PBS YOU
Encyclopedia
PBS YOU was founded in the late 1990s as a 24/7 channel/network featuring formal and informal educational programs and college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
-related fare, largely to take advantage of available rights and satellite transponder space and eager customers for carriage among the satellite-dish and some cable television companies.
How-to programs and public affairs programs and news predominated. An American Public Television
American Public Television
American Public Television is the largest syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States.-History:...
, WGBH
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...
and WNET
WNET
WNET, channel 13 is a non-commercial educational public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the New York metropolitan area, WNET is a primary station of the Public Broadcasting Service and a primary provider of PBS programming...
partnership now offers a similar alternative national service, Create, which was introduced in January, 2006.
PBS YOU formerly included PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
Adult Learning Service (ALS) telecourses for college credit and foreign language instruction. PBS ALS has been decommissioned as of September 2005; the Annenberg/CPB Channel remains in place as a source of networked feeds of credit courses.
Demise
PBS YOU had long been vulnerable to budget concerns at PBS.In late 2001, YOU was in danger of being shut down altogether. A deal with New River Media, producers of Think Tank and with the producers of the Standard Deviants
Standard Deviants
Standard Deviants is a series of edutainment videos produced in the United States dealing with educational subjects such as math, science, politics, English, social studies, foreign language, and SAT Test Prep created for elementary schoolers, middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students, and...
educational series for teens helped to provide a reprieve for the channel, which largely reverted to its initial mix of programming in 2002 after having carried a preponderance of programming from those two sources.
In the wake of the closure of companion channel PBS KIDS
PBS Kids
PBS Kids is the brand for children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States founded in 1993. As with all PBS programming, PBS Kids programming is non-commercial. It is aimed at children ages 2 to 10...
on October 1, 2005 (in favor of the new commercial partnership service PBS KIDS Sprout
PBS KIDS Sprout
PBS Kids Sprout is a U.S. digital cable television channel, video-on-demand service, and website providing PBS Kids shows and original programming for preschoolers and their families...
), YOU's future was once again in doubt. While PBS YOU is no longer active, the Create network was created to partially fill the void left by the closure of YOU in 2006.
Prior to its cancellation, PBS YOU was carried by 67 PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member stations (via ATSC subchannels), DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
, Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
and select digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
providers.