(Introduction of PBS Distribution)

PBS Distribution is the leading media distributor for the public television community, both domestically and internationally, extending the reach of these programs beyond broadcast while generating revenue for the public television system and our production partners. Jointly owned by PBS and WGBH Educational Foundation, PBS Distribution has offices in Arlington, VA, and Boston, MA. 

As a multi-channel distributor, PBS Distribution pursues wholesale/retail sales, digital download and digital streaming partnerships, as well as consumer and educational sales through PBS-branded online shops and catalogs, and international broadcast, digital and video sales. 

PBS Distribution offers a broad range of high quality content in multiple formats including DVD, Blu-ray, digital download, and digital streaming.  PBS International offers factual and children’s content for broadcast, cable, and satellite services internationally.  The PBS Distribution catalog includes films from Ken Burns, documentaries from award-winning series such as Nova, Frontline, American Masters, Nature, and American Experience, dramas from Masterpiece, as well as films from independent producers and popular children’s programming (PBS Distribution, 2017).

​

(An Overview of the Public Broadcasting Industry)

PBS’ roots trace back to 1862, when the Morrill Act of 1862 was enacted. Introduced by congressman Justin Morrill, the act was an attempt to ensure that education would be available to people in any social class providing that there would always be money to finance educational facilities and that there would be continual government support of higher education institutions (Lightcap).

The Morrill Act led to many other laws that would eventually be means for the creation of PBS, including the Radio Act of 1927 and the Communications Act of 1934 which created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). With the creation of the FCC, the first educational television station was founded in 1953—KUHT/Houston. The station struggled at first. Not only was it the first of its kind, but it had very little funding and there were no advertisements to provide an extra source of revenue. The Ford Foundation later continued the establishment of educational television with the making of national networks EEN and SECA. However, there was still very little funding. Newton Minow, chairman of the FCC, proclaimed that “commercial broadcasting is a vast wasteland,” referring to the nation’s desperate need for public broadcasting. The Carnegie Commission on Educational Television was established a few years later; its purpose was to research the role which noncommercial educational television played in American society. Shortly thereafter, the enactment of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 led to the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Two years later, PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, was founded.

PBS receives 25% of its funding through individual members and 16% from the federal government. More specifically, Congress grants federal funds to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. From there, the money goes to PBS and other public networks such as NPR. A portion of those funds then go to public stations, such as PBS’ local station, WETA. PBS does not have “affiliates”, it has member stations.

PBS sells its programs through digital channels, DVD, Blu-ray, and more. All of their revenue supports public television. PBS operates in five main “channels”—digital, wholesale, education, internationally, and direct to consumer (their online shop). In today’s technological age, it is no surprise that their digital channel is their greatest source of revenue, making up 58% of the money that they bring in (DeMarche, 2017).

Finally, PBS Distribution operates as a commercial arm of PBS.

 

(Expectations of Employer and Student from this Internship)

Part 1 (4 weeks)

The Digital Distribution Intern will assist the team on several marketing initiatives across digital distribution partners to promote PBS and PBS KIDS content, as well as assist the team in creating tracking and reference materials for digitally distributed content.

Part 2 (4 weeks) 

The Direct to Consumer (DTC) Intern will gain insight into the marketing and merchandising efforts used for an E-commerce website - shopPBS.org.  The Intern will have exposure to daily site maintenance, technology/functionality enhancement and strategic roadmap.

​

(Digital Distribution Team)

PBS Distribution’s digital team has strong partnerships with all the world’s leading platforms, including Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, and Google Play, as well as emerging digital service providers. The team’s in-house marketing expertise drives sales and puts PBS programs in the spotlight (PBS Distribution, 2017).

There are two main types of digital sources which PBS Distribution releases its content to consumers—Electronic Sell Through (EST) and Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD).

Electronic Sell Through includes outlets such as iTunes, Amazon Video, VUDU, Verizon Fios on Demand, and Google Play. EST refers to the digital sale of media where consumers pay a one-time fee to download the media for unlimited viewing or access the content on demand through the Internet or their mobile device. This means that when you buy the program, whether it be a single episode, an entire season of a program, or a movie, you own it. A benefit to this method is that once this content is purchased, it is always accessible to the consumer. The way that distributors bring in revenues from this mode of digital distribution is through wholesale.

Subscription Video on Demand includes outlets such as Netflix, HULU, Amazon Prime, and Amazon Channels. SVOD services use a subscription business model, where subscribers are charged a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly fee to access unlimited programs that the outlet offers. A benefit to this mode of digital distribution is that once the distributor makes an official deal with a content provider (such as Netflix), the distributor’s responsibility to market and maintain their programs decrease. Another benefit to SVOD is that you do not have to download every piece of content that you want to watch like you do if you were to purchase content through an EST channel; instead, you can just constantly stream it from your PC or mobile device. For example, if you wanted to watch an entire season of a show, sometimes distributors do not provide access for consumers to purchase the entire season package on EST channels. Therefore, you would have to purchase each individual episode. Through SVOD, you are able to stream any episode at your discretion. In contrast, one drawback to Subscription Video on Demand is that distributors only license their content on channels for a certain period of time. For example, when my favorite show, Scandal, airs a new episode on ABC, that episode is available on Amazon Video, an EST outlet, the next day for purchase. However, that season typically would not be released on an SVOD outlet, such as Netflix, for about another year.

​

(PBS Kids Reference Document Project)

My first project as an intern was to create a reference document for all PBS Kids programs. The purpose of this project was to communicate our digital status in both EST and SVOD platforms to both our producers and internal stakeholders. My task was to search a series’ EST and SVOD availability, including the available movies, special share collections, seasons available, episode configuration for each season, pricing (HD) for both individual episodes and full seasons, and for inconsistencies across channels. The series’ that my project included were Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Arthur, Dinosaur Train, Caillou, Peg + Cat, Super Why, Splash & Bubbles, Wild Kratts, Odd Squad, Ready Jet Go, Nature Cat, and WordWorld.

My strategy to complete this project was to go through each individual series before moving on to the next one. I went through each EST platform that our content was available on and found each season that was available, its episode configuration, and pricing (HD). I also found all movies and special share collections available for that particular series. Additionally, I wanted to report on the images that we used to illustrate each series. I asked our digital team for access to the drop box that the company shared which held all high-quality, .png images for each program. I reported all of my findings through a power point presentation as I felt that was the best resource to organize each piece of information that I had gathered to convey to our producers and shareholders.

Of all projects that I completed, this one took the longest. This was because of the large number of series’ that I needed to report on. Additionally, because it was my first project, it took me a few days to figure out the most efficient strategy to complete the task. Upon completion, my supervisor sent the final project to his boss and the rest of the digital team. The feedback was very positive and team members said it was incredibly useful for their current and future projects.

 

(Competitive Analysis)

            My second project with the Digital Team was to perform a competitive analysis among PBS and its main competitors in children’s, general audience, and non-fiction programming. The purpose of this project was to analyze our digital presence and how we perform among our competitors. The main questions that guided my research were: How are network brands being reflected on key artwork titles? How are networks promoting digital viewing options through their own websites? Do networks offer any discounts and promotions, and if so, how often? Do any networks have any outstanding promotional strategies that could hurt PBS?

            I started my competitive analysis on our general audience programs and our competitors AMC, NBC, STARZ, FX, FOX, HBO, and BBC general audience programs. The information I searched for each program included their EST and SVOD availability, number of seasons, average number of episodes per season, price per season (HD), average price per episode (HD), if any free or special features were offered throughout the series, average episode run-time, if a digital box set was available for purchase, and the promotion efforts of each network on their websites. I took it upon myself to dig further and also find title artwork for each program, any discounts offered, and any promotions that I felt were effective or not effective.

            I originally began reporting my findings on a spreadsheet, but quickly realized that there was no organizational method that I could use to represent all of the information that I had found in a clear and concise manner. Therefore, I decided to use a power point presentation which allowed me to layout the vast amount of information that I had gathered in a comprehensible manner.

A few notable findings helped me bring my analysis to a conclusion. On each PBS program’s webpage, there was an embedded link to every EST outlet that the program was available on. A few other networks had a similar feature on their webpages, however, they were either hard to find or there were inconsistencies across their programs. When comparing the artwork title for each program, it was clear that PBS had more consistent branding than some of their competitors. Additionally, networks like AMC, BBC, and FX had very dark images and webpages, and sometimes did not use the same logos in all of their artwork titles. One weakness I noticed that PBS programs had was that they were rarely ever listed as “Top Seasons” on iTunes like many of its competitors were. This could either mean that a majority of PBS viewers do not use iTunes as a source for purchasing content, or that PBS programs are significantly less popular than programs produced by some of their competitors.

Once I had completed my competitive analysis for general audience programming, I moved on to kids programming, and then non-fiction programming. I looked for the same information for each genre that I did for general audience. Our main competitors that I researched for children’s programming were Nick Jr. and Disney Jr. The main competitors that I analyzed for factual programming was History Channel, Discovery Channel, and the Food Network, as PBS is beginning to purchase rights to more and more cooking shows.

This project was very time-consuming, yet it really helped me develop a broader understanding of our industry. I also gained a better insight on the marketing tactics that PBS is doing well, and a few areas for improvement as well as the competitors that we need to watch out for.

 

(YouTube Scan Project)

This project was not originally planned for me to do during my internship. When the Direct to Consumer Team had no more work for me to do, I went back to work for the Digital Team for the remainder of my internship and this was one of the various “extra” projects that my supervisor gave me to complete.

PBS Distribution is constantly battling illegal uploads of their content on YouTube and other web video services. These are full length episodes—typically ripped from broadcast/digital download/DVD—that should not be on YouTube. PBS does have systems in YouTube's backend to catch these kind of uploads, but the system is not completely fool proof and new manipulations of content often get “swept under the rug” and get approved. My task was to search for any videos that may be an illegal upload, and report my findings in a document. I was to send my supervisor an updated document every Friday.

I first sorted through all children’s programming, then general audience programming, and lastly, factual programming. I decided to report all of my findings in an Excel document to keep the excessive data that I found more organized. I exceeded the responsibilities of the basic task by reporting the program title, uploader’s user name, the link to the illegal video, and provided a short description for each link explaining why I believed the video was uploaded illegally (i.e. the video was a recording of someone’s TV screen).

The completed project contained hundreds of illegal video uploads spanning across all program genres. This result of the YouTube scan demonstrates the need for PBS Distribution employees to be more conscious about routinely scanning YouTube for any illegal content uploads. If they only have a summer intern do this task, that leaves 10 unmonitored months for illegal PBS content to remain on YouTube, and could potentially drive sales down as viewers can access content on YouTube for free, as opposed to paying for programs on EST and SVOD outlets.

​

(Direct to Consumer Team)

ShopPBS makes the best of public television programming effortlessly available to consumers throughout the US – online and through print catalogs. DVD and Blu-ray products are accompanied by other merchandise that’s perfect for gift-giving and that reflect the spirit of public television, including books, tote bags, mugs, jewelry, collectibles, and much more.

ShopPBS is a fundamental resource for teachers as well. The PBS Teacher shop is a comprehensive tool for educational professionals looking for high-quality video content and other educational materials for K-12 schools, colleges, universities, libraries, and other educational institutions. PBS Learning Media is the ultimate destination for instant access to thousands of useful classroom digital resources including videos, games, audio clips, photos, lesson plans, and more. Within the PBS Learning Media space, educators can search, save, and share favorite resources with ease. This immense archive is free to educators.

ShopPBS is also available to international consumers. PBS Distribution’s international team represents a vigorous catalog of over 400 hours of quality factual and children’s programming, pursuing broadcast, DVD, and digital licensing agreements throughout the global marketplace (PBS Distribution, 2017). 

​

(Image Project)

This past summer, the Direct to Consumer Team was working on making many major changes to the ShopPBS website. At the time I began working with the team, they were getting ready to load the new product images on to their trial site. They had thousands of images to sort through before uploading the final images to the site. My task was to sort through the images and select the final image for each product.

First, I downloaded all images to my desktop computer. All of the images had a print quality format, so, from there, I re-saved all images to a web-compatible quality. I went through each folder and deleted any flat images, as we only wanted to use angled images for the site. I also removed any duplicate files, any photos not saved in .jpg format, and any generic or miscellaneous photos. Once I had sorted through all files, I transferred the final photos onto our shared hard-drive for the entire team to access.

​

(Promotional Performance Report)

My second and final project with the Direct to Consumer Team was to build a Promotional Report on both our promotions and content products being highlighted on the ShopPBS website.

First, I had to access our Official Marketing Calendar for the Fiscal Year 2017. The initial task was to report on just September, October, November, and December of 2016. Because I completed this within only just a few days, I also reported on every following month until the close of the Fiscal Year (July 2017). For each promotion, I retrieved the Promotion ID Number from the Promotion Master Log. From there, I reported the promotion’s start and end date, Promotion ID Number, promotion description, and a measurement of the promotion’s success rate—found through the “market penetration” file, which contained information derived from Net Acumen software—into a Promotional Analysis spreadsheet. I kept the report organized and concise by creating a different page within the spreadsheet for each month that I reported on.

​

(Student Reflection)

On my first day, everyone at my internship was very welcoming and helpful. My boss, Jeff Kaczmarczyk, was especially helpful in showing me around the office, going out of his way to introduce me to all employees, and even spending his lunch hour getting to know me and teaching me about PBS Distribution.

My time with the Digital Team gave me a better experience than with the Direct to Consumer team. My internship was originally supposed to entail 4 weeks on each team. However, as it came time to begin working with the Direct to Consumer Team, they did not have any work planned for me to do, so I continued working with the Digital Team for an additional week. When I was able to start working with the Direct to Consumer Team, they had very little work for me to do. I finished my first project within two days, which stunned the team as they anticipated the project to take much longer. I believe this was because I had acquired a skill of prioritizing and finding efficient strategies through my first five weeks as an intern, and it caused me to do my work at a faster pace while still completing it with the utmost quality and standards. With no more work to be done for the Direct to Consumer Team, I was put back with the Digital Team completing tasks that I felt underestimated my capabilities.

I do not feel that PBS Distribution prepared enough for the arrival of a summer intern. The projects, especially in the final few weeks of my time at PBS Distribution, were thrown together at the last minute to give me something to do, and it seemed that my completed work would probably not be viewed or that they provided substantial use for any of my co-workers.  

I think I could have had a more positive experience if I worked with other interns. Unfortunately, the budget was very tight, allowing the company to only hire one intern this summer. I believe that my experience could have been better-rounded with an additional intern to work with as we could have learned from each other’s experiences instead of just my own. Fortunately, PBS allowed me to attend all intern panels and seminars with the 20 interns that they employed for the summer, so I was still able to gain some interaction with other people who shared more commonalities and experiences with me.

Overall, I learned a lot about not only PBS, but the entire digital distribution industry. I enjoyed the people whom I had the honor to work with and am appreciative of the time they took out of their workday to check-in on me and make sure I was having a positive experience. In the future, I recommend that they prepare an outlined plan for their interns, and prepare extra projects that may need to be done in case time allows for it like it did for me. I would also suggest that they only place their interns with the teams that have a substantial amount of work to be given to an intern, so that they don’t have the same experience as I did with the Direct to Consumer Team. One valuable component I received was the opportunity to meet with top executives of the company, and I feel that all future interns would benefit from that as well. I am grateful to have gained exposure to an office environment and make connections with so many people. I also feel that the invaluable skills that I learned while working with PBS Distribution have prepared me for my entry into the workforce upon graduation.