PBS Didn’t Want to Take This Columbus Voyage

“The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World” seems like a perfect program for public television. So why is it on cable instead?

The Discovery Channel, which considers itself a competitor with PBS for nonfiction programming, landed first-run U.S. rights with a superior offer, according to both Discovery and the Smithsonian Institution, which developed the program to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to the Americas.

“We just put a better offer on the table. We preempted PBS,” said Eric McLamb, a spokesman for Discovery. He declined to disclose details of the deal.

But PBS spokeswoman Mary Jane McKinven said that the non-commercial network had little interest in the series at the time it was offered because PBS was then developing its own program on the topic, “Columbus and the Age of Discovery.” That series was broadcast last fall and will air again in August.

While PBS has no plans to broadcast “The Buried Mirror,” a public-broadcasting organization called the National Latino Communications Consortium has purchased secondary rights to it for 1993. The consortium plans to offer the miniseries to individual public-TV stations and regional public networks at that time, according to its associate director, Elena Minor.