Information About Public Television (2)

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In the 1984-85 seasons, the monthly average-minute prime-time ratings in pay television households averaged 2.2; in the 1988-89 season, the average monthly rating had plummeted to 1.6. Overall monthly prime-time ratings dropped 19 percent—from 2.7 to 2.2—in the past fifteen years.

PBS has responded by exploring the introduction of a new cable channel. Under the proposal, PBS and its New York Tag Heuer Replica and Boston stations, WNET-TV and WGBH-TV, would run a noncommercial cable channel in conjunction with Discovery, an existing cable channel. The new channel would operate with Discovery during the day. Discovery alone would program for prime time and night. Neil Mahrer, PBS executive vice president, explained that the advantages include subscriber fees for PBS.

From PBS affiliates' standpoint, the problem, of course, is competition. PBS sup-plies one-third of each of its affiliates' broadcast slate. The rest is programmed locally or obtained elsewhere. Mahrer acknowledged the concern but argued that "the cable channel's ...
... content would be designed to augment that of PBS's broadcast affiliates and wouldn't compete directly for either viewers or possible funding sources." Even if the two did experience some crossover, "at least they wouldn't surrender any ground to other alternatives. 'If we don't take one or two or three of those cable channels, some-one else will, and we'd be better off competing with ourselves rather than having others compete with us."

Nielsen ratings continually confirm the traditional profile of public broadcasting. Homes whose household head graduated from college watch more public television than homes headed by those with lower educational levels. Approximately one-third of the public television audience reported being attracted to public television by children's programming. In 1998, the four most watched shows by preschoolers (ages 2-5) were Arthur, Barney and Friends, Teletubbies, and Sesame Street, all PBS programs.59 Homes with older children, however, watch less public television than do homes with younger children. After a decade in which the number of young children viewing public television declined, ratings for children 2 to 5 years of age increased from 3.2 to 4.0 from 1996 to 1998, and the ratings of kids aged 6 to 11 increased from 0.7 to 1.2. In the 1997—98 season, over two-thirds of viewers of PBS news shows were 50 or older. The ratings of PBS news shows dropped 20 percent in the last year.

The educated audience is attracted to high-quality programming, illustrated by the high viewership for the documentary series Omega Replica The Civil War, aired in 1991. In the last half of the 1980s, PBS-produced programming took more news and documentary Emmys than its competitors. Emmy award winners included "National Geographic Specials," Nova, Frontline, and The American Experience.