Public Media Venture Group Awarded $1M Grant To Propel NextGen TV Innovation And Enhance Public Media’s Impact

The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), a consortium of 32 public media organizations dedicated to advancing public media’s mission and financial vitality, is expanding its efforts to revolutionize public media through the development and deployment of a scalable NextGen TV platform, made possible by a $1 million investment from Knight Foundation.

PMVG has already made significant strides in leveraging the power of NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) to amplify public media’s reach and engagement. With this investment, the group is poised to take on even greater activity and innovation to serve the local communities reached by its 118 public television stations, encompassing a remarkable 235 million people.

Knight Foundation’s support will boost PMVG’s efforts to foster innovation and sustainability in the sector by pioneering initiatives designed to “strengthen the bond between public media and its audience.” Through NextGen TV, stations will be able to deliver enriched public interest content tailored to their communities. This includes local news and public affairs programming, interactive experiences and crucial geo-targeted emergency information.

Under this initiative, PMVG will collaborate with Information Equity Initiative (IEI), a nonprofit organization that leverages television spectrum to deliver customized digital content to homes and facilities that lack access to the internet. IEI’s work includes K-12 education, educational initiatives for individuals experiencing incarceration and public health applications with a focus on communities where broadband is inaccessible, unaffordable, or unreliable.

Marc Hand, PMVG CEO, said: “This is a significant endorsement of the work of PMVG and the importance of the ATSC 3.0 platform, as well as other technologies, by the Knight Foundation. This will enable PMVG to work with public stations, technology companies and application developers to ensure that the transition to this platform brings the full range of benefits to local communities. As media and content distribution technologies continue to change rapidly, PMVG will bring collaborations with a broad range of technology companies to future focused developments that are essential for public media. We are deeply appreciative of this support and endorsement by Knight, reflecting the leadership role the Foundation plays in building strong and sustainable local media.”

Erik Langner, CEO of IEI, said: “America’s public media broadcast infrastructure reflects decades and tens of billions of dollars of investment. It is a reliable, virtually ubiquitous resource that is currently underutilized. Working in collaboration with PMVG, we can deploy new services that leverage public media’s broadcast spectrum for the customized delivery of digital information with a special focus on those without steady internet access. Our solutions can be delivered in months, not years.”

“Ensuring that public media is able to adapt to new technology is a critical part of ensuring communities are informed and engaged,” said Jim Brady, Knight’s vice president of journalism. “That’s why we’ve invested in PMVG’s efforts to develop and deploy NextGen TV. It will allow public news stations to better serve their tens of millions of users.”