Beginning in 2012, six Florida public television stations, WPBT (Miami), WEDU (Tampa), WUCF (Orlando), WJCT (Jacksonville), WFSU (Tallahassee), and WEFS (Melbourne), in partnership with Atlanta PBS (Atlanta), WTTW (Chicago), WILL (Champaign), Milwaukee PBS (Milwaukee), and KERA (Dallas) came together to create the Digital Convergence Alliance (DCA), a nonprofit corporation, to serve as the binding governing body through which the stations would develop and implement initiatives which foster increased efficiencies and create new revenue opportunities, starting with the operation of a centralized master control service, referred heretofore as the DCA Broadcast Operations Center (BOC).
The DCA members contracted WJCT to manage the BOC under the auspices of its subsidiary, JCT Services, LLC and engaged the NETA Business Center to handle the business affairs of the venture. DCA “member” stations are these 11 entities, consisting of 12 TV stations (Milwaukee PBS is WMVS and WMVT). WUCF was the first to go live from DCA BOC early in 2014.
The DCA portfolio now includes 14 stations in 13 markets from Designated Market Area 3 to 108, recently adding WNIN in Evansville, Indiana and WFYI in Indianapolis. It also now provides network origination services for MHz Networks’ WorldView.
The DCA is not just about the BOC, where content is aggregated and disseminated. It is a community “whiteboard” where ideas and opportunities are shared and built upon, and when possible, utilizing the BOC as the infrastructure where such initiatives are developed and implemented. The members of the DCA welcome the opportunity to engage PTV stations from across the country in participating in this collaborative. By becoming clients of the DCA’s BOC, stations will be able to initiate and/or share in the opportunities of future ventures the DCA undertakes.
“We at PBS commend the participating stations for the creation of the Digital Convergence Alliance,” says PBS President & CEO Paula Kerger. “The successful launch of its network operations service is an excellent example of the kind of opportunity they are looking to forge. This is exactly the kind of forward-thinking our system needs.”
Broadcast Operations Center
What is the BOC?
The BOC combines master control, traffic operations and delivery systems to achieve maximum performance. Designed to serve multiple public broadcasting stations, the BOC consolidates staff and equipment in a centralized, hardened facility providing unparalleled reliability, reduced operating costs and an improved on-air presence while eliminating significant capital and operating expenses for each station.