For those residents who’ve always wanted to be local celebrities, host their own TV talk show or air episodes of the sitcom they wrote and filmed with friends, the city of Covington recently simplified its pricing structure for airing content on its public access channels.
The Covington City Council recently voted to change its pricing structure to charge 0.158 cents per second to air video content on the three public access channels it oversees on Charter’s cable network — channels 8, 20 and 22.
Charges will be rounded down to the nearest whole or half dollar. For example, a 60-second commercial that is set to air 10 times per day would cost $9. The cost is similar to the previous costs, but the previous pricing structure had only set prices for 30- and 60-second clips. Now, pricing is more flexible via being on a per-second basis.
Written scripts
The simplest option for people wanting to get information on the public access channels is to provide a limited amount of written information to the city to run as a static page for $3 per day. Some of the most common announcements are for events, including church events, funerals and birthdays and advertising, said Covington’s Public Media Specialist Beth Guerrero.
People promoting job announcements can have their page run for free; local government and school announcements are also free.
To run a page, people can either come into City Hall and fill out a form or email the information to bguerrero@cityofcovington.org or mculbertson@cityofcovington.org
“The beauty of this setup it that it’s local advertising for local businesses and events that targets our area,” Guerrero said.
The pages constantly run throughout the day; Guerrero said there are around 50 pages running now, so each page is on the screen for about 30 seconds.
Commercials, infomercials and original content
The new pricing structure covers any video people or businesses want to run on any or all of three public access channels, whether the video is a 30-second commercial, a 9-minute infomercial or a creative project.
Renting the city’s studio
Covington does have a video studio in the basement of City Hall, where the telecommunications department is located.
The studio costs $50 to rent, and rentals must be made by appointment by calling Guerrero or Telecommunications Manager Mark Culbertson at 770-385-2000 or emailing them. The city studio has two cameras — and the ability to mix video between the two cameras during filming — numerous microphones, including handheld and lapel microphones, lighting equipment and basic backdrops, Guerrero said. Users can also bring their own set decorations.
Guerrero and Culbertson do help during filming, if assistance is needed.
For more information about the policies and procedures for using the city’s studio, visit cityofcovington.org and click “Community TV” under the “Departments” tab.
While the three public access channels can be viewed only by customers with Charter cable, programming on Channel 20 can also be viewed anytime online at www.cityofcovington.org.
