| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Affiliates | PBS |
| Headquarters | Arlington, Virginia, U.S. |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | PBS |
| History | |
| Founded | 1976 |
| Launched | March 1, 1978 |
| Former names | PBS National Program Service (1978–present) PBS Schedule X (February 5, 1994-February 9, 2009) |
| Links | |
| Website | pbs |
The PBS Satellite Service (also known as the PBS National Program Service, with the primary C-band feed being formerly known as PBS Schedule X in Eastern Time, with the West Coast delay signal designated PBS-XP) consists of feeds relayed from PBS by satellite to public television stations throughout the United States. The service was launched in September 1978.[1] The service provides a mixed variety of programming selected from PBS's regular network services. In the X/XP years a satellite feed was multicast by some PBS member stations on an over-the-air DTV subchannel along with their regular programming, or during overnight hours on their main channel to provide a second opportunity for viewers to watch or record primetime programming.
PBS currently utilizes one transponder on the Galaxy 16 satellite, transponder 22. This is a MCPC (multiple channel per carrier) which currently has seven channels uplinked from the PBS NOC (Network Operations Center) in Alexandria, Virginia.[2]
Currently, select stations broadcast the feed, usually overnight, like KGTF (PBS Guam, broadcasts most of the channel as a localised feed). The channel is also available over satellite providers like DirecTV (Channel 389). PBS provides all of their channels free to TV providers who do not receive local member stations.
As of 2023, PBS's satellite feeds, as well as a few other PBS stations, can be received unscrambled using a free-to-air satellite receiver set to these coordinates:
PBS affiliate KETA, part of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA), was also available on AMC-21 until June 2016.[5] Their removal from satellite coincided with the completion of their transition to fiber distribution.[6]
PBS transitioned to a fiber-based interconnection system known as sIX, otherwise known as the sixth generation of PBS's interconnection system, in July 2021. The original end date for linear program feeds via satellite was slated for 2016, but was later pushed to 2018, and was then pushed again to the beginning of 2021; none of these deadlines were met. PBS's main network feeds are still active as of June 2023; however, only one NPS feed remains, namely HD03. The only programs airing on this feed are news and public affairs programming; all other linear program feeds have moved to sIX; however, there may occasionally be an unannounced feed of program unrelated to news or public affairs, such as Great Performances.