Initial Basic Planning for a Community online TV Station

Hi Guys. 
Thanks for your interest in this blog. I really appreciate you reading, and I hope that you are finding it interesting. Most of all I hope you are taking action. I'm going to try and answer Gina's question about how do you start to put together a community TV station? This is a difficult one to answer without more information but I'll give it a shot. 

Lets assume that you want to put together an online station that will be become self-funding because whatever you do there will be some costs and you may have a bagful of

volunteers but that isn't enough. 

So first of all you need to write down your objectives, assets and resources and the type of station you want. These are the 3 circles that you need to complete and have overlapping to see if the venture is credible.

 So list out your Assets and Resources. So this will include what equipment you have, what facilities and space, the people you can rely on, and any finances. Now this can be what you have or what you need. Be ambitious and write down what you need then you can look for it. Don't limit this to what you have. Include, for example, local college or university students studying acting or film making because you can gather a team here. I have worked with several successfully and am now partnering some projects with a friend whom I met through his studies and is now doing his masters in Film making and TV

What are your objectives? Do you want to provide a local information service, entertainment, news, local music? Do you want to provide training to local unemployed people, those retired, maybe disabled people. Do you want to provide a live station or pre-recorded that is available on demand? Do you want to get funding or will you look for local sponsors and advertisers? Will you want to have a large space station or just a desk and have most outside recording? Think about other questions and answer them here.

And finally, what type of station are you planning? Will it be in your home? I do a lot of filming in my bedroom, standing in front of the camera and away from the wall with a couple of daylight bulb lamps, one on an umbrella reflector and the other a light pointing on the back wall. I could put in a small desk and be a news reader. You might have a large lounge/living room that you could use. How about a double garage. You may be able to afford space. Maybe you have an office or can use an office evenings or weekends. I even had a large empty warehouse at one time. In the UK if an empty property is used by a charity or social enterprise then the owner doesn't pay business rates, or at least has an 80% reduction. So it helps you and the owner. The only problem is that you have no certainty and can have to move at any time, if the property is sold or rented out. A friend of mine who ran a charity and needed loads of space for his outdoor equipment had free space but moved about 4 times in 3 years. Keith Chegwin, a British actor and TV presenter ran an online show back in about 2003 for 2 months from his bed, two hours every day. He was a forerunner and it was successful. He had 5 cameras and ran it as webcams. I think I remember him having guests who went to his home and sat on or in his bed.

So you may have an intimate studio or something bigger. Here we are looking at what you have and also what you would like. But I seriously recommend you start with what you have and get going. Then when you get funding, sponsors or advertisers you just move up. At least you will have started and have a track record and viewers.

NEXT STEP
 Now you have this information see if it all overlaps as in the diagram below. If there is a big mix in the centre you are probably ready to go. If the central mix is small you need to see what you can do to increase it.

 Now you need to take all that information and write a business plan. You can make it elaborate if you wish but I'd keep it down to bullet points. The elaborate plan is when you want to involve funding or sponsors. The bullet point plan becomes a working model and should be looked at and updated daily. It will help and inspire you towards your goal.

Include a programme schedule section where you write out the programmes you want to include, details and length. This will help you focus.  If you can produce a very short video of yourself, or someone helping you, talking about your venture and expectations this can be put up on YouTube and Facebook etc to spread the word. It can be used to promote what you are doing. The main thing is to do it. No matter how good or bad it doesn't matter. All that matters is you take that first step. You can and will get better with experience. And your confidence will grow too. Be passionate because that is contagious.

This is just an outline but I hope you find it interesting and encouraging. I truly feel that the future for small independent local online TV channels is very bright. Take a look at the top YouTube channels and you will see that many are really individual TV channels, usually of one person. You will take this to the next level. So there are my thoughts for planning your online TV channel.

PLEASE NOTE. My new online course "How to set up and produce an online TV station" will be available soon. Click here to become an early bird   You can make a really exciting project out of online TV and I'm here to help you and answer any queries. Leave a comment below. Also please look at the right side of this blog and like my Facebook page. And SHARE