et ee "We’re doing it simply because it’s important that it.be done.” ~<+ Tom Howe, KCTS senior vice-president While viewers are watching _ public television, public televi- sion is also attempting to watch the viewers. Tom Howe, senior vice-president of KCTS, the Seattle-based Channel 9, was in Terrace recently to address the local chamber of commerce and collect impressions from pubic television viewers in the North- west. es) pore de ie ide i Pn Minds do Mis Bs Bg ‘Wishes you a Joyous Festive Season and a Prosperous New Years KCTS depends on individual subscribers for 60 percent of its financial support, and 40 percent of those subscribers are British Columbians. Howe says he likes to get out in the station’s wide geographical area of viewers and talk to people, He is in charge of programming for the station, and trips like his junket to the North- west help him decide what pro- Bist e fet Bhs : ° ; x 5 s grams to purchase and where to run them in the station’s com- plex schedule. In an interview Howe “explained that programming for an independent public television station is a very different pro- cess from commercial station programming. "Almost 100 percent of a commercial sta- tion’s prime time programs are network programs," he said, KCTS has totally independent control over all its broadcasting, prime time included. "There’s a lot of disagreement, it’s a sub- jective process and subject to a lot of scrutiny," he said. The increasing popularity of paid cable service has prompted KCTS, along with commercial broadcast stations and networks, to re-assess the service they offer. Howe said in the past five years public broadcasting in the U.S, and the big three commer- cial networks have both lost 19 percent of their viewing market, all of it to paid cable networks. Competiticn in the purchasing of { programs has also intensified. Howe notes that the Arts & Entertainment network recently : cuta massive deal with the BBC # for package of prime quality British programs — in the past, © that type of programming was | 7 @ almost exclusively the preserve Terrace Review. — Wednesday, December | 1, 1991 19 Cable competition forces public TV to narrow focus regular audience wants from it: going after British comedy and education and information pro- drama to further service their gramming. "Our principal purpose is to serve people,” Howe says. "There should be at least one television service like that. We’re doing it simply because it’s important that it be done.” KCTS will also be going after more joint purchases, with other public television stations, of international co-productions. Howe explains that those types of ventures are becoming more common because they are top- notch quality and produced and marketed in a manner that puts them within the means of non- profit station budgets. A recent example is the Columbus series, the production of which involved several nations. The series was then marketed, and the purchas- ing stations all shared the cost of buying it. And in response to the wishes of Canadian viewers, KCTS last weekend broadcast a marathon of Anne of Green Gables. Howe Says the station will also be market north of the border. Despite that, however, he believes that due to the competi- tion for viewers from cable specialty networks, public broad- casting has to get away from "entertainment" programming and retum to its roots. "Our niche is information, program- ming that enriches people’s lives," he said. In Terrace KCTS has about 200 subscribers, and the North- west aS a region has about 800, a level of support Howe calls “heartening”. The station is a ptivate, non-profit corporation that receives less than 10 percent of its budget from government support, relying on individual subscribers for 60 percent of its operating money and corporate donations for most of the bal- ance. The subscriber system works, he said, although it’s strictly voluntary. 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