The Minnesota Channel is an American

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

television channel originating at

Twin Cities Public Television Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. (abbreviated TPT, doing business as Twin Cities PBS) is a nonprofit organization based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, that operates the Twin Cities' two PBS member television stations, KTCA-TV (channe ...

. It features programming related to

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

(and some related to

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

), plus coverage of the Minnesota Legislature when in session. The Minnesota Channel is carried as a

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

on all six member networks of the

Minnesota Public Television Association The Minnesota Public Television Association (MPTA), also commonly known as Minnesota Public Television, is a not-for-profit trade organization of public television stations in the state of Minnesota that operates an interconnecting statewide educa ...

History

In early 2003, TPT began setting aside time on KTCI for the "Minnesota Channel", an evening dedicated to local and regional related programming, frequently produced in partnership with other nonprofit and public service organizations. The service expanded from one to two evenings in 2004 and, on September 16, 2005, became a new full-time digital channel, ''tptMN'' (digital channel 17.2,

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

(Saint Paul) 243, Comcast (Minneapolis) 202, and

Mediacom Mediacom Communications Corporation is the United States' fifth largest cable television provider based on the number of video subscribers, and among the leading cable operators focused on serving smaller cities and towns. The company has a s ...

102). The Minnesota Channel was expanded to region wide coverage in Minnesota and

in February 2008. In October 2012, the Minnesota Channel changed picture formats from 4:3 to 16:9 widescreen.

Programming

Since its inception, the MN Channel has co-produced more than 250 programs with more than 100 partner organizations: non-profits, universities, governmental agencies and other public service organizations. Among the programs broadcast on the MN Channel are several targeting ethnic communities that now call Minnesota and the Twin Cities home and who are generally under-served by commercial media. Some of these shows are also broadcast on

Public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

channels in the region: *''Zona Latina'' (

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

) *''Kev Koom Siab'' (

Hmong Hmong may refer to: * Hmong people, an ethnic group living mainly in Southwest China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand * Hmong cuisine * Hmong customs and culture ** Hmong music ** Hmong textile art * Hmong language, a continuum of closely related to ...

) *''Geetmala'' (

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

) *''BelAhdan'' (

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

ern) *''Journey to the East'' (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

) *''Vietnamese News'' (

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese) The network's website''tpts Minnesota Productions & Partnerships
/ref> features information on programs and partners, plus
regularly-updated blog

Affiliates

Minnesota

KTCI Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. (abbreviated TPT, trade name, doing business as Twin Cities PBS) is a nonprofit organization based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, that operates the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities' two PBS membe ...

(2.2 and 2.6) St. Paul/Minneapolis (Available in HD) *

WDSE WDSE may refer to: * WDSE (TV), a PBS member station in Duluth, Minnesota, United States * WDSE-FM, an adult album alternative radio station in Duluth, Minnesota, United States {{call sign disambiguation ...

(8.4)

Duluth , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

/ WRPT (31.4)

Hibbing Hibbing is a city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 16,214 at the 2020 census. The city was built on mining the rich iron ore of the Mesabi Iron Range and still relies on that industrial activity today. At th ...

KAWE KAWE, virtual and VHF digital channel 9, is a Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television station licensed to Bemidji, Minnesota, United States. The station is owned by Northern Minnesota Public Television, Inc. KAWE's studios are locat ...

(9.6)

Bemidji Bemidji ( ) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, Minnesota, Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. According to 2021 census estimates, the city ...

/ KAWB (22.6) Brainerd * KWCM-TV (10.3) Appleton / KSMN (20.3) Worthington/Sioux Falls *

KSMQ-TV KSMQ-TV (channel 15) is a PBS member television station in Austin, Minnesota, United States. The station is locally owned by KSMQ Public Service Media, Inc. KSMQ-TV's studios are located on the campus of Riverland Community College on 8th Aven ...

(15.4) Austin/Rochester

North Dakota

Prairie Public Television Prairie Public Television is a state network of public television stations operated primarily by Prairie Public Broadcasting. It comprises all of the PBS member stations in the U.S. state of North Dakota. The state network is available via fla ...

carries Minnesota Channel in North Dakota. * KGFE (2.3)

Grand Forks Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city o ...

(Available in HD) * KBME-TV (3.3) Bismarck * KWSE (4.3) Williston * KSRE (6.3)

Minot Minot ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ward County, North Dakota, Ward County, North Dakota, United States, in the state's north-central region. It is most widely known for the Minot Air Force Base, Air Force base approximately north of ...

* KDSE (9.3) Dickinson * KFME (13.3) Fargo * KCGE (16.3) Crookston, MN / Grand Forks * KJRE (19.3) Ellendale * KMDE (25.3) Devils Lake

References

{{Public affairs television channels in the United States Television networks in the United States Public Broadcasting Service Public television in the United States Television channels and stations established in 2003 Television in Minnesota Television stations in North Dakota English-language television stations in the United States