A year ago, if you asked me about local cable TV access, I would have said who cares, no one ever watches it. Well this is now an area that needs to be looked at. Every town has its own cable access channels. Some have more then one. They need to fill programming 24/7. In the old days this was a slate of graphics with bad music playing in the background. Today, there are all kinds of stuff on it. From local music shows, to cooking shows, to local high school sports, there is always some kind of programming on.
I believe the sudden interest in local cable TV access might be related to the success of YouTube. If you think about it they are similar.
I started thinking how I could market events through this media. Running TV spots is not the right thing to do. What if you could create a cable access show around what you are trying to promote? It could be set up like a TV talk show or a variety show. If you are an arena, you could have a weekly show that features a new show or event each week that you need to market.
The cost to produce and run these shows is very minimal. Because of the amount of programming that these access channels need, many programs are running on multiple access channels in several communities. I am on the board of my local arts center. We tape several events a year that are re-broadcasted on cable access in several communities.
We had a person come into our office about a month ago. He had created a local access show and was asking us to be a sponsor. He had already lined up several communities that had agreed to air the program. Each program could run dozens of times. The cost for the sponsorship was really low. There is still not a lot good data out there on viewership but if the program runs several times over several communities, I bet it is getting some viewership.
