Public TV Station Signals Changes With New Moves

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As PBS SoCal, operator of KOCE-TV (Channel 50), approaches its 45th anniversary next year, the public station is relocating its broadcast hub from Huntington Beach to West L.A.’s Sawtelle neighborhood and rolling out a new marketing campaign.

The effort, dubbed “Your PBS,” includes rebranding, an updated website, and improvements to its web streaming service that will give users access to an archive of content for $5 a month.

The service, said Andrew Russell, chief executive of PBS SoCal, “is like HBO Go, but it would give our members access to a deep library of PBS programs.”

Moving the broadcast hub to Los Angeles was made to cut costs and improve reliability. The new location allows the station to connect to the master control facility run by Centralcast in Syracuse, N.Y., which streamlines service operations for public TV stations across the country.

PBS SoCal’s neighbors at the new location include Facebook and Google, which equates to an abundance of fiber-optic and Web connectivity, said Russell.

The station’s programming and business operations will continue at other sites in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Since 2011, when the small Orange County PBS station named KOCE became PBS SoCal, active membership has grown to 82,000, a 300 percent increase.

“We have strengthened our programming, expanded our education outreach, created experiences for our audiences, and opened offices in Los Angeles so we can better serve the community,” Russell said in a statement.

– Hayley Fox

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