Public Media Company

Public Media Company is a nonprofit organization created to strengthen the sustainability, program variety, and audience reach of local public media stations. It accomplishes its mission by providing consulting services and by developing and deploying technology to help public media more fully realize its mission. Public Media Company operates Channel X, a digital, public interest media distribution system that allows independent producers and local public media stations to upload, license, and share content - from raw news footage to long-form documentaries. It lowers the barrier of entry for independent producers to submit material of any length for broadcast consideration by local public television stations, while helping public radio stations easily explore ways to incorporate digital video into their websites. Channel X was launched in 2015 with support from MacArthur, and this award supports continued development and implementation of Channel X.

Public Radio Capital will launch Channel X, an online content marketplace that allows independent media producers to introduce their work into the public media ecosystem, and distributes archival public media programming easily, thus building the quantity and variety of content broadcast by public television stations. The goal is that the public media system will expand to better reflect both the creativity of a changing media environment and the diversity of the American public, while increasing public media’s relevance to the communities it serves.

In support of a Public Media Audience Research Study.