WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as Thirteen (stylized as THIRTEEN), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the Educational Broadcasting Corporation and later as WNET.org), it is a sister station to the area's secondary PBS member, Garden City, New York–licensed WLIW (channel 21), and two class A stations: WMBQ-CD (channel 46), and WNDT-CD (channel 14, which shares spectrum with WNET). The WNET Group also operates New Jersey's PBS state network NJ PBS, and the website NJ Spotlight through an outsourcing agreement.

WNET and WLIW share studios at One Worldwide Plaza in Midtown Manhattan; WNET's transmitter is located at One World Trade Center.

WNET commenced broadcasting on May 15, 1948, from a transmitter located atop First Mountain in West Orange, New Jersey, as WATV, a commercial television station owned by Atlantic Television, a subsidiary of Bremer Broadcasting Corporation. Frank V. Bremer, the CEO, also owned two North Jersey radio stations, WAAT (970 AM) and WAAT-FM (94.7 MHz). The three stations were based in the Mosque Theatre at 1020 Broad Street in Newark. WATV was the first of three new stations in the New York City television market to sign on the air during 1948, and was also the first independent station. One unusual daytime program, Daywatch, consisted of a camera focused on a teletypewriter printing wire service news stories, interspersed with cutaways to mechanical toys against a light music soundtrack. Another early series by the station was Stairway to Stardom (1950–1951), one of the first TV series with an African-American host. WATV's transmitter was moved to the Empire State Building in November 1953.

On October 6, 1957, Bremer Broadcasting announced it had sold its stations for $3.5 million to National Telefilm Associates (NTA), an early distributor of motion pictures for television, joining its NTA Film Network. On May 7, 1958, channel 13's call sign was changed to WNTA-TV to reflect the new ownership; the radio stations also adopted these call letters. NTA's cash resources enabled WNTA to produce a schedule of programming with greater emphasis on the people and events of New Jersey, compared to the other commercial television stations. NTA also sought to make channel 13 the center of a new commercial network, though during its run the NTA Film Network offered only one night of "in-pattern" network programming, Friday nights in 1957–58, and for most purposes WNTA served as the New York showcase for nationally syndicated programming and produced several such entries, notably the anthology drama series Play of the Week; the talk show Open End, hosted by David Susskind; children's show The Magic Clown; and a popular dance program emceed by Clay Cole. The station continued to lag behind New York's other independent stations—WNEW-TV (channel 5), WOR-TV (channel 9) and WPIX (channel 11)—in terms of audience size, and NTA incurred a large debt load. National Telefilm Associates put the WNTA stations up for sale in February 1961.

At least three prospective purchasers expressed interest in WNTA. The most prominent was the New York City-based group Educational Television for the Metropolitan Area (ETMA), a consortium of businesspeople, cultural leaders and educators who intended to turn channel 13 into New York City's educational station. By this time, it was obvious that the non-commercial frequency that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) originally allocated to the city, UHF channel 25, would not be nearly adequate enough to cover a market that stretched from Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the north to Ocean County, New Jersey, in the south. Prior to 1964, when the FCC required television manufacturers to include UHF tuners in newer sets as per the All-Channel Receiver Act passed in 1961, most viewers could not view UHF stations except with an expensive converter; only a few manufacturers made sets with built-in UHF tuning. Even for those who could access UHF stations, reception was marginal even under the best conditions.

With assistance from the University of the State of New York, ETMA had attempted to purchase channel 13 and convert it into a non-commercial station in 1957, when Bremer Broadcasting first put the station on the block; this bid was later withdrawn. This time ETMA was competing with NTA founding president Ely Landau, who had formed a syndicate to buy the station after resigning from NTA; and David Susskind, who received financial backing from Paramount Pictures.

ETMA's initial bid of $4 million was rejected by NTA, but the citizens' group remained persistent. With the support and guidance of National Educational Television (NET), ETMA later received an endorsement from newly appointed FCC chairman Newton N. Minow, who established public hearings to discuss the fate of channel 13. The pendulum quickly shifted in favor of channel 13 going non-commercial, and the commercial suitors withdrew their interest.

On June 29, 1961, ETMA agreed to purchase WNTA for $6.2 million. About $2 million of that amount came from five of the city's six remaining commercial VHF stations (WPIX was the lone holdout), all of whom were pleased to see a competitor eliminated. In addition, CBS later donated a facility in Manhattan to ETMA and NET to use as a studio. The FCC approved the transfer in October, and converted channel 13's commercial license to non-commercial.