2013 net local content and service report to the...

LOCAL CONTENT AND SERVICE REPORTNET 1

Local Value

• As Nebraska’s statewide public broadcaster, NET serves all 93 counties with Television, Radio, Web and Mobile services.

• During the average television viewing week, 51 percent of Nebraska TV viewing households tune in to NET Television. Some 972,000 Nebraskans watch NET weekly.

• At least 110,000 people tune in to NET Radio each week. NET Radio live streaming is a highly used online resource. News/classical stream had nearly 525,000 sessions for 22,275,360 live-streamed minutes. The news/jazz stream had 227,000 sessions with 8,994,900 live-streamed minutes.

• More than 25,000 individuals, families, businesses and foundations support NET.

Key Services

• NET’s focus on mobile technology includes free apps for access on the go: “NET Nebraska” app delivers live and on-demand content; “Nebraska Capitol Live” app offers instant access to legislative and state government activities; and the “NET Radio Nebraska” app delivers live access to both Radio channels (News/Classical & News/Jazz).

• Local documentaries and series shine a spotlight on Nebraska’s history, people, places and culture, including Nebraska Stories, now in its 5th season.

• NET News’ Signature Stories, which air on NET Radio, focus on critical issues across the state, from farming to energy to legislative debates.

• NET Sports offers local high school and collegiate sports coverage of more than 200 hours of live sports broadcast each year.

“The PBS Kids apps enhance school readiness skills by focusing on math and literacy concepts and those social skills,

emotions, behaviors and routines so important when children start school.

I can’t imagine not having NET. They are part of our classroom routine.”

Stephanie Knust, Director, Dodge County Head Start

2013 NET Local Content and Service Report to the Community

The Mission of NET is to enrich lives and engage minds by connecting communities

and celebrating Nebraska with services that educate and enlighten.


Local Impact

• More than 50 organizations use NET’s state-of-the-art meeting and conference space each year. NET hosted the third annual TEDx Lincoln event in 2013.

• NET provides gavel-to-gavel live coverage on NET2 World and live streaming from 11 state government venues, including the main legislative chamber, seven committee hearing rooms, the Nebraska Supreme and Appellate Courts and the Governor’s hearing room.

• Some 77,473 streams of NET programming were served live, totaling 1,551,929 minutes. The combined Capitol streaming was 178,407 streams totaling 5,389,046 minutes.

• Radio Talking Book serves more than 5,000 visually impaired Nebraskans via a channel provided by NET Radio.

• Videos on NET’s YouTube channel were viewed more than 200,000 times by 181,000 users, totaling almost a half-million minutes. NET’s video streams were viewed 55,183 times by 36,177 viewers.

• Facebook users have increased 190 percent and Twitter interaction has increased 80 percent over the previous year. Podcast subscribership grew 61 percent and 19,944 people subscribe to e-newsletters.

Focus on Local, Original Content

NET Radio features a wealth of local talent, news, classical music, events and more.

• Weekly entertainment show Friday Live features interviews with those involved in local music, art and culture; All About Books features book reviews and discussion; Nebraska Concerts airs the best performances from Nebraska stages including Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, Abendmusik at First-Plymouth, Sheldon Friends of Chamber Music, Omaha Symphony, Nebraska Chamber Players, University of Nebraska, and other performing arts organizations.

• Local music programs Morning Concert, Afternoon Concert and Classics By Request deliver classical music statewide.

• Harvest Public Media is a local journalism center in partnership with several Midwest stations covering all aspects of agribusiness. NET Radio broadcasts these news stories on food, fuel and field.

• A year-long initiative made Shakespeare more accessible with on-air content and community events in partnership with Nebraska Shakespeare and Flatwater Shakespeare.


NET News offers news and analysis on multiple platforms – Radio, Television and Online. 2013 Specials and News Stories Included …until he is dead: A History of Nebraska’s Death Penalty Devil Clouds: Tornadoes Strike Nebraska Changing Lands, Changing Hands Marijuana Crossroads Nebraska Health Care: Moving Forward Nebraska Taxes: Moving Forward How Can We Save Rural America? Keystone XL Pipeline Court Hearing Owning It: Women Entrepreneurs Seed Patents An Epidemic of Violence: Nebraska Native Women Giving Nebraska’s Health Care The Digital Treatment Demands on the Platte (QUEST) Remembering JFK Superfund Sites (QUEST) Capitol Conversations – a weekly web interview series hosted by our legislative reporter Regular updates from the Nebraska Legislature each day it is in session

NET Television brings forward the stories that root Nebraskans to their place and history and introduce a world of possibilities.

Documentaries and Series Included Ashfall Unearthed (Featuring the television premiere of an original composition inspired by the Ashfall fossil beds in Nebraska) Backyard Farmer (Weekly panel of experts answering lawn and garden questions) Big Red Wrap-Up (Weekly panel of experts with highlights from Nebraska Cornhusker football) Emery Blagdon and His Healing Machine (Examines the work of the late Emery Blagdon, a Nebraska “visionary” artist) Nebraska’s Capitol Masterpiece (Showcases the art and architecture comprising Nebraska’s state capitol) Nebraska Stories (Profiles of interesting places, events, history, communities, and artists in Nebraska) QUEST (A multimedia partnership with six other leading public media organizations to explore science) Remembered Voices (Documents how Omaha students learn about the Holocaust through art and music created by the prisoners of the Terezin concentration camp)


NET In The Community

“Stories of Impact” 2013

Ready To Learn NET Learning Services launched Ready To Learn activities in Auburn and Fremont in 2013. Ready To Learn is a coordinated educational experience that connects concepts learned in preschool, school, after-school, summer programs and at home to strengthen children’s math and literacy skills. Partners include NET Learning Services and the Nebraska Department of Education Office of Early Childhood/Head Start-State Collaboration Office. At kickoff events in Auburn and Fremont, preschool children and their parents visited interactive learning stations where they used apps based on PBS characters. At both events, PBS characters Super Why! and Princess Presto attracted large and happy crowds.

NET Ready To Learn-Fremont hosted 400 pre-school children and an additional 200 parents, educators and adult caregivers. Participants also represented a multi-cultural cross section of Dodge County, including a significant number of English language learners, primarily Hispanic students and their families.

Quilted Conscience “The Quilted Conscience” tells the story of 16 Sudanese girls who land with their families in Grand Island, Nebraska, far from the trauma of their war-weary homeland. Filmmaker John Sorensen documents their journey as new Americans as they participate in an arts project with a local quilters guild, guided by a nationally known African American quilt-maker, Peggy Hartwell. The girls create memory panels that depict their lives in Sudan, and dream panels that show their aspirations and wishes. With the help of the quilt guild, the panels become a work of art, and transform the girls and their mentors in ways that were unexpected and heartwarming.

Sorensen is a Nebraska native now living in New York. The film was produced in association with NET Television. NET also coordinated public screenings in Omaha and Lincoln which featured the quilters in the film and those involved with refugee education in honor of World Refugee Day.

Shakespeare Uncovered

NET Television and NET Radio participated in “Shakespeare Uncovered,” a partnership with Nebraska Shakespeare and Flatwater Shakespeare. The purpose of the project was to raise awareness of the PBS series, “Shakespeare Uncovered,” generate interest and enthusiasm in Shakespeare’s work at the local level, and engage and build new audiences for all partners.

NET collaborated with Nebraska Shakespeare to promote many of its activities, including: “NET Night” at Shakespeare on the Green – Nebraska Shakespeare’s annual admission-free performances of Shakespeare plays at Elmwood Park in Omaha; Two-Minute Shakespeare performances by a group of young actors from throughout the state; Shakespeare On Tour encompassing more than 35 communities throughout Nebraska; a Shakespeare On the Silverscreen film series including a free screening of “Shakespeare Uncovered” episodes; a Sonnet Writing Contest for students and adults; and Nebraska’s Talk Like Shakespeare Day celebrated each year on April 23, Shakespeare’s traditional ‘birthday.’

Grand Island Independent


Flatwater Shakespeare participated in NET Radio’s series of seven “Shakespeariences,” heard during broadcasts of “Friday Live” and available online. These segments focused on topics like Shakespeare’s use in popular music, “Shakesfeare” and how to cure it, and how to “Talk Like Shakespeare.”

For the project, NET Television produced three one-minute animated history segments focusing on Shakespeare titled, “Dids’t Thou Know?” and four interstitial segments with high school actors creating two-minute versions of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, “Two Minute ‘Shakes.”

NET also produced four “Shakespeare Insult” interstitial segments explaining the very best of the Bard’s biting wit along with an eight-minute segment of Nebraska Shakespeare’s touring production of “Twelth Night,” focusing on Western Nebraska. The segment aired as part of NET’s series “Nebraska Stories.”

“On behalf of Nebraska Shakespeare staff, board and patrons, we cannot

thank you enough for the valuable benefits this association has brought our way. From the record breaking attendance on July 5th NET Night On the Green,

Two Minute Shakespeare on air and website and NPR interviews to the fabulous Nebraska Stories coverage – the relationship has truly been a blessing.”

Mary Ann Bamber, Executive Director, Nebraska Shakespeare

The State of Education in Nebraska

The State of Education in Nebraska is a two-year initiative led by NET and 18 partners, including the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation and Nebraska Loves Public Schools, among others. This series examines issues and connects Nebraskans to the important role that innovative school-community partnerships can have on improving student achievement. Monthly programs airing on NET2 World have examined the role of poverty and the achievement gap, supporting high-risk youth, parent engagement, STEM education, arts education, out-of-school activities and other issues affecting education. The project is an outgrowth of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Graduate Initiative, which aims in particular to boost high school graduation and prevent dropouts.

Now What?

NET Connects works in partnership with non-profit, educational, governmental and community service organizations to deliver educational programs to the citizens of Nebraska.

Now What? is a continuing series about dementia and related issues facing an aging population and their families. NET produced three programs on this topic in 2013 with the Consortium for Dementia Alternatives. Topics included medical care in rural areas, the different types of dementia and how treatments differ for the different types.


Special Events & Social Media Engage Nebraskans American Public Media’s popular show “A Prairie Home Companion,” which airs on NET Radio, was performed before a sold-out audience of more than 2,200 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.

NET Radio’s Friday Live was broadcast from the Merryman Performing Arts Center for a special Kearney-area show featuring live performances from Central Nebraska artists with international guest performer Nathan Pacheco.

The Coffee & Conversation film series featured free screenings in Lincoln and Omaha. Films were shown in partnership with ITVS Community Cinema, Lincoln community radio station KZUM, the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Community discussions followed each film with panelists and public Q & A. For Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines, the discussion leader was a representative from the UNL Women’s Center. Additional partners included the UNL Women’s and Gender Studies Program. This film was part of the “Women and Girls Lead” initiative.

Popular member events included a trip to Nebraska’s Rowe Sanctuary to view the annual Sandhill Crane migration as well as a guided tour and luncheon at Spring Creek Prairie.

A live audience joined the taping of the Backyard Farmer at Lauritzen Gardens special. Now in its 61st season, the Backyard Farmer series features gardening experts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension office.

Free community screenings and discussions were provided around the state for several NET documentaries including Great Plains – America’s Lingering Wild, Emery Blagdon & His Healing Machine, Ashfall Unearthed, Capitol Masterpiece, …until he is dead: A History of Nebraska’s Death Penalty and Devil Clouds: Tornadoes Strike Nebraska.

Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines