KCET Moves to Expand Viewing Options With NewsHour Webcasts

KCET Moves to Expand Viewing Options With NewsHour Webcasts

Station's New Media Initiative Leverages Live Internet Feed

LOS ANGELES, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Having just completed its first month of webcasting PBS' The NewsHour, KCET, the preeminent Southern California public television station, has taken an important step in broadening the viewing options for its scheduled program offerings. Online visitors to kcet.org can now watch a live video webcast of the popular PBS news and analysis show weekdays at 3:00 p.m. PDT -- four hours ahead of KCET's televised broadcast of The NewsHour.

"NewsHour fans can now stream the program's first daily feed to their computers," said Jackie Kain, KCET's vice president of New Media. "Our NewsHour webcast, along with an abundance of web-only content available on kcet.org, comprises the core of our New Media Initiative, which reflects the powerful trend in the media industry to leverage broadband Internet and digital technologies to reach a truly massive audience."

The NewsHour webcast on kcet.org follows on the heels of the station's initial foray into webcasting last September, when it provided live coverage of the Senate confirmation hearings on John Roberts, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The tremendous response to our webcast of the Roberts hearings confirmed our belief that viewers connect with KCET's substantive news and public affairs programs and utilize kcet.org as a daytime viewing source," said Bohdan Zachary, KCET's executive director of broadcasting and communications.

"KCET remains committed to engaging our online community members in ways that satisfy their needs, engage them with our incredible content and create experiences that deliver the quality we are known for, on-air and online," said Kain.

"Our webcast of The NewsHour provides a terrific opportunity to extend the reach of NewsHour content," says Lee Banville, editor-in-chief of Online NewsHour. "We aim to serve as wide an audience as possible, so we are delighted with KCET's move to stream The NewsHour."

Throughout its 30-year history, The NewsHour has provided its viewers with intelligent, in-depth and objective reporting and analysis, presenting multiple points of view in a balanced and civilized atmosphere. Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer created the original half-hour MacNeil Lehrer Report as a supplement to the three nightly commercial network news broadcasts available at the time. In 1983, The MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour broke new ground, becoming the nation's first hour-long nightly news broadcast. In the 2004-05 Erdos & Morgan Opinion Leader Survey, a bi-annual study of a universe of 450,000 influential business, government and public policy leaders, The NewsHour ranked first among all television news programs as the most credible, objective and influential television news program.

About KCET

KCET, public television for southern and central California, is watched by four million viewers a week in 11 counties, the largest broadcast reach of any public television station in the United States. Throughout its 40-plus year history, KCET has garnered hundreds of major awards for its local and regional news and public affairs programming, its national drama and documentary productions, its quality educational family and children's programs, and its outreach and community services. Series produced from the station's Hollywood studios include Life & Times, California Connected, Tavis Smiley and A Place of Our Own/Los Ninos en Su Casa. Additional information on KCET can be found at www.kcet.org

Source: kcet.org

CONTACT: Wynne Ahern, +1-510-658-8870, or Jamie Simmons,
+1-323-660-0197, both of Communication Strategies, Inc., for kcet.org

Web site: http://www.kcet.org/

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