Cord cutters, you can finally stream your PBS stations online – on YouTube TV

Rob Pegoraro | Special for USA TODAY

A missing link for cord-cutters just clicked into place: After the arrival of many PBS affiliates on YouTube TV Tuesday, viewers eager to flee high-priced cable and satellite TV bundles can get all of their local stations in a streaming video service.

More than 100 PBS affiliates of the 330-plus total are available on Google’s $50/month cable alternative, available on the web and in apps on most streaming media players and connected TVs. YouTube TV’s site did not show PBS affiliates in searches of major-market ZIP codes minutes after PBS’ announcement Tuesday, but Boston’s WGBH confirmed it was among the participating stations.

Public television stations had remained a holdout from streaming TV services since the debut in 2015 of Dish Network’s Sling TV, the first major streaming offering to include the more popular channels in pay-TV bundles.

Fans of such shows as "Downton Abbey," "Masterpiece" and "PBS NewsHour" could watch them live only with a cable or satellite bundle unless they tuned in their station’s free over-the-air digital broadcasts with an antenna. Online, viewers could catch up on programming via stations’ sites, PBS streaming apps and on-demand services such as Netflix.

PBS executives acknowledged the demand for a cheaper alternative for viewers without good reception. In April 2018, chief digital officer Ira Rubenstein told USA TODAY’s Jefferson Graham that “it’s a high priority for us.” But the holdout continued even as regional sports networks that had long been mainstays of cable and satellite began showing up on streaming services.

“People have been waiting!” Bob Kempf, vice president for digital services at Boston-based WGBH, said in an interview Monday. “If you’re thinking about cutting the cord, this may have been a reason why you haven’t; now, voilà.”

(He estimated that over-the-air broadcast viewing constituted less than 10% of WGBH’s total audience.)

Kempf said much of this delay was due to the difficulty of negotiating online-streaming rights for the various shows that make up a PBS affiliate’s schedule – without compromising the identity of each of its independently run member stations. Kempf said WGBH on YouTube TV will be “the exact same thing” as on cable, right down to the pledge drives.

YouTube TV already carries local stations in many markets alongside such nonbroadcast channels as AMC, ESPN and Food Network; in Boston, for example, it offers ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, CW, myTV and Telemundo affiliates. Google launched the service in 2017 in a handful of cities as a $35 bundle of local and cable channels and has since steadily expanded both its coverage and its channel menu – with that monthly rate climbing accordingly.

PBS representatives did not answer questions about stations appearing on other streaming services (often called “over the top” because they reach homes on broadband services from other firms, often the cable operators with which they compete for viewers). In January, WGBH said it aimed for carriage on multiple online TV providers.

Price increases have made these services less of a bargain, but streaming continues to avoid socking viewers with such add-on, rarely advertised costs as cable box rental surcharges and “broadcast fees” for local stations.

Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington. To submit a tech question, e-mail Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com. Follow him on Twitter at@robpegoraro.