AOL and PBS Enter Strategic Online, On-Air Alliance

Posted on January 10, 2000

America Online (AOL) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) have announced a 3-year strategic alliance. The announcement was made at the Television Critics Association Press Tour.

Under the agreement, PBS will become a premier content partner across several AOL brands, including AOL, AOL.com, CompuServe, and Shop@AOL, as well as Netscape Netcenter. PBS will also create an age-appropriate content feature exclusively for the AOL Kids Only Channel. The new "Kratt's Creature Adventure," featuring Chris and Martin Kratt of the hit program Zoboomafoo, will launch on AOL in the coming months.

AOL will receive on-air branding on many of the programs broadcast by PBS' 346 member stations. Co-branded webpages and AOL Keywords will be created to directly link those members to PBS' collection of websites. The AOL Keywords will be cited at the end of many of PBS' programs and in PBS' print advertising promoting these programs.

"This collaboration with AOL will bring many more visitors to PBS Online and many more viewers to PBS stations," said John Hollar, executive vice president, PBS Learning Ventures. "This alliance with the industry leader, AOL, advances the efforts of PBS stations and their Web sites to become major cross-platform content resources on television and in cyberspace."