The New York Times Bits' blog reports that PBS has debuted a brand spankin' new video portal PBS.org/video. Users will be able to find a plethora of programming past and present, from NOVA to Newshour with Jim Lehrer. However, they will not be able to find everything all the time. Certain programs will only be made available for limited viewing windows, others will not be made available at all. 

Many documentarians have had the confusing experience of navigating the public television system when pursuing funding. Most usually only end up receiving a portion of their budget from such entities. That same combo of funding affects online distribution as well, as it means that there are a variety of interests that must be satisfied when putting programs online, such as Ken Burns' for-profit production company (The National Parks), the BBC (Masterpiece Theater) or corporate sponsors. 

Like all content producers, PBS is dealing with the question of how to balance program availability with revenue streams.

Jason Seiken, PBS’s senior vice president for interactive, said that some production companies are concerned that if people have too much access to programs online, they will be less likely to buy DVDs. “There are different views,” he said. “I believe that putting stuff online actually increases DVD sales and increases tune-in.” 

For the rest of the Times piece, click here. 

I did a very quick perusal of the site. On the plus side, it's easy to navigate, puts all of PBS's content in one place and has a nice clean look. There are community features that allow for sharing, though at the moment these are limited to specific services such as Digg, Stumble Upon and Facebook. I tried to embed an episode of Frontline here for your viewing pleasure (a li'l special called Heat - figured I'd make it Earth Day-appropriate), but no embed code is provided. I'll continue to tinker with the site, and as y'all play with it yourselves, please let us know your thoughts.