VEGAS PBS ANNUAL PROGRAMMING PRODUCTION PLAN NETWORK AFFILIATION AGREEMENTS SCHOOL CABLE AND EBS CHANNEL RETRANSMISSION CONSENTS AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDER AUTHORIZATIONS 2020-2021
District Regulations 3312 and 2310 require Board approval for all purchases over $50,000.00 and $25,000.00, respectively. To accomplish channel scheduling and planned local productions, Vegas PBS contracts with network program providers and independent producers to accomplish a licensee-approved community service programming including a local production plan. Adoption of this plan grants Vegas PBS authority to purchase programming and production resources for those projects. The plan may be amended by Board action through the year if grant funds are secured for significant local program productions. Specific independent contractors are hired throughout the year following standard purchase order issuance by the Purchasing Department.
The Purchasing Department has reviewed the request for purchase and has determined that contracting for these services may be exempted from the competitive bidding process in accordance with Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 332.
Vegas PBS has presented an annual production plan to the Board of School Trustees since 1996. For this item, board members act in their capacity as Federal Communication Commission (FCC) approved television licensees responsible for serving viewers in the station’s multi-state and four Nevada county service region.
The programming and production plan authorizes national network programming affiliation agreements for KLVX-DT Channel 10’s three over the air channels and a possible fourth channel, plus six over the air Educational Broadband Service (EBS) channels serving school sites, three noncommercial educational cable channels, and 29 Clark County School District (CCSD) Classroom Cable channels. It authorizes local program productions and the necessary professional service providers to complete the approved productions. The annual production plan outlines known local productions and network affiliations for each broadcast or non-broadcast public service media channel operated by Vegas PBS. It also authorizes staff to seek funding for licensee-authorized local public television productions that would be produced only if sponsorship funding is secured.
PRODUCTIONS FOR CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT Educational program productions for CCSD planned for the 2020-2021 fiscal year include producing and editing 100 hours of original District content for distribution via television or educational broadband service broadcasts, internet streaming, video on demand, and/or DVDs; 4 School Matters; 2021 African American Challenge; 2021 CCSD Spelling Bee; 2021 Varsity Quiz and Jr. Varsity Quiz playoffs and championship rounds; 2021 Janice Allen’s Young Writers Contest, 2021 Nevada Science Bowl; the Superintendent’s annual State of the District address.
Proposed additional educational promotional or Internet productions include three or more Ready To Learn (RTL) spots; 20 at-home learning spots; one or more VEGAS PBS KIDS Writers Contest spots; 20 American Graduate: Getting to Work videos increasing student and parent awareness of Career and
Thomas Axtell Page 1 of 6 June 25, 2020 Reference 3.16 VEGAS PBS ANNUAL PROGRAMMING PRODUCTION PLAN NETWORK AFFILIATION AGREEMENTS SCHOOL CABLE AND EBS CHANNEL RETRANSMISSION CONSENTS AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDER AUTHORIZATIONS 2020-2021
Technical Education (CTE) skill career pathways; 6 – 10 Scholastic Workforce Spots promoting Professional Development Education (PDE) training, the CCSD/ Vegas PBS proctored center testing, and career training opportunities for the unemployed, monthly spots for the Clark County School District (CCSD) Job Application Fairs; 18 Java with Jara conversations; 14 Trustee educational service announcements; producing spots to encourage timely registration for school, bus, and free and reduced lunches (FRL); informational spots on Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) free vaccinations; summer food programs, magnet school application periods; producing required video training materials as requested; the regular and special meetings of the Board, Bond Oversight or other advisory committees or community engagement meetings.
PRODUCTIONS FOR PUBLIC TELEVISION Privately funded ongoing public television weekly program productions include Community Billboard, about local nonprofit events or services and special town hall events, and Nevada Week, an issues- based weekly public affairs series. Currently funded seasonal, one-time specials, or short series include: Outdoor Nevada and a Cleveland Clinic’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health documentary; on-air fund drives. Additional production work includes short form non-commercial announcements as needed for individual and corporate sponsorship partners and long form virtual seminars. Production of a significant amount of interactive streaming experiences for program previews, donor engagement, personal financial planning, virtual educational workshops, commencement exercises, and other purposes are expected to be produced to replace face-to-face group meetings and receptions.
Seasonal, weekly, quarterly or stand-alone specials contingent upon securing sponsors include titles such as: Water History Highlights: Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance (LVGEA) Water Start/Desert Research Institute (DRI) / Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) water technology projects; University of Nevada, Southern Nevada and Desert Research Institute (DRI) speaker series; future ongoing #VegasStrong specials; Outdoor Nevada season 4 and season 5; Vegas PBS STEAM Camp community science program for children, and local companion pieces related to titles in the PBS National Programming Service (NPS) pipeline.
Funding for multiple history documentaries on topics, either selected by the Las Vegas Centennial Commission or that are supplemental to the PBS National Program Schedule (NPS), will be sought. Promotional productions include spots promoting program tune-in; sponsor identification; national heritage celebrations; Value PBS local spots; early childhood literacy; summer reading, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) programs, and the Nevada Special Needs Resource Library. The station and its Southern Nevada Public Television board, a Nevada 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, will explore funding possibilities for a new weekly production concepts focusing on arts and culture opportunities, dining reviews, personal health, and/or on indoor recreation for locals.
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PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDERS Vegas PBS proposes to enter into agreements with independent contractors to assist in the production of these programs, to serve as replacements during absences of staff assigned to externally funded productions, and to provide consulting services in the areas of grant writing, donor events, audience measurements, language translation, and closed captioning. Additionally, when staff vacancies occur, freelancers will be hired from funds in salary accounts to complete projects on schedule.
Vegas PBS proposes to contract with available professional service providers effective June 26, 2020, through June 30, 2021, for: • Videography, editing, audio/video technicians, education consultants and production assistants at approximate rates up to $85.00 per hour, and for independent hosts/producers for local public television specials, for an approximate rate of up to $100.00 per hour. • The Programming Service for Public Television, or similar programming consultant for $60,000.00 per year. • Captions Unlimited captioning for live closed captionists for an approximate rate of $110.00 per hour. • Gail Knowles, or similar person as membership consultant for $ $49,000.00. • John Burke, or similar person as Host of Outdoor Nevada for $70,000.00. • Chris Defranco, Quiet Films, or Similar Company as a production company to produce local content for $750,000.00. • Outdoor Nevada production assistant for $50,000.00. • A Host of Nevada Week for $65,000.00. • Nevada Week production assistant for $50,000.00. • Las Vegas Interpreters Connection, Spanish translation for $10,000.00. • Additional workshop coordinators, producers/reporters, talent/hosts, program narrators, and transcriptionists as productions dictate at negotiated rates between $200.00 and $750.00 per completed production, as outlined in the terms and conditions of the CCSD Contract for Services of Independent Contractor. • Channel 10 and FOX Channel 5 purchased digital television transmitters from the same manufacturer. To lower staff training costs, the stations contract with a shared transmitter engineer at a rate of $70.00 per hour for part-time transmitter inspections, periodic maintenance, and on-call emergency repairs at night.
A pro forma Contract for Services of Independent Contractor has been approved as to form by the District and the FCC counsel.
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NETWORK AFFILIATION AGREEMENTS Vegas PBS’ programming seeks to serve the region with three or more, 24-hour-a-day, over-the-air program channels. Re-transmission consents are freely provided to third-party cable, telephone, translator, electric utility and satellite service providers to ensure universal access to all viewers. The bulk of noncommercial educational programming on these channels will likely be provided via national network carriage agreements with PBS (10.1), Create (10.2); and PBS KIDS (10.3). PBS KIDS is a 24-hour educational channel (10.3); Create is a “lifestyle” channel with cooking, crafts, travel, home repair, and exercise programs. It provides lifelong learning for adults. If additional equipment is acquired through ATSC 3.0 transmission agreements with commercial broadcasters, the station will explore adding a 10.4 broadcast service as either the WORLD channel or a broadcast version of the Jackpot! Cable channel or a hybrid of the two.
SUPPLEMENTAL PROGRAM CONTENT PROVIDERS At the request of its member stations, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) does not provide a full 24-hour, seven day-a-week program service. This allows stations to schedule programs responsive to local audiences and public affairs concerns. Vegas PBS will supplement the PBS national schedule with local productions and with international programs purchased with non-district donated funds from American Public Television (APT), National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Acorn TV, Executive Program Service (EPS), Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT), Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC), Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), Independent Television Service (ITVS), Welk Syndication (WLIW), and independent film makers.
CLASSROOM CABLE AND EDUCATIONAL BROADBAND SERVICE (EBS) CONTENT Vegas PBS contracts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to carry its 24-hour science-themed NASA channels on an Educational Broadband Channel (EBS) delivered to schools, as well as video-based instructional materials acquired from New Dimension Media; Human Relations Media; Film Ideas and Infobase. These acquisitions are approved by CCSD curriculum advisors and funded by Clark County School District for carriage on one of the six EBS Channels.
In 2015, CCSD asked Vegas PBS to provide a multi-channel Classroom Cable service with educational and news content for schools when the National Cable Television Association ended the Cable in the Classroom national service. Retransmission agreements with local TV channels 3, 5, 10, and 13 have been secured. Vegas PBS, Create, Vegas PBS KIDS, Rewind, Jackpot!, Health, Upstander, Culture, and Boomerang are streamed, plus licensed content from the following channels are provided: NASA, NASA Earthview ISS, France 24, France 24-In French, and NHK World. Links to C-SPAN, Fox Nation, CNN, and MSNBC are available. The in-school channel line-up consists of 29 channels.
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Vegas PBS Instructional Television will continue to offer custom content and channel branding for the 2020-2021 School Year. Working in cooperation with CCSD Humanities, CCSD Equity and Diversity and CCSD Transportation, the following channels were designed: ITV Upstander Channel will focus on anti- bullying and character education content; ITV Culture channel will focus on international culture, history and geo-political curriculum designed to promote awareness and understanding of other cultures; The ITV Health channel will focus on drug and alcohol awareness, digital safety, stranger danger topics, as well as nutrition and exercise, and finally the ITV Boomerang channel will offer a new focus each weekday: Monday = Character Education, Tuesday = Health & Safety, Wednesday = Anti-Bullying, Thursday = Culture, and Friday = Drug & Alcohol education. Conversion of these channels into wireless internet service to allow low income families to access distance education is being explored. If implemented this fall, the programs these channels provide will be available as on demand streamed media.
Vegas PBS programs two Cox Communications educational access cable channels in cooperation with the College of Southern Nevada and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. They are named Rewind (Cox 110) and Jackpot! (Cox 111). Rewind carries student productions, credit courses, and live speeches produced by Vegas PBS or the higher education institutions plus daytime repeats of PBS prime time programs. Jackpot! is a thematic channel offering blocks of topical programs during national holidays, ethnic heritage months, national awareness days or months, and trade association conventions. Programming for these channels is drawn from the national program service providers listed above. Allocation of daytime programming on these channels for blended education content is being explored.
Our third cable-distributed channel is WORLD and is also offered on Cox. This channel informs and inspires with real stories from around the world. It shares the best of public media in news, documentaries, and fact-based informational programming that helps us understand conflicts, movements and cultures that may be distinct from our own. Its focus is on original content, offering a national platform to makers examining issues too often ignored by mainstream media. The channel’s emerging and master filmmakers spotlight a diversity of voices, telling stories not heard elsewhere. Last year they allocated significant time blocks to AT Home Learning content and are likely to continue these offerings should the Covid-19 pandemic continue to impact in classroom learning.
Authorization to purchase programs through broadcast network affiliation agreements services was approved by the licensee/Trustees on August 23, 2018, for the period from 2018 through 2023. All public television programming costs are paid using viewer donations or corporate sponsorships and no District funds are spent on these acquisitions. Many programs from these donor-funded providers have unrestricted educational school use rights with supplemental educational web sites that Vegas PBS makes available for free educational use by District students and teachers.
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If approved, a contract will be executed by the Purchasing Department to include District indemnification and any necessary insurance requirements. The supplier(s) must agree to all District contract requirements prior to providing services.
Discussion and possible action on approval to continue the multi-channel local and network programming plan for KLVX-DT Channel 10 and other cable services, and the Vegas PBS educational and public television program production plan for 2020-2021, with authorization to execute the production plan by entering into agreements with professional service providers for videography, editing, audio/video technicians, educational consultants, instructor/facilitators, test proctors and production assistants at approximate rates up to $85.00 per hour, and for independent hosts/producers for local public television specials for an approximate rate of up to $100.00 per hour, plus pre-approved out-of-pocket travel expenses related to the production or grant solicitation; The Programming Service for Public Television for $60,000.00; Captions Unlimited captioning for live closed captionists, for an approximate rate of $110.00 per hour; Gail Knowles, or similar person as membership consultant, for $49,000.00; John Burke, or similar person as Host for Outdoor Nevada, for $70,000.00; Outdoor Nevada production assistant, for $50,000.00; a Host for Nevada Week, for $65,000.00; Nevada Week production assistant for $50,000.00; Chris Defranco, Quiet Films or similar company as a production company to produce local content for $750,000.00; Las Vegas Interpreters Connection, Spanish translation for $10,000.00; and additional marketing research specialists, workshop coordinators, producers/reporters, talent/hosts, program narrators, and transcriptionists as productions dictate at negotiated rates between $200.00 and $750.00 per completed production, and a transmitter engineer at rate of $70.00 per hour; for a total approximate amount of $834,000.00 to be paid from non-district funds secured by Vegas PBS and Southern Nevada Public Television in Unit 0140, Fund 2200000000, various accounts, various cost centers; or Unit 0140, Fund 1000000000, various accounts, various cost centers, based on the project; effective June 26, 2020, through June 30, 2021, is recommended.
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