be watching a show like The Elegant Universe on Nova 20 years from now Our sponsors are delighted when we take a show and put it online because every time somebody watches it their identification is seen againquotPBS has been aggressive in expanding the scope of its sponsorship opportunities with notable recent results quotGeneral Motors AnheuserBusch and Bank of America are thrilled with the experience they had with The Warquot Boland noted referring to the highly acclaimed Ken Burns documentary miniseries about the Second World War quotThey not only supported the production of the series they provided specific support GM AnheuserBusch and Bank of America turned over their marketing campaigns to us It was the largest promotional campaign in PBS history Bank of America had The War on ATM screens This was all in addition to millions of dollars of support for the production itselfquotOn the subject of Burns39 modern masterpiece Boland commented quotEverybody asks me how we will follow up The War I tell them The War was the pop out of all popouts I don39t think that39s going to happen again anytime soonquot That said he noted that PBS has a number of special programs set for the next few months including The Complete Jane Austen a Masterpiece Theatre event that will run JanuaryApril and include new adaptations of Austen39s Mansfield Park Northhanger Abbey Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility and a new biographical drama titled Miss Austen Regrets It will also feature two wellknown modern classics The highly acclaimed Emma with Kate Beckinsale and Pride and Prejudice with Colin FirthIn the spring PBS will telecast a reality miniseries titled Carrier that promises to command huge media attention quotCarrier is ten hours of life aboard an aircraft carrierquot Boland revealed quotA film crew was given permission to go aboard the USS Nimitz as it traveled to the Persian Gulf with unfettered access to its crew The series captures the drama of the ship going into a war zone but also all the personal dramas of the people on board There are 5000 people on the Nimitz and the average age is 19 It39s an amazingly diverse group living and working together It39s a floating town really with a grocery store movie theater and more It39s going to be quite a big program for usquotLooking ahead to next fall PBS will present a series titled Royal Monarchy A Year in the Life which Boland described as quotCarrier in Buckingham Palacequot He added quotThe producer is working for the BBC and PBS We39ve received the greatest level of access that has ever been granted to a TV producer by the royal family We followed them around for a year I think it will be appealing to Americans who have an intense curiosity about the royalsquotBoland said 2008 would also bring changes for Masterpiece Theatre which has been unable to secure a new sponsor since ExxonMobil discontinued its longrunning relationship several years ago quotMasterpiece Theatre will be going through a real refurbishing of the brandquot he said quotIt may be that Masterpiece Theatre has been around for so long people have a perception of it as being something old With the refurbishing of the brand that I39m talking about I think there is a good chance we will have a sponsor next year though maybe not until after the Jane Austen programmingquotThe Jane Austen adaptations will surely draw young viewers but PBS is actively doing much more to attract millennials young people 25 and under quotThey were all raised on Sesame Street and other PBS programs so they are very familiar with usquot Boland said quotOne of the things they like about public television is that it39s noncommercial They recognize that it is public media and nonprofit Because they were raised on television they know when they39re being soldquotWe believe the best way to reach them with PBS content is to go where they are and that39s onlinequot he continued quotWe have streaming video and downloads Now we39re moving into social networking which is geared to reach everyone but particularly that generation We have a project titled PBS Engage It39s designed to create a series of social media tools that would be available to every station Web site and on pbsorg You have to let people form a network around a program and see where it goesquotThat39s the part we39re trying to figure out the where it goes partquot Boland concluded quotWhat level of freedom do you need to give the users so they feel it is their network Look at MySpace Once it became part of News Corp kids were saying 39This was our thing now it39s Rupert Murdoch39s thing39quot

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Lunch at Michael's with PBS' John Boland

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