Attention, parents of sleepless tots: Barney, Bob the Builder and Big Bird are now available 24/7 to distract, instruct or lull your little one to sleep. Launched in September, PBS Kids Sprout is a 24-hour digital preschool channel now playing in 16 million homes.

The all-hours access to the oversized characters comes courtesy of Public Broadcasting Service, Comcast Corp., Hit Entertainment Ltd. and Sesame Workshop, and it is one of several partnerships announced by PBS this year. Others include a deal with Clear Channel Entertainment Corp. to create a live touring show and TV program, and a deal with the Library Video Co., Safari Video Networks and WGBH in Boston to produce and distribute digital-­format educational programming.

"There are all kinds of people who would love to be on our coattail," says PBS CFO Barbara Levy Landes. "But it's important for us to protect our IP, brand and image ... and anything we commit to has to have a financial and a mission benefit."

Like many leading companies today, PBS considers alliances central to its business strategy - all the more so since its federal funding component is a perennial political football. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal grants provide 13% of PBS' $500 million 2005 budget. Business underwriting adds another 36% of total revenue, member station dues account for 31%, and the balance comes from licensing, video sales and royalties.

"We'd like to reduce our reliance on member station dues," says Landes, who joined PBS in 2003. Revenue-­generating partnerships are one way to accomplish that.

Vetting, negotiating and, to a lesser degree, managing those alliances falls to Landes and her team of three. Negotiations to develop Kids Sprout were particularly complex because the deal involved multiple partners, including both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. It took nearly six months to work out the details, with both sides ceding ground. In the end, PBS got built-in protections regarding messaging in the programming and certain veto rights. The for-profit partners got commercials, though only those aimed at the caregiver, not the child.

"Sprout is an example of PBS thinking creatively to generate revenue so we can continue to meet our public service mission," says Landes.

While PBS' nonprofit status adds complexity, it has also helped make the organization surprisingly nimble on the technology front. Spurred by a mission to distribute programming to as wide an audience as possible, PBS has become an incubator for nascent technologies, dating back to its pioneering 1970s work on closed captioning.

The latest example is NerdTV, which debuted in September. Created in partnership with tech writer Robert Cringely, NerdTV is a weekly Internet program that can be downloaded, edited, copied and redistributed for commercial-free purposes. It's a cost-effective way for PBS to experiment with a progressive distribution model, fulfill its mission and generate revenue.

There are people who see PBS as a "sleepy organization," says Landes, who counters that her PBS position is every bit as challenging as those she's held at private companies including America Online Inc. for Broadband, where she headed up business planning. And, when you think about it, sitting through a raucous congression- al hearing with millions of your budget dollars on the line can make your average board meeting seem like a stroll down Sesame Street. - Suzanne Stevens

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