BEVERLY HILLS (CNS) - The Public Broadcasting Service announced today that its member stations choosing to participate will be carried on YouTube TV's live TV and on-demand subscription service beginning later this year.
The digital partnership is the first for PBS. In addition to the live channels for PBS and PBS KIDS, YouTube TV subscribers can access the content through YouTube TV's video on demand service and its DVR service with no storage space limits.
“Our goal is to reach as many Americans as possible with content that educates, inspires and entertains,” said Ira Rubenstein, PBS' chief digital and marketing officer.
“As a broadcaster that is rooted in communities, we appreciate YouTube's commitment to local content, and we are pleased that this service provides audiences with access to programming that is produced and distributed by our member stations.”
In other announcements made at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour being held in Beverly Hills:
-- Oscar and Emmy winning actress Helen Hunt will star in the seven- hour “Masterpiece” World War II drama “World on Fire,” which “follows the fates of five characters -- from England, France, Germany, Poland, and America - - as their stories weave in and out of each other's,” ““Masterpiece” executive producer Rebecca Eaton said.
-- An “American Masters” documentary with the working title, “Rita Moreno: The Girl Who Decided to Go For It,” is scheduled to premiere in 2020.
“When I learned from my producing partner, Brent Miller, that a film had not yet been made on Rita Moreno, I couldn't believe it and suggested we make it together,” said legendary television producer Norman Lear, who will be an executive producer of the documentary.
“There's no woman more deserving of the `American Masters' stamp. Her talent, her activism, her life -- all worthy of an audience. And her story, an inspiration to so many, is one that should live on forever.”
“Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda will be another executive producer.
“Her life, talent and career is a masterclass in the American dream,” Miranda said of Moreno. “It is about time that she takes her rightful place amongst her peers on `American Masters.”'
-- “W,” a two-part biography on the life and presidency of George W. Bush will air in the spring, the newest production in the “American Experience” collection “The Presidents.”
“What makes George W. Bush such a fascinating subject is that he was one of the least prepared presidents in our history, yet faced some of the greatest challenges,” said Barak Goodman, “W's” writer, director and producer.
“Not since Lincoln has such an inexperienced leader been called upon in a moment of genuine existential crisis. How Bush evolved in office under these pressures -- at first struggling mightily, but later finding his feet -- illuminates not only his character, but the evolving nature of power and the presidency in an increasingly dangerous world.”
-- A five-part documentary series “Asian Americans” is expected to be broadcast in May, exploring the impact of the group on the nation's past, present, and future.
“`Asian Americans,' is a comprehensive multiplatform initiative that will embrace the question of what it means to be an American,” said Sharon Percy Rockefeller, President and CEO of WETA, the Washington PBS station which will produce the series with the Center for Asian American Media in association with the Independent Television Service), Flash Cuts and Tajima-Pena Productions.
-- “Prehistoric Road Trip,” a three-part natural history series taking a journey around the Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming to explore 2.5 billion years of Earth's history, will premiere next summer.
The series will be hosted by YouTube personality Emily Graslie, the chief curiosity correspondent at Chicago's Field Museum.
“I am thrilled that I get to share my love of nature, history, paleontology and -- in general -- really old, really dead stuff with the PBS audience,” Graslie said. “And, this is an incredible opportunity for me to revisit my home state of South Dakota, where I grew up exploring the great outdoors as a kid and am looking forward to rediscovering today as an adult.”
-- PBS Kids has ordered a fifth season of the animated preschool series “Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood,” which will premiere next summer.
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