We have a program that a distributor to PBS is interested in - but they're saying we need to pay a fee to someone (?) for them to certify that our program complies with the PBS redbook standard.

Has anyone heard of this? I haven't been able to get any more info on exactly what is involved here??

thanks - Bob

I've never heard of having to pay someone to do this...but there is this link:

Program Guidelines & Policies : PBS (http://www.pbs.org/producing/red-book/)

Seems sketchy. Try checking into if the place is legit.

Well either it is compliant or it is not. If not the program will be rejected. If it is something as simple as being a frame of two over, they might still accept it, but will charge the producers a production fee to fix.
You will also need to provide clearance and music cue sheets. Both audio and video must be compliant, and your Closed Captioning must be in sync with the programming.

I think the distributor just wants to make sure they will not incur extra charges with this production or risk having it rejected.

Are you delivering your show via HDCam Tape or HDCam Discs?

it's not an HD program. the closed-captioning service is going to dub it to BetaSP.

it's not an HD program. the closed-captioning service is going to dub it to BetaSP.

Is this for a local PBS station?

National only accepted Beta sp as a screener copy, and stopped that back in 2012.