One unusual daytime program, Daywatch, consisted of a camera focused on a teletypewriter printing wire service news stories, interspersed with cutaways to mechanical toys against a light music soundtrack.

NTA's cash resources enabled WNTA to produce a schedule of programming with greater emphasis on the people and events of New Jersey, compared to the other commercial television stations.

[9] NTA also sought to make channel 13 the center of a new commercial network, though during its run the NTA Film Network offered only one night of "in-pattern" network programming, Friday nights in 1957–58, and for most purposes WNTA served as the New York showcase for nationally syndicated programming and produced several such entries, notably the anthology drama series Play of the Week; the talk show Open End, hosted by David Susskind; children's show The Magic Clown; and a popular dance program emceed by Clay Cole.

With the support and guidance of National Educational Television (NET), ETMA later received an endorsement from newly appointed FCC chairman Newton N. Minow, who established public hearings to discuss the fate of channel 13.

[15] About $2 million of that amount came from five of the city's six remaining commercial VHF stations (WPIX was the lone holdout), all of whom were pleased to see a competitor eliminated.

Engineers and technicians who were members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) refused to cross the AFTRA picket line, leaving the station's management and other non-union employees to produce the three-hour inaugural broadcast.

The newly formed Corporation for Public Broadcasting (created by an act of the United States Congress) initially supported NET's network role, while providing government funding for programming.

But that move was followed two years later by the establishment of the Public Broadcasting Service as the CPB's own distribution system—which was a direct threat to NET's territory.

[34] This led both the Ford Foundation and the CPB to threaten NET with funding withdrawal in early 1970, unless it merged its operations with WNDT.

[38] Following the merger, David Loxton established the TV Lab in 1972[22] with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts.

[citation needed] Even after becoming a noncommercial station, channel 13 retained its original studios and offices at the Mosque Theater in Newark.

Channel 13's transmitter facilities, including a newly installed digital transmission system, were destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Some time later, in February 2003, WNET completed its merger with Long Island PBS broadcaster WLIW (licensed to Garden City and based in Plainview), combining the two stations into one operation.

The network features increased coverage of news and issues pertinent to New Jersey, as well as programming from the WNET and PBS libraries.

The transfer of programming to WNET was part of Governor Chris Christie's plan for the New Jersey government's exit from public broadcasting.

[55][56][57][58] The suit asserted that WNET had used grant money that was given for the production of programs including American Masters, Great Performances and Cyberchase for other purposes.

[56][57] WNET settled the lawsuit in June 2010 by paying back the United States government $950,000,[56] pledging to instate a program to ensure they honored all future federal grant requirements[55] and agreeing to not receive $1,015,046 in federal grant money that was about to be awarded,[57] WNET Vice President and General Counsel, Robert Feinberg, said to The New York Times: "This is not a scenario we want to repeat and we have no intention of repeating it.

"[56] In November 2012, WNET was scheduled to air Alex Gibney's film Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream produced by Independent Lens.

WNET followed the statement with an on-air round-table discussion where the moderator repeatedly mentioned that Koch's philanthropic contributions totaled a billion dollars.

[70][71] Stephen Segaller, WNET's vice president for programming told The New York Times on February 13, 2014, that he had "absolute conviction" that the Laura and John Arnold Foundation was an admissible funder and the funding did not violate PBS' "perception" rule.

We all take very, very seriously any suggestion that there's a perception problem about the integrity of our work or the sources of our funding, and we came to the conclusion that it's better to err on the side of caution".

PBS ombudsman, Michael Getler, commented that PandoDaily's article "shines a light, once again, on what seems to me to be ethical compromises in funding arrangements and lack of real transparency for viewers caused, in part, by the complicated funding demands needed to support public broadcasting, and in part by managers who make some questionable decisions".

Getler added that WNET "went seriously wrong" and that their "decision to accept a grant of $3.5 million from the Arnold Foundation, with a stated interest in 'public employee benefits reform', flunks PBS's own 'perception test', which is part of the service's Funding Standards and Practices.

"[72] In late 2014, WNET programming chief Stephen Segaller received widespread criticism for proposing to push the multi award-winning documentary strands Independent Lens and POV out of a prime time slot and onto a secondary station, WLIW (Channel 21).

[64][73] Over 2,000 documentarians signed a petition,[64] stating that WNET's action would lead to the shows being marginalized by PBS affiliates nationwide and have a severe effect on cutting edge documentary filmmaking.

[73] Among the prominent opponents of rescheduling POV and Independent Lens were filmmakers Alex Gibney and Laura Poitras, who had campaigned against a similar move by WNET in 2012.

[74] TV producer Norman Lear wrote an op-ed in The New York Times accusing WNET and PBS of a ratings-chase that "could devastate independent documentary film making".

"[73] Many of the subjects POV and Independent Lens covered – like the Koch brothers' influence on American politics in Alex Gibney's film, Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream — have been controversial,[64][73] leading the Indie Caucus, a group of Independent filmmakers to speculate if the provocative subjects they explored might also be relegating them to the more obscure TV schedule.

[79] Those edits, which violated PBS ethics standards,[77][78] brought strong criticism from the media to WNET and the producers of the show.

Even if they understood where the producers of the show were coming from when they decided to entertain the request, PBS and the veracity of all that's included in their documentaries, requires decisive action that conveys just how serious this infraction was".