PBS Painter Bob Ross Gets A Happy Little Digital Channel

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Grab your paints, and prep your canvas — Bob Ross has his own digital channel. Cinedigm has partnered with Bob Ross Inc. to launch a channel featuring the late artist-instructor’s classic PBS series The Joy of Painting.

The Bob Ross Channel is live on Samsung and expands to Roku on May 18, followed by a launch on VOD platforms worldwide in the coming months.

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For 31 seasons, the painter, art instructor, and TV host with the instantly recognizable hair and smile Bob Ross drew viewers around the globe with his Emmy-winning series The Joy of Painting. It first launched on U.S. public television stations, airing from 1983-94, and has continued to air on more than 150 public TV channels and Create TV. It featured Ross demonstrating his “wet on wet” technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real-time, Ross creates tranquil natural scenes, including his trademark “happy” clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.

Ross, who died in 1995, always encourage viewers to paint along with him and narrated with a gentle and encouraging manner as he created his works. “We don’t make mistakes,” he would say. “We have happy accidents.”

The new Bob Ross Channel will spotlight on the series’ memorable moments and paintings, featuring roughly 380 classic episodes.

“Bob Ross has emerged as a major pop culture icon in recent years, and The Joy of Painting has, arguably, never been more popular as a result,” said Erick Opeka, President of Cinedigm Digital Networks. “With this channel, viewers can easily access Ross’ classic episodes in one convenient place — allowing loyal fans to relive his most memorable moments, while introducing Ross and his groundbreaking series to a whole new generation of art enthusiasts.”

A quarter-century as Ross’ passing from lymphoma at 52, he has found new generations of viewers — amassing a combined 5.5 million social media followers and 5.6 million unique views on Twitch. Nearly 1 million hours of The Joy of Painting has been consumed on Hulu, and an hourlong YouTube special that attracted more than 2.5 million viewers.

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