National Educational Television

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) provided funds for cataloging the NET collection, and as part of an on-going preservation effort with the Library of Congress, over 10,000 digitized television programs from the non-commercial TV stations and producers spanning 20 years from 1952 to 1972 have been contributed to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.

It put together a weekly five-hour package of television programs, distributing them primarily on kinescope film to the affiliated stations by mail.

NETRC also contracted programs from independent producers and acquired foreign material from countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Yugoslavia, the USSR, France, Italy, and West Germany.

While praised by critics, some affiliates, especially those in politically and culturally conservative markets, objected to the perceived liberal slant of the programming.

In 1966, NET's position as a combined network and production center came into question when President Lyndon Johnson arranged for the Carnegie Foundation to conduct a study on the future of educational television.

The Ford Foundation, interested Educational Television Stations, and President Johnson supported the recommendations of the Carnegie Commission in the Public Broadcasting Act, which was signed into law on November 7, 1967.

[11] The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) began as an entity in November 1969, with NET continuing to produce several programs and to be the name of the network.

The color NET logo was incorporated into a model building at the beginning and end of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood episodes on February 10, 1969. The NET "building" was later remodeled as a brick building with windows, but kept the lopsided roof that was part of the NET logo. [ citation needed ]
NET's logo from 1954 until 1957
NET's logo from November 1964 to June 1967
One of NET's last on-screen identification bumpers calling it "National Educational Television" (from 1968); by then, it was referred to as "the public television network", and the full name was no longer seen there.