By Sarah Hofmann | Contributing Writer
Thirteen years after going on air, the San Bernardino-based First Nations Experience network is preparing to launch its own streaming platform.
The endeavor is supported by a $1.5 million grant from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, which partnered with KVCR and the San Bernardino Community College District, which houses the station, to create the network more than a decade ago.
FNX was — and still is — the country’s only national broadcast channel dedicated solely to Native American and Indigenous peoples’ programs.
“We want to make sure tribal communities are proud of who they are as a people,” Alberto Jasso, director of strategic philanthropy for San Manuel, said Monday, Nov. 25, adding that some tribes don’t have the same resources with which to tell their stories.
On FNX, those stories are told through “documentaries, dramatic series, nature, cooking, gardening, children’s and arts programming,” according to the network’s website.
“FNX was founded on a simple idea: sharing stories can bring us closer together,” college district Chancellor Diana Rodriguez said at the donation ceremony earlier this month, according to a video of the event.
She also said the network’s mission to celebrate and honor native cultures is “so incredibly important, especially (as) many of those stories have been lost.”
FNX launched on KVCR in 2011. Since then, it has grown substantially.
In 2014, the PBS satellite service made the network available to affiliates and television providers across the U.S., according to the FNX website. It currently broadcasts in 34 states.
Frank Blanquet, a director and producer for FNX, said Monday that the network’s current potential viewership is about 78 million households.
Blanquet started working at KVCR in 2006. His first project was “People of the Pines,” an effort done with the San Manuel tribe.
“Coming from an Indigenous background, it seemed like a good fit,” said Blanquet, who is Yucatec Maya. When discussion of a dedicated network began, he helped with the pitch work and became part of FNX’s original team.
At the time, he said, there was a 0.4% representation of Native people in mainstream media.
Meanwhile, the group accounts for 1.3% of the country’s population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
UCLA’s annual Hollywood Diversity Reports show some increases in Native representation in recent years, though a USC Annenberg report from earlier this year warns that “it is critical to continue monitoring Native representation closely rather than assume that this increased representation is a new norm.”
Blanquet also said strides have been made, but, “there’s really still a void.”
He and Jasso both highlighted the need for Native American children to see themselves represented in a positive light.
The $1.5 million grant will enable FNX to “further develop and expand” the platform and acquire new content, Jasso said.
Blanquet said the FNX app was soft-launched in November, for Native American Heritage Month — but an official launch of the streaming service is planned for 2025, once it’s available across various providers’ platforms.
“We wanted to make sure the company we went with was not just pitching Samsung and LG,” he said.
The broadcast channel also will remain available.
“Meeting people where they’re consuming content is a big deal to us.”
As for programs, “everything right now that is on the app is also on broadcast,” he said, but in the future, the streaming platform could also host content that isn’t PBS-friendly, such as certain feature films.
“One thing that we are working on for the app is having some exclusivity on certain films that are in production now,” Blanquet said.
For this, FNX is partnering with Native American creators in the U.S.
The app will always be free, he said, and there are plans to help support it with advertisements.
Looking ahead, Jasso said San Manuel is excited to continue to see the network grow, change and provide education.
“Everyone sees the casinos,” he said, but FNX is an opportunity for the Native American community at large to tell its stories.
