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Developing a Strategy 47

Neighborhood have historically had to compete for airtime with all the
other programming that local member stations distribute, so the hours of
children’s educational broadcasting are always limited.
In 2005 PBS made a strategic move to reach more children beyond its
member stations’ segmented schedules: it joined a consortium of partners
to launch an additional nationwide channel dedicated solely to kids’ pro-
gramming (at launch, the channel was called PBS Kids Sprout) that would
be distributed, through cable and satellite, throughout the day and evening.
The channel was initially successful, but in 2013, because of some of the
partners’ shifting priorities and other educational concerns, PBS (under the
direction of CEO Paula Kerger) chose to withdraw from the partnership.
Following the withdrawal, Lesli Rotenberg, PBS’s senior vice presi-
dent and general manager of children’s media and education, continued to
see an opportunity for PBS to expand its educational service to children.
As she talked to local station managers and looked at Nielsen ratings and
other data such as Google Analytics to better understand children’s view-
ing patterns, she saw that there was a continuing need for more quality
children’s programming, especially during weekday evenings and through-
out all hours of the weekend. She also believed if PBS now built its own
kids’ service, separate from its onetime partners, it not only would expand
overall preschool audiences, but could help realize a vision Kerger had
been emphasizing—reaching more children in TV households that couldn’t
afford cable channels or access to broadband internet. Rotenberg pitched
Kerger on building a new, all-PBS children’s channel.
Her boss was skeptical at first. “I didn’t think there was a big enough
market for us alone, nor that local stations had spectrum available for a
dedicated channel,” Kerger recalled. “I told Lesli she’d have to convince me
with some real numbers, and a viable new strategy.”
As Rotenberg gathered data and built a business case, Kerger met with
her periodically to review her findings, always remaining tough on her gen-
eral manager. From the start, Kerger insisted that the new strategy answer
three questions: Is there a market need and opportunity for PBS to do this
alone? Are local stations willing and able to deliver it? Can PBS organiza-
tionally develop and sustain it at current investment levels?