"Local public television stations are going to become information centers and education centers for the public to help them through the transition," Boland continued. "There will be on-air spots and call-in 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 doesn't know how to hook up the [over-the-air digital converter] box, actually send someone to their house to help."
Boland admitted that PBS' motivation is in part rooted in "a certain amount of self-interest. We know from our research that a significant percentage of those over-the-air viewers are heavy public television viewers," he said. "And a significant number of them are public television members. This goes beyond mere public service. Our stations are getting very mobilized around this."
Once the switch takes place, Boland is curious to see "if there is any kind of rebirth of over-the-air TV." He has seen a demonstration of digital over-the-air 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 over-the-air digital signal is superior to that received via cable and satellite.
"I actually know people who are getting antennas and putting them on their roofs to receive digital television direct from the transmitter because they don't like the way it's being compressed on cable or satellite," Boland said.
The traditional perception that over-the-air television offers only a handful of channels will change as well, he noted. "Let's 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 over-the-air and end up with 20 stations."
As 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 all-important sponsorships for PBS programming. "The future is very bright" for PBS and its sponsors, Boland said, in part because so many PBS programs are now available online.
"The corporate sponsorships that we have are essentially embedded in our programs, so they travel with them online," he explained. "It's an added benefit for our sponsors, the whole idea of the long tail. A show isn't just a show that's on Tuesday night at 8 o'clock. It's available forever. That's 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 again."
PBS has been aggressive in expanding the scope of its sponsorship opportunities, with notable recent results. "General Motors, Anheuser-Busch and Bank of America are thrilled with the experience they had with The War," Boland noted, referring to the highly acclaimed Ken Burns documentary mini-series about the Second World War. "They not only supported the production of the series, they provided specific support. GM, Anheuser-Busch 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 itself."
On the subject of Burns' modern masterpiece, Boland commented, "Everybody asks me how we will follow up The War. I tell them The War was the pop out of all pop-outs. I don't think that's going to happen again anytime soon." 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 January-April and include new adaptations of Austen's MansfieldPark, Northhanger Abbey, Persuasion and Sense and Sensibilityanda new biographical drama titled Miss Austen Regrets.It will also feature two well-known modern classics: The highly acclaimed Emma (with Kate Beckinsale) and Pride and Prejudice (with Colin Firth).
In the spring PBS will telecast a reality miniseries titled Carrier that promises to command huge media attention. "Carrier is ten hours of life aboard an aircraft carrier," Boland revealed. "A 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 5,000 people on the Nimitz and the average age is 19. It's an amazingly diverse group, living and working together. It's a floating town, really, with a grocery store, movie theater and more. It's going to be quite a big program for us."
Looking ahead to next fall, PBS will present a series titled Royal Monarchy: AYear in the Life, which Boland described as "Carrierin Buckingham Palace." He added: "The producer is working for the BBC and PBS. We've 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 royals."
Boland said 2008 would also bring changes for Masterpiece Theatre, which has been unable to secure a new sponsor since ExxonMobil discontinued its long-running relationship several years ago. "Masterpiece Theatre will be going through a real refurbishing of the brand," he said. "It 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 I'm talking about I think there is a good chance we will have a sponsor next year, though maybe not until after the Jane Austen programming."
The Jane Austen adaptations will surely draw young viewers, but PBS is actively doing much more to attract millennials (young people 25 and under). "They were all raised on Sesame Street and other PBS programs, so they are very familiar with us," Boland said. "One of the things they like about public television is that it's non-commercial. They recognize that it is public media and non-profit. Because they were raised on television they know when they're being sold.
"We believe the best way to reach them with PBS content is to go where they are, and that's online," he continued. "We have streaming video and downloads. Now we're moving into social networking, which is geared to reach everyone but particularly that generation. We have a project titled PBS Engage. It's designed to create a series of social media tools that would be available to every station Web site and on pbs.org. You have to let people form a network around a program and see where it goes.
"That's the part we're trying to figure out -- the where it goes part," Boland concluded. "What 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, 'This was our thing, now it's Rupert Murdoch's thing.'"