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How do I activate PBS Passport?


Before you can use your new PBS Passport membership benefit, you must first activate your benefit.

Once your benefit is ready for activation, your PBS station will send you a four-word activation code or an activation link to click on. These codes are unique for each member, but each will follow the same format, such as apple-house-river-sleep or lion-coyote-ostrich-badger.

Some PBS stations will provide you with this activation code immediately following your donation, while other stations will require more time to set up your benefit and will send you this activation code once your benefit is ready.

Haven't received an activation code yet? Try requesting an activation email with our Passport Lookup Tool. 

Some PBS stations may instead send you a link that already includes the code. If you haven't received an activation code or activation link from your station following your donation, your PBS station may still be processing your donation.  We recommend allowing for one business day to give your station time to create your benefit and send you activation instructions. If one business day has passed and you still have not received activation instructions from your PBS station, please contact them directly.

Once you have your unique Passport activation code, please visit our Passport activation page at this link and enter your code. Codes will be auto-capitalized when entered, but are not case-sensitive. 

Select Continue to proceed to the next screen.

Did an error message appear when you tried to submit your activation code or link? Click here for common error messages and what to do if you encounter one.

After entering your code, you will see a screen with the membership name and your local PBS station. On the right, sign in with a PBS, Google, Facebook, or Apple account. Don't have one of these three account options? Select Create a PBS Account beneath the Sign in with PBS Account option. 

If you're unsure if you already have a PBS account, we recommend selecting the "Create one now" option and signing up for a new PBS account - we'll let you know if you've already created a PBS account with your email address.

The personal account you sign in with on this screen will be the same account you log into from now on at PBS.org and the PBS App when viewing Passport videos. Only this single account will be linked to your Passport benefit.

Once you sign in with your account, you will be prompted to confirm the Passport terms of use. Select the "I agree" checkbox to agree to the terms and then select Confirm at the bottom of the page to continue. Confirmation of the Passport terms of use is required to use the Passport benefit. PBS is committed to protecting users' privacy. For more details, click here to view our privacy policy.

Once you've confirmed the Passport terms of use, the Activation Complete! screen will appear. Select the Get Started button to begin using your Passport benefit.

Once you've activated your Passport benefit, you can watch videos online at any time by visiting PBS.org. There is no separate Passport website. Passport and non-Passport videos can be found in one place!

Because the Passport benefit is a one-time activation, you will not need your activation code in the future. All you need to access Passport is the email address and personal password of your login account you signed into earlier in the activation process.

Below are additional links with instructions on how to sign in to your Passport account on our apps on supported streaming devices: