National Educational Television
 |
|
| Type | Defunct Broadcast television network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Founded | November 4, 1952 |
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Broadcast area
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United States and Canada |
| Owner |
Ford Foundation (1954–1970) Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1967–1970) |
|
Launch date
|
May 16, 1954 (as a network) |
| Dissolved | October 4, 1970 now Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) |
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 Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt; What Status For Women?, 59:07, 1962.Eleanor Roosevelt, chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, interviews President John F. Kennedy, Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg and others, Open Vault from WGBH |
National Educational Television (NET) was an American educational broadcast television network that was owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Operating from May 16, 1954, to October 4, 1970, it was replaced on October 5, 1970, by its direct successor, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which continues in operation and has memberships with many television stations that were formerly part of NET.
The network was founded as the Educational Television and Radio Center (ETRC) in November 1952 by a grant from the Ford Foundation's Fund for Adult Education. It was originally a limited service for exchanging and distributing educational television programs produced by local television stations to other stations; it did not produce any material by itself.
In the spring of 1954, ETRC moved its operations to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and on May 16 of that year it began operating as a "network". It put together a daily five-hour package of television programs, distributing them primarily on kinescope film to the affiliated stations by mail. The programming was noted for treating subjects in depth, including hour-long interviews with people of literary and historical importance. The programming was also noted for being dry and academic, with little consideration given to entertainment value, a marked contrast to commercial television. Many of the shows were designed as adult education, and ETRC was nicknamed the "University of the Air".
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