PBS Looks for New Audiences

Earlier this month, America's PBS launched a British channel so that its programming can be  broadcast in the European market for the first time.  The PBS program, called PBS UK, will be shared with viewers in the United Kingdom via the subscription-based British Sky Broadcasting Group and Virgin Media.  This venture is jointly owned by Quadra Group and PBS Distribution LLC, and includes top PBS programs such as Nova and Frontline.  Quandra is already considering similar ventures in Europe and Africa should the British adventure be successful.

Of course, the British did this years ago in the United States with BBC America, which includes solid programs such as Being Human, The Inbetweeners, and Torchwood.  So what do the British think of this PBS channel?  One British critic, Benji Wilson writing in The Telegraph, had a few concerns about the first Nova episode, noting

...Smartest Machine on Earth was not perhaps a smart choice for the opening programme of a US channel launch in the UK, because the intricacies of Jeopardy! would have been unfamiliar to many British viewers, including me." 

Mr. Wilson's comments on  Frontline were similarly negative when he noted,

Episode one was called Top Secret America, looking at how 9/11 led to the largest spree of covert action since the Cold War. But the sort of news-literate viewers who PBS want to attract have no doubt been reading about special ops, black sites and extraordinary rendition for aeons. Was Top Secret America still a secret to them?

Moreover, London's The Guardian had this off-putting introduction to the launch of PBS UK:

As home to arguably the most respected public service broadcaster in the world, Britain is perhaps not the most obvious territory for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), America's smaller, less internationally celebrated BBC equivalent, to launch its first channel outside the US.

It is too early to tell if this new PBS channel will work in Europe. However, it is a new way to increase funding for PBS programs so all of us back here in America can continue to see quality programs, even if they are a little low-brow for the British.