About Us

Cascade PBS operates Local Public, steered by an advisory board of partner stations of varying sizes, serving various markets.

In the future, we plan to spin-off Local Public to be a tech/media company co-owned by many stations. We will work with partner stations to develop a structure that ensures LOCAL public media needs remain the primary driver of our product roadmap.

Yes. Apps are fully integrated with PBS Media Manager and Passport.

We import PBS programming data as available, and then enrich metadata, courtesy of The Programming Service. Metadata is human-powered, and added by programmers who have screened each title.

Example metadata: 60+ additional genres (eg: mystery, thriller, comedy), 30+ vibes (eg: cozy, heart-warming, dark), program type (eg: Episodic Series, Non-Episodic Series, Movie, News) and production locale.

Not today. But we serve several dual licensees (stations that have both PBS and NPR), and will look to add NPR integration in the future.

We will look to our dual licensees to help define how that should work.

We currently offer apps on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Google TV, Android TV, Samsung smart TV, LG smart TV, iOS and Android. A web video portal is coming soon. (One fee covers all platforms.)

New platforms will be considered with partner station input.

For the technical folks: We intentionally chose to use a shared React Native codebase for all apps (but Roku), to make adding it easier to expand while keeping features consistent across all platforms.

We've designed Local Public apps to work well for stations of all sizes.

Our built-in metadata and autopilot options make for a relatively easy lift for small staffs. And our powerful CMS, with roles-based permissions, makes it easy for teams to collaborate on your viewers' streaming experience.

Stations can run a well-curated app with a single (non-technical) person, who may have other duties.

Yes. We offer full API access, which stations can use to build custom streaming integrations with their websites or other apps (subject to PBS rules).

Cascade PBS will also release a template for the Ghost CMS platform with full Local Public integration. Ghost includes built-in newsletters, donation forms and digital member management.

We'd also love to work with stations to create integrations with other platforms (Grove, Drupal, Wordpress, etc.)

Local Public offers near real-time data feeds, which stations can integrate into local data platforms. With station's permission, we also deliver data in VPPA format to CDP, which will present the apples-to-apples comparisons with PBS App performance.

We also tag apps with local station's Google Analytics and offer a starter pack of reports, so stations of all levels of data maturity can get the insights they need to succeed.

Additional data services are available upon request.

Local Public offers stations training and documentation, on-boarding and uptime guarantees. Our team is available during west coast working hours, via Slack, email and telephone.

ACD Direct, the leader in outsourced local PBS station contact centers, will also offer technical support for your station app's viewers. (Stations to contract directly with ACD, details coming soon.)

Absolutely. We see collaboration as one of the core benefits of the platform.

Our CMS encourages stations to share carousel ideas, which can be copied and customized for local audiences with just a few clicks.

Beyond the tech, we have station-led working groups focused on Programming, Data, Marketing and Project Management. These groups meet regularly via videoconference to share ideas and best-practices, to develop shared documentation, and to relay feature requests to the Local Public product team.

No.

We offer annual subscriptions, with optional renewals. After one-year, any station can take their front-end app code and data, and strike out on their own. (Apps would require a back-end CMS.)

Cascade PBS has run local apps for several years. Despite being on fewer platforms (Roku, FireTV, Apple TV, iOS and Android) for a shorter time, we've seen our local apps deliver twice as much Passport revenue as our localized PBS App.

Local Public project lead, Kevin Colligan, has experience designing and building large-scale, locally curated platforms for Major League Baseball Advanced Media (one admin, many locally curated team websites/apps) and the Grammy Awards (one academy, many regional chapters).

Our in-house tech team is backed by a senior principal architect who designed the Bally Sports and Sinclair streaming apps infrastructure. And our primary app development partner Oxagile brings 20+ years experience building video streaming apps.

We also partner with best-in-class service providers, including Amazon Web Services, Vimeo and Recombee.

But don't take our word for it. We encourage stations to talk to our current clients about their experience with Local Public.

See our Pricing page for current pricing.

Stations that sign up before June 30, 2025 can lock in pricing for three years. (Launch and billing can start in FY26.)

We evaluate our pricing model annually, with our station advisory board. And we are exploring alternative funding methods (eg: grants for stations).

Reach out to project lead Kevin Colligan, kevin.colligan@cascadepbs.org, or use our Contact form, and we will get back to you ASAP.

Please drop us a note via our Contact form, and we will answer your question, and expand our FAQs.