PBS Documentaries
PBS Distribution has launched a new documentary focused Prime Video Channel, PBS Documentaries representing another way for curious viewers to access PBS content outside the PBS Video App.
The PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel includes a robust library of critically acclaimed, thought-provoking programs including the entire Ken Burns collection as well as films from Nova, Frontline, American Masters, Nature, American Experience, Independent Lens, Pov, and many independent producers.
“PBS is the leader of high-quality, compelling nonfiction entertainment, and the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel is a natural addition to our current streaming offering on Prime Video Channels—Pbs Masterpiece, Pbs Living And Pbs Kids. This channel will not only help bring engaging stories about life in all corners of our country to a new audience, but it will also provide needed revenues to sustain public broadcasting’s public-private partnership model for the benefit of all stations and the communities they serve,” says Andrea Downing, Co-President of PBS Distribution.
“We had long hoped to be able to have all of our films available in one place so the public would have access to the body of work,” says Ken Burns. “We’re thrilled that this is now possible thanks to the efforts of PBS Distribution and Amazon to launch the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel and also through PBS’s Passport initiative that allows viewers to support their public television stations. Both will also contribute to the larger mission of PBS.”
“Frontline was founded on the belief that long-form documentaries could inform, educate and inspire public television’s audiences — and during these historic times, deeply reported and easily accessible journalism is invaluable,” says Frontline Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath. “Through this new Channel, we’re excited to see our documentaries reach new and existing streaming audiences.”
At launch, the channel will feature nearly 1,000 hours of award-winning programming for subscribers to enjoy, including Ken Burns’s landmark series "The Civil War" and "Country Music", Stanley Nelson’s "The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution", and Academy Award-Nominated films like Frontline “For Sama” and American Experience “Last Days in Vietnam.”
Subscribers will be able to explore various topics or take an in-depth look at the people, traditions, and events that mold the world—all carefully curated for “viewers like you” by America’s most trusted home of documentaries: PBS.
Stanley Nelson comments, “I’m thrilled to see that my work will find a new home on this channel. PBS has become a premier destination for documentary programming in the U.S. and has been hugely invested in giving films by diverse storytellers and emerging filmmakers much-needed national exposure. I’m so glad that my film on the 'Black Panther Party', which can inform communities in our current historical moment, will be able to reach different audiences on this new service.”