PBS YOU (stylized as pbs you; the latter word is an acronym for "Your Own University") was founded in the late 1990s as a 24/7 channel/network featuring formal and informal educational programs and college-related fare, largely to take advantage of available rights and satellite transponder space and eager customers for carriage among the satellite-dish and some cable television companies.

An American Public Television, WGBH and WNET partnership now offers two similar alternative national services, Create, which was introduced in January 2006, and World, beginning national service August 2007.

PBS ALS has been decommissioned as of September 2005; the Annenberg/CPB Channel remained in place as a source of networked feeds of credit courses.

A deal with New River Media, producers of Think Tank and with the producers of the Standard Deviants educational series for teens helped to provide a reprieve for the channel, which largely reverted to its initial mix of programming in 2002 after having carried a preponderance of programming from those two sources.

In the wake of the closure of the original incarnation of the PBS Kids Channel on September 26, 2005 (in favor of the new commercial partnership service PBS Kids Sprout), YOU's future was once again in doubt and eventually followed suit on January 9, 2006.