Public broadcasting involves radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing, and commercial financing, and claim to avoid both political interference and commercial influence.
National Educational Television (NET) is a former American educational broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It operated from May 16, 1954, to October 4, 1970, and was succeeded by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which has memberships with many television stations that were formerly part of NET.
Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was created in the United States between 1969 and 1971 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under Chairman Dean Burch, based on pioneering work and advocacy of George Stoney, Red Burns, and Sidney Dean.
Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August 2013. Most households have more than one set. The percentage of households owning at least one television set peaked at 98.4%, in the 1996–1997 season. In 1948, 1 percent of U.S. households owned at least one television; in 1955, 75 percent did. In 1992, 60 percent of all U.S. households had cable television subscriptions. However, this number has fallen to 40% in 2024.
American Public Television (APT) is an American nonprofit organization and syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. It distributes public television programs nationwide for PBS member stations and independent educational stations, as well as the Create and World television networks.
The National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB) was a US organization of broadcasters with aims to share or coordinate educational programmes. It was founded as the Association of College and University Broadcasting Stations (ACUBS) in 1925 as a result of Fourth National Radio Conference, held by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
KUHT is a PBS member television station in Houston, Texas, United States. Owned by the University of Houston System, it is sister to NPR member station KUHF. The two stations share studios and offices in the Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting on the campus of the University of Houston. KUHT's transmitter is located near Missouri City, in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County. In addition, the station leased some of its studio operations to Tegna-owned CBS affiliate KHOU from August 2017 to February 2019 when the latter's original studios were inundated by Hurricane Harvey.
WETA-TV is the primary PBS member television station in Washington, D.C. Owned by the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, it is a sister station to NPR member WETA. The two outlets share studios in nearby Arlington, Virginia; WETA-TV's transmitter is located in the Tenleytown neighborhood in Northwest Washington.
PBS Wisconsin is a network of non-commercial educational television stations operated primarily by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It comprises all of the PBS member stations in the state outside of Milwaukee.
WPSU-TV is a PBS member television station licensed to Clearfield, Pennsylvania, United States, serving West-Central Pennsylvania. Owned by the Pennsylvania State University as part of Penn State Public Media, it is sister to NPR member WPSU and student radio station WKPS. The three stations share studios at Innovation Park on Penn State's University Park campus in State College. WPSU-TV's primary transmitter is located seven miles (11 km) north of Clearfield in Lawrence Township, with a secondary transmitter in Pine Grove Mills, Pennsylvania.
Arkansas PBS is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. state of Arkansas. It is operated by the Arkansas Educational Television Commission, a statutory non-cabinet agency of the Arkansas government operated through the Arkansas Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which holds the licenses for all of the public television stations based in the state. The commission is managed by an independent board of university and education officials, and gubernatorial appointees representing each of Arkansas's four congressional districts. Along with offering television programs supplied by PBS and various independent distributors, the network produces public affairs, cultural and documentary programming as well as sports events sanctioned by the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA).
WHRO-TV is a PBS member television station licensed to both Hampton and Norfolk, Virginia, United States. It is owned by the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association (HRETA), a consortium of 21 Hampton Roads and Eastern Shore school systems, alongside public radio stations WFOS, WHRV, and WHRO-FM (90.3). The four stations share studios at the Public Telecommunications Center for Hampton Roads next to the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk; WHRO-TV's transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia.
Illinois Public Media, previously "WILL AM-FM-TV", is a not-for-profit organization located within the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which is responsible for the university's public media service activities. It manages three university educational broadcasting stations licensed to Urbana, Illinois, United States: NPR member stations WILL and WILL-FM, and PBS member station WILL-TV. Illinois Public Media provides locally produced programs to supplement the network programs carried by its stations. In addition, it manages the Illinois Radio Reader Service, a streaming audio service for the reading impaired.
People's Television Network is the flagship state broadcaster owned by the Government of the Philippines. Founded in 1974, PTV is the main brand of People's Television Network, Inc. (PTNI), one of the attached agencies under the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).
Instructional television (ITV) is the use of television programs for distance education. Educational television programs on instructional television may be less than one half hour long to help their integration into the classroom setting. These shows are often accompanied by teachers' guides that include material to help use this program in lessons. Instructional television programs in the United States have historically been shown during the daytime on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations. However, in the 21st century fewer public television stations devote their airtime to ITV than in the past, ITV programs are either seen on a digital subchannel of non-commercial educational public television station, or on a local educational-access television channel run by a public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable TV organization.
WIUM is a 50,000-watt radio station licensed to Macomb, Illinois, in west-central Illinois. Western Illinois University is the station licensee, authorized by the Federal Communications Commission.
V-me is a Hispanic-Latino American Spanish-language television network, currently carried as an over-the-air public broadcasting network in association with public television stations. V-me airs a variety of programs, including comedy, music, science and technology, sports, soap operas, entertainment, juvenile, news and current affairs, food, reality shows, talk shows, lifestyle, nature, showbiz, magazines and educational pre-school content.
World Channel, also branded as World, is an American digital multicast public television network owned and operated by the WGBH Educational Foundation. It is distributed by American Public Television and the National Educational Telecommunications Association and features programming covering topics such as science, nature, news, and public affairs. Programming is supplied by the entities, as well as other partners such as WNET and WGBH. It is primarily carried on the digital subchannels of PBS member stations.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programs to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as Frontline, Nova, PBS News Hour, Masterpiece, Sesame Street, This Old House and American Experience.
In the United States, other than a few direct services, public broadcasting is almost entirely decentralized and is not operated by the government, but does receive some government support.
