Use Your Community Access TV Website To Increase Viewership

Community Access TV allows members of the community to publicly express themselves. It is an excellent way to keep the community informed about local town, community and school happenings. A strong Community Access TV website has the ability to increase channel views. Today, we’ll discuss how. 

Are you interested in improving your municipality’s Community Access TV website? Compete Now has been rebuilding websites for more than fifteen years and has enjoyed redesigning a variety of Community Access TV websites. Click here or call 617-539-6528 if you’d like to learn more or get started.

Here are some ways that your site can boost viewership. 

How To Use Your Community Access TV Website To Increase Viewership 

Make Schedules Easy to Find 

In Community Access TV, there is something to interest everyone! Your website should make its TV schedules easy to find so that people can conveniently see a show that will capture their interest. 

To make the schedules clear to find, we recommend putting them in the main navigation menu, as we did when redesigning the Walpole Media Corporation website. Doing this can ultimately increase viewership. 

Put the TV Channels in an Obvious Location 

People who would like to watch your Community Access station on their own TVs will need to know which TV channel to tune into. Putting this information in a place that website visitors will immediately see will encourage people to watch your Community Access TV’s stations. 

One option is to put the channels to the right of the homepage slider with options to watch live, watch on-demand, or view the channel schedules, like we did when redesigning the Chelmsford TV website. You can also include the channels in a prominent section of the homepage. No matter what approach you take, focus on making the channels easy to find in order to help increase website viewers. 

Add Live Streaming Viewing

Today, many people watch TV online instead of on their own televisions. That is why most Community Access TV stations are adding live streaming options to their websites, as seen in the image above of the Chelmsford TV website. On this page, both upcoming and recent livestreams are readily available to viewers.

Offer a Live Channel Streaming Page

In addition, you can have a live channel streaming page on your website. These live streams are set up using embeds from whichever platform your channel uses for its services.

Show Live Town Views

Another popular use of livestreams is to show live views of your town. Many Community Access TV websites have found that offering live views attracts frequent website viewers. Viewers often include people who are curious about current traffic or who would like to check how busy the local dog park or beach is.  

Include On Demand Viewing

On demand viewing also allows more people to view your channel by making it so that they are not bound to the channel’s schedule. 

On the North Andover CAM website that we redesigned, we included on demand pages for each channel, with the ability to filter by show. Some platforms that we have integrated into websites in the past to pull in episodes include Cablecast, CASTUS, Vimeo and YouTube. 

Giving people access to their favorite shows on demand allows them to watch at a time that is convenient for them. It also lets new visitors to the website browse past shows and find ones that they are interested in and may not have ever stumbled upon live. Both of these benefits of on demand viewing will increase overall viewership. 

Help the Community Get Involved

The more the community is involved in your Community Access TV station, the more viewers there will be. Many stations have opportunities for community members to learn video production, volunteer, or donate to support the channel. You can help the community get involved in any of these ways by making these options prominent on the website.

You can include volunteer options in an announcement banner and create a “Get Involved” page that is in the main navigation as we did on the Walpole Media Corporation website. Other options include putting this information in a large sliding banner on the homepage. There are various choices for making this information stand out, but doing so will certainly increase involvement and ultimately improve viewership. 

Feature Upcoming Events to Engage the Community

Make your website a place for people to go to discover community events! One way to do this is to add a feed of upcoming events to your homepage, as can be seen on the homepage of the Dracut TV website that we designed. If community members know that your website contains interesting events that are easy to learn about, they are more likely to frequent your website, which will increase overall viewership.

Give the Opportunity to Purchase Memberships, Volunteer or Sponsor a Show Online

Many community members would love to get involved with their local Community Access TV station in one of these ways. One of the jobs of your website can be to make these opportunities as accessible and appealing as possible. A “Get Involved” page can be a great place to display this information, as we did on the Chelmsford TV website. This page is located in the website’s main navigation menu, making it easy to find and it includes simple, eye-catching icons which motivate people to take action to get started. More people will begin viewing your website once they realize that it contains straightforward opportunities to get involved. 

Place New and Featured Shows on the Homepage

Show website visitors what is new and exciting on your Community Access TV station to keep them interested and engaged and to attract new viewers. The homepage is an ideal place to display new shows. The North Andover CAM homepage is an example of this. As you scroll down, there is a section showing their new and featured shows. As you can imagine, making new shows easy to see when visitors arrive to the site can both gain new viewers and interest past viewers. 

Want to Increase Viewership for Your Community Access TV Website?

Our team would love to discuss rebuilding your Community Access TV website with you. We have completed a variety of Massachusetts Community Access TV websites and look forward to working with you. Don’t hesitate to click here or call 617-539-6528 to get in touch with our team.