PBS Launching PBS Documentaries Channel On Prime Video Aug. 4; Complete Ken Burns, Frontline, Nova, POV

PBS Distribution will launch PBS Documentaries, a subscription channel on Amazon’s Prime Video with 900 hours of content from Ken Burns’ entire oeuvre to Nova, Frontline, American Masters, American Experience, Nature, Independent Lens and POV.

The channel — which goes live August 4 for $3.99 a month with an Amazon Prime or Prime video subscription — is public television’s latest push to leverag signature content in a bid for fresh revenue and a broader audience. PBS Distribution (PBSD), the broadcaster’s expanding distribution arm, launched PBS Masterpiece in 2017 and the channel, also on Amazon Prime, helps fund Masterpiece co-productions.

PBS CEO Paula Kerger was set to unveil the channel with Burns as the broadcaster kicks’ off its Summer Virtual Press Tour at 1 pm ET Tuesday. Burns’ films for PBS over the decades, from The Civil War (1990) to Country Music (2019) have provided the network with some of its highest rated content ever.  Feature docs range from Stanley Nelson’s The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution to Frontline’s Academy Award nominated For Sama to Last Days In Vietnam from American Experience.

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