KCET Merges With Link Media

Agreement designed to help both expand their national and digital reach

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/17/2012 12:00:00 PM

The southern Californian public TV station KCET and Link Media, the nonprofit media company that operates Link TV and LinkNews, have announced that they have agreed to merge their operations into KCETLink.

Top executives at both organizations noted that the move will help expand their national reach and expand their content production and digital media efforts.

The merger means that feeds from newly-formed company will be available in 33 million households via DirecTV and Dish Network and the 5.6 million households served by KCET in Southern California.

Under the merger agreement, the KCETLink will be headquartered in KCET's production facility in Burbank, Calif., with Al Jerome, who is currently president and CEO of KCET, serving as CEO. Link TV's CEO and president, Paul S. Mason, will become chief strategy officer, based in Los Angeles.

In an interview, Jerome noted that the agreement would give Link access to their new production studios and would help expand Link's reach.

Beginning Jan.1, LinkTV programming will be available on one of KCET's three digital multicast channels in the Southern California market and Link's LinkAsia program will be added to KCET's current international news broadcast schedule.

"We think that other public stations will be interested in taking Link as a multicast and this gives them an opportunity to grow their universe," Jerome noted.

At the same time, Link has extensive digital operations, including LinkNews at new.linktv.org, and has a software development group that has been working on a new mobile application that will launch later this month, noted Mason.

The combination will also help them produce more content for both for local and national audiences, the two executives note.

"It gives us the synergy of having a national network so that we can talk to producers about both a local and a national piece and can greenlight both," Jerome said. "We can be a one-stop shop for the creative community in Southern California."

Such efforts are particularly important for KCET, which dropped its PBS affiliation on Jan. 1, 2011, after a dispute over funding and programming. It has since worked to expand its already extensive local programming as part of a plan to establish itself as an independent public service.