YouTube has become Oregon Community Access Media’s “go-to” for the viewership data that OCA’s director, Paul Zwicker, uses to be able to successfully solicit local business sponsorships.
This past year, despite losing some large sponsors, Zwicker was able to secure $15,750 in sponsorships. While that amount may not have a huge impact on OCA Media’s overall operating budget, Zwicker says that the non-profit organization needs every dollar it can find.
Over the past eight years, OCA Media has streamed content to YouTube at an ever-increasing rate. Back in 2016, OCA Media streamed 41 events, mostly government and school board meetings to its YouTube channel that boasted a subscriber base of about one thousand users.
Fast forward to 2023: Last year, OCA Media streamed over 200 events to YouTube and ended the year with a subscriber base of 3,220 people who viewed live content over 185,900 times!
These 2023 figures are a huge bounce back from the days of the COVID pandemic. In 2020, 74 programs were streamed by OCA Media as many events simply disappeared or evolved into virtual meetings. But just one year later, OCA Media streamed 162 programs including the Oregon School District’s performing arts and varsity sports events as well as meetings which had largely reverted to being held in-person.
Since then, the workload for OCA Media continues to increase as their small staff some days finds itself streaming as many as three events simultaneously. As programming increases, so does the reliance on technology, a fact Zwicker notes brings with it frustrations as he says encoder can often stop streaming for no apparent reason. OCA Media’s equipment arsenal currently includes three Teradek VidiU Live video streaming encoders along with several streaming-capable cameras.
While Zwicker feels that viewers do not fully understand everything that is involved in streaming content on a regular and consistent basis, he is grateful that the technology is there to allow for inexpensive and fairly consistent streaming and its due to that technology that he feels viewers have come to expect to find live local content looking as good as that coming from the broadcast networks. Zwicker marvels that OCA Media can stream as many events as it does at the excellent quality without a team of broadcast professionals.
Zwicker again credits YouTube and its readily-available viewership data for giving community media stations like OCA Media cost-effective ways to reach an ever-increasing number of viewers. In February 2024 alone, OCA Media added 118 new subscribers who viewed YouTube content over 26,000 times! Zwicker notes that is more than the total number of views during all of 2016!
Zwicker acknowledges the importance of his relationships with his video service providers Charter Spectrum and TDS, who carry OCA Media’s two channels. But the outlet that Zwicker counts on for data he can take to the bank is YouTube.
