Kerger Re-Ups with PBS

PBS president Paula Kerger appears happy with her post atop the noncommercial service.

The longest-serving PBS president (13 years) and, PBS points out, the only woman leading a national broadcast network, has re-upped for another 5 years.

"Public television isn’t just relevant - the work we do has never been more important," Kerger said, "and I’m excited about what lies ahead.”

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The news coincided with the annual Television Critics Association press tour, where PBS also announced a new partnership with YouTube TV do deliver PBS affiliate stations over-the-top.

Just in the past year, PBS and its production partners have collected seven Peabody Awards (Kerger earlier this year was named a member of Peabody's new East Coast board, four duPont awards and seven news and documentary Emmys, more than any other network, PBS also points out.

Kerger headed up the launch of PBS Kids and the development of PBS LearningMedia. Programming produced under her watch included Masterpiece's Downtown Abbey and the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary, The Vietnam War. Kerger is also president of the PBS Foundation.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.