KCETLink and KLCS Announce Channel Sharing Partnership
BURBANK AND LOS ANGELES, CA - September 10, 2014 - KCETLink, the national independent public media organization,
and KLCS, the
public educational television station licensed to the Los Angeles Unified
School District and member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), have entered into a channel sharing partnership in an
effort to participate in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voluntary
spectrum incentive auction.
Yesterday, KCETLink's Board and the Los Angeles
Unified School District Board of Education, which holds the license to KLCS, unanimously
approved a memorandum of understanding to move forward with the agreement.
The two stations will "share" a single, over-the-air broadcast television
channel, offering to surrender 6 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum to the FCC, which
will be sold in the government's spectrum auction. Both
KCET and KLCS will continue to operate under separate non-commercial,
educational television broadcast licenses.
The announcement comes after KLCS' successful pilot channel sharing
partnership with KJLA--also known as LATV---which occurred during Q1 2014.
"We are pleased to forge this bold partnership with KLCS and chart new
waters together," said Al Jerome, KCETLink's President and Chief Executive
Officer. "We will certainly benefit from KLCS' test program and appreciate the
station's leadership. We feel the spectrum auction is a great opportunity to
potentially gain significant resources that we can reinvest into programs and
activities we provide to the community in support of our mission."
"With our proven track record of success, we know that technology allows us
to continue to offer high-quality public media content over the air without
compromising the viewer experience," said Sabrina Fair Thomas, KLCS' General
Manager. "We're thrilled to be able to move forward in the collaborative nature
that the CPB had intended for this type of initiative, and we are confident
that KCET is a great partner to fully leverage our combined technological
acumen, while maintaining the integrity of our respective licenses and
identities."
According to a report from the CPB, the FCC is planning to hold the
voluntary spectrum incentive auction in mid-2015 in which television stations
will be able to bid on surrendering their licenses, moving from a UHF channel
to one in the VHF band or sharing a different channel with other stations, in
exchange for cash.
ABOUT KCETLINK
KCETLink is the national independent
public transmedia organization formed by the merger between KCET and Link
Media. A viewer-supported 501c(3) organization, its content is distributed
nationally via satellite on DirecTV (375) and DISH (9410), in Southern and
Central California via broadcast, as well as through various digital delivery
systems. The combined organization reaches a wide broadcast audience that
includes Link TV's 33 million satellite subscribers and KCET's 5.6 million
households in Southern and Central California. KCETLink is committed to driving
public media innovation with smarter ways to access content that engages all
audiences with global storytelling. For additional information about KCETLink
productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events,
please visit kcet.org or linktv.org.
ABOUT KLCS
KLCS is the noncommercial educational
television station licensed to the Los Angeles Unified School District, with a
signal reaching 16 million viewers throughout Southern California. The Station's K-12 educational programming
airs 10 hours each weekday, is aligned with Common Core Standards, and provides
support for over 700,000 students throughout Greater Los Angeles. KLCS broadcasts educational and general
audience entertainment programs over 4
digital channels (including CREATE and MHz), and is carried on all major cable
systems, DirecTV and DISH. KLCS produces
over 700 hours of original programming annually. KLCS is a PBS-member station dedicated to
providing content that highlights and celebrates the diversity of cultures and
lifestyles that reflect the tapestry that unites our local communities. Visit klcs.org for
more info.
###
