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• NPS Audience Research introduction

The Accessibility Best Practices (ABP) Process is an outgrowth of the CPB-funded 2007 Primetime Strategic Framework initiative. The Framework called for the removal of the barriers and obstacles that make it difficult for viewers to find programs on public television. (Strategic Priority # 2 in the 2007 Edition of the Framework for a Primetime Public Television Strategy.)

Utilizing the best available research on how viewers are navigating their program choices, and aided by a thorough analysis of the business infrastructure that determines how data and metadata travel from production unit to the viewers set, the Content Accessibility Working Group (CAWG) has developed a set of best practices that can be used throughout the public television system to increase viewer awareness of, access to, and interest in the programs of the primetime NPS.

• Accessibility Best Practices 1.0 223KB

The CAWG consists of a group of individuals representing a wide range of relevant disciplines—from station management, promotion, programming and production to engineering, traffic, marketing and development. These individuals bring their personal experience to bear in analyzing the available data and to consult widely among their own colleagues and constituencies so that the resulting guidelines express the full wisdom of the system. Once the Best Practices Handbook has been published (anticipated to be the fourth quarter of 2008) the members of the CAWG are expected to play an important role in the system-wide comprehension and implementation and the assessment of outcomes.

Members of the Content Accessibility Work Group (CAWG)

Station Management

Dennis Haarsager, KWSU

Michael Isip, KQED

Programming

Scott Chaffin. KUED

Gillian Gonda, GPB

Shawn Halford, PBS

Traffic

Craig Carter, Myers Information Systems

Michelle Nesmith, Rocky Mountain PBS

Marketing/Development/Promotion

Steve Baker, WGBH

Judy Diaz, PBS

Kerri Hanlon, WHYY

Engineering

Bruce Jacobs, TPT

Production

Jared Lipworth, WNET

The CAWG's first meeting took place on September 26, 2007. In order to help prepare the group for the work ahead, they studied the PowerPoint deck attached below. This deck is a first pass at the analysis of the data from the Navigation Study CPB commissioned in the fall of 2007.  This is an updated version of a presentation that was made by Terry Bryant and Chris Schiavone during PBS Showcase 2007.  It includes very important information about the technologies and methods viewers use to find programs.

• Navigation Overview: A Preliminary Look at Findings from the November 2006 Navigation Study 283KB

On September 26, 2007, the following presentation was given at the first meeting of the Content Accessibility Working Group.

• Further Insight 2006 Navigation Study 1.8MB

At the September 26, 2007 meeting, the Content Accessibility Working Group agreed on the following definition of "Accessibility:"

"Whatever helps the general adult audience -- particularly the strategically relevant research segments -- to connect to PTV content that has been created primarily for "Primetime.*" (*Primetime as defined by the viewer generally means when that viewer watches television.)

After reviewing the above presentations, the CAWG identified a number of areas that required further research. In January 2008, CPB commissioned an ethnographic research study. Topline findings of this study were shared with the CAWG on February 21 and February 27.

• February 21 PPT Presentation Deck 136KB
• February 27 PPT Presentation Deck 136KB

Following a more in-depth review of the ethnographic study, each of the CAWG members presented key findings from all of the Navigation related research to their respective organizations. Feedback from these presentations, as well as a study of internal business process whereby program information travels from the producer to the viewer's set, helped the working group begin drafting a set of Best Practice Concepts that were presented for System feedback in March 2008. After further refinement, additional System feedback was gathered at the 2008 PBS Tech Conference and through web-based focus groups and surveys. The CAWG completed a first draft of Accessibility Best Practices in early April, 2008, which was vetted in web-based focus groups that included representatives from nearly every discipline in public television: producers, programmers, marketing and communication professionals, development staff, traffic managers, engineers, general managers and senior programming executives. The main best practices were presented and discussed at the PBS Technology Conference in Las Vegas in April 2008. Feedback gathered there and in the web-based focus groups helped to shape the beta version of the Accessibility Best Practices that was published and distributed at PBS Showcase in May 20008. In the summer and fall of 2008, the CAWG began work on an implementation plan for the Best Practices. In early January 2008, the Accessibility Best Practices were presented to a group of national content producers at the PBS Content Summit. In late January, the Best Practices Implementation plan, developed by the CAWG, will be reviewed by CPB and PBS Executives and next steps in this process will be determined.

For questions about this important initiative, please contact John Prizer at 202-879-9630 or jprizer@cpb.org.