National Educational Television was an American non-commercial educational public television network in the United States from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970. It was replaced on October 5, 1970, by Public Broadcasting Service , its direct successor, which continues to the present. The network was founded as the Educational Television and Radio Center 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 to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and on May 16 of that year it began its operation as a "network". It put together a daily five-hour package of television shows, releasing it primarily on kinescope film to the affiliated stations by mail. The programming was noted for treating subjects in depth, including hourlong interviews with people of literary and historical importance.
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