PBS deal with Amazon introduces model for free public TV streams

When executives from PBS and Amazon began negotiating a deal to create public television-related FAST channels for Prime Video, both sides came to the table with different ideas of what was possible.

PBS wanted a deal that reflected its partnerships with YouTube TV, Hulu and Local Now, all of which provide a 24/7 PBS Kids channel in addition to hundreds of local live streams from stations around the country. However, Amazon rejected the proposal. Carrying so many feeds from non-commercial stations would not generate enough revenue for the tech giant.

To sweeten the deal, both sides entered into a compromise. Amazon agreed to carry more than 150 local station feeds and the PBS Kids channel, while PBS committed to creating two ad-supported FAST channels of its signature programs and an ad-supported “pop-up” channel dedicated to a popular program from the past.

In the end, both parties considered the deal a win-win. PBS will bring the stations’ local live streams into people’s homes, and there is no cost to stations to participate; Amazon will earn the revenue needed to make the channels viable. Ryan Pirozzi, head of Prime Video Marketplace, described the new PBS lineup in a press release as “one of the most exciting FAST offerings today for Prime Video customers.”

Amazon Prime Video, which has more than 200 million monthly viewers, launched PBS Dramas and PBS Documentaries Nov. 26. The third channel, designed for viewers who want reruns of a classic program from the PBS archive, started with Reading the rainbow. As for viewers, non-Prime subscribers will still get free access to the public TV channels under the “Watch for Free” section of Prime Video.

“This was a complex deal,” PBS president Paula Kerger said during a recent PBS board meeting. “Companies like Amazon don’t really want to take all these free channels that they can’t monetize. … They would really prefer to take a single feed rather than take a bunch of local stations.”

Kerger credited Chief Digital and Marketing Officer Ira Rubenstein for helping lead the discussions with Amazon. Rubenstein guided negotiations on PBS’ deals with YouTube, Hulu and Local Now, but he noted that the new deal with Amazon is different.

“What we learned early on is the hard costs these partners have to carry 150 stations,” Rubenstein said in an interview. “With no available ad inventory on our local stations’ live linear feed, there had to be another way for these FAST platforms to monetize content to offset those costs. The solution we settled on was the additional channels of legacy PBS- content.”

As a result, the local station feeds on Amazon will not show third-party advertising like other commercial FAST channels. Viewers will see the familiar mix of local and national underwriting spots because the FAST streaming feed will be exactly the same as the broadcast feed.

Happy medium between past and present

Free ad-supported streaming TV channels have grown in popularity as the cost of subscription video streaming services has risen. As cord cutters become frustrated trying to access their favorite shows, they find themselves longing for a bit of the glory days of channel flipping.

FAST channels represent a happy medium between past and present. You cannot select specific episodes of a program to watch on a FAST channel, but many programs are available. There are channels that air the gut-wrenching stunts Fear factor hosted by a young Joe Rogan. There are also sports and music feeds and channels for Minecraft and Roblox.

Earlier this year, Horowitz Research reported that two out of three TV viewers in the United States use FAST channels each month.

Public media is no stranger to the FAST channel phenomenon. The joy of paintinghosted by the late Bob Ross, has a FAST channel on various platforms led by Bob Ross Inc. and American Public Television. Similarly, PBS Distribution, jointly owned by PBS and GBH, has the FAST channel PBS Food, which airs cooking shows from Julia Child and other chefs. There is also a FAST channel Antiques Roadshow and the BBC series Antiques road trip.

The next logical step for public media in the FAST channel space was to add local stations to the mix, Rubenstein said. Now that that deal is done, he’s ready to celebrate.

“There is nothing more local than a local station’s broadcast,” he said. “This gives them more opportunities for eyeballs on a very popular platform for free, where they can promote the PBS app, PBS Passport, membership and other things they offer in terms of local services. It also gives more exposure to local underwriting.”

Rubenstein noted that PBS was the first national broadcaster to strike a deal like this with Amazon, beating out commercial giants Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC, which each have hundreds of local stations under their portfolio.

“I’m happy to say that we’re the first to bring all of our stations to a FAST platform, because no other network has done that,” Rubenstein said. He noted that platforms like Tubi and Pluto carry some local affiliates from the top five or ten markets, but never all of the local commercial stations.

Deep catalog + nostalgia = ‘Perfect fit’

At the launch, the drama channel PBS broadcasts episodes Masterpiece series Poldark, Grantchester, Forsyte the Saga, Victoria, Hall of wolvesand PBS original Civil War drama, Mercy Street. The documentary channel offers programs from Nova, Secrets of the Dead, Independent lens, POV, American experience and Nature. The channel will also stream the first two seasons of Find your roots.

The first “pop-up” channel for PBS and Prime Video is devoted to Reading the rainbow. PBSd President Andrea Downing said in a statement that the selection of this series, which reigned in the early 1980s as the most-watched PBS show in classrooms, stems from the success of PBS Retro, a FAST channel focused on classic content that launched in April on Roku. Reading the rainbow is a beloved series with “a deep catalog of seasons,” she said. Given the high demand for nostalgic content, Reading the rainbow “… is the perfect candidate for the first pop-up channel.”

Amazon’s Prime Video service has continued to expand its reach into free TV. In 2019 it created IMDb Freedive, later renamed IMDb TV and renamed in 2022 Freevee. Amazon announced last month that it is shutting down Freevee and bringing its shows and staff into Prime Video.

Rubenstein would not discuss the specifics of the Prime Video deal, but noted that he is particularly pleased with Amazon’s “minimum commitment” to carry the various PBS-related FAST channels. That provision had been a stumbling block during the negotiations.

“Most of these FAST partners have no minimum commitment to any channels they launch,” Rubenstein said. “If a channel is underperforming, they’ll just drop it.” He declined to say how long Amazon’s minimum commitment would last.

Rubenstein sees the Amazon deal as an opening to pursue similar deals with other FAST channel providers. Bundling ad-supported FAST channels with legacy content with the carriage of the local stations is “the model that we can duplicate for our other partners,” he said. “We hope that it is a model that will work for everyone. It works for the partner. It works for our stations. It works for our producers.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that GBH operates FAST channels featuring Julia Childs’ cooking series and Antiques Roadshow. PBS Distribution, jointly owned by PBS and GBH, operates PBS Food, which features series from Julia Child, Jacques Pépin and other chefs; and channels dedicated to Antiques Roadshow and Antiques road trip.