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Home My WebLink AboutIR 189 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 22-189 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council December 6, 2022 Page 1 of 4 i i7 Y SUBJECT: UPDATE ON BROADCASTING OF CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS rFrn Yg7'3 This informal report will provide an update on the various ways residents can view City Council meetings. For residents who can't attend our City Council meetings in person, we have a variety of ways they can view the meetings remotely. Website — fortworthtexas.gov: Live- We have added an alert at the top of the homepage that will take viewers to the live stream of the Council meeting. This alert is active while the meeting is live. Viewers can also reach the livestream on the FWTV webpage, fortworthtexas.gov/FWTV. This can be watched on any device that can reach the internet. w A o .4-1}4\•rdY*rad 1141r41•cti-�•4+ iuuter!wr Y VL4,} �Mruru�ftirvgyr{tr,KvK t.. Recorded- All meetings are recorded and stored in our video library. Links for each meeting can be shared and they are linked to the meeting agenda to make it easy for find particular agenda items on the video. Fart Worth Television(FWTV) `r Ydea Ulxary �rW ry nm y�r�-a.rrarrr r.r��xr r:r4�r�.• .iii.41r1 N.w o�� _..4" - s - ice• ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 22-189 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council December 6, 2022 Page 2 of 4 i i7 Y SUBJECT: UPDATE ON BROADCASTING OF CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS rFrn Yg7'3 Cable Television: Meetings are available on local cable providers. Spectrum/Charter: 190; One Source: 7; Verizon: 5; AT&T Uverse: 99*. Cable access is important for a portion of our community. Although access to these platforms is currently free, we have been notified that some of the cable providers will begin charging for access. City leadership has made the commitment to maintain this service. YouTube: We carry City Council meetings live on YouTube. Intended for longer form video, YouTube allows residents to react, share, and comment during the stream. Residents can watch without an account. https://www.youtube.com/(a)citvoffortworth Facebook: We began carrying meetings on Facebook in 2020. We experienced some technical issues with Facebook Live and it required a staff member to continuously monitor and troubleshoot for the entire broadcast. New equipment allows us to easily stream on both Facebook and YouTube. Although we don't currently use Facebook Live for our meetings, we do put a notice on our Facebook page during meetings. This provides a link to the livestream on our website, similar to the alert we have on the website. Best practices show that the Facebook platform is not intended for long-form video, but is better suited for shorter videos, like those you see on Facebook Reels. YouTube is a better platform for medium to longer form videos and Twitter and Facebook are used for shorter updates. This may be why many of our peers do not use Facebook Live for meetings, particularly lengthy ones. During the break in using Facebook Live, staff reached out to other cities to see if any were using Facebook Live for their meetings. Cities who use Facebook live to broadcast meetings: Plano, Flower Mound, San Angelo Cities who do not use Facebook live to broadcast meetings — but do use YouTube: Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Lubbock, Amarillo, Sugarland When staff spoke with the other cities, they asked for the pros and cons for using Facebook Live for these meetings. These are some of the comments we received: Pro: It is a good way to spread the news or council initiatives. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 22-189 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council December 6, 2022 Page 3 of 4 i i7 Y SUBJECT: UPDATE ON BROADCASTING OF CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS rFrn Yg7'3 Con: We used to live stream our meetings on Facebook and found it was a bit hectic/counter productive with the comments which often didn't relate to the meetings — experienced a lot of noise. Con: Councilmembers might be tempted to watch the Facebook live stream during the meeting and live public comments in the thread could prove problematic in some way for items that are being voted on that night (obviously we hope this would never happen, but it was a concern we discussed. Con: Make sure your elected and appointed officials do not hop on the feed during the meeting. When we first started having the technical issues on Facebook, we reached out to our Facebook representative and they recommended using Facebook Live for shorter meetings where there was live interaction with viewers. An example would be the budget meetings where residents can submit questions during the meeting and they were answered live. We have continued to use Facebook Live for these types of meetings. For now, we have stopped carrying the meetings on Facebook and have placed a message on the City's Facebook page directing people to the other channels. Another suggestion we received was to set up a separate Facebook page for FWTV to carry meetings. This would allow our meeting content to be carried on the platform, while not diluting traditional Facebook messaging. In May, we established this Facebook page if we decide to use this option. If we broadcast our meetings on Facebook, the City will need to add a disclaimer, such as warnings about the accuracy or reliability of information posted by external parties and that the comments are subject to public information laws. It should be noted that a live stream on Facebook of a Council meeting is not considered an extension of the public meeting being held, meaning that Councilmembers could not engage in commenting on the Iivestream because those comments must be made in the actual meeting where a quorum of the Council is present. This information may be shared in the disclaimer so that people are aware that they need to contact Councilmembers directly with their concerns rather than expecting a response in the comments. Additional opportunities: We are continuing to look for ways to add a Roku and Apple TV app to carry our meetings and programming. We are also exploring Android TV and Amazon Fire as options. This would allow us to have additional live-streaming platforms and on-demand content. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 22-189 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council December 6, 2022 Page 4 of 4 i i7 Y SUBJECT: UPDATE ON BROADCASTING OF CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS rFrn Yg7'3 Expanding and Improving Content: We recognize that we need to find new and creative ways to share city information using digital formats. We are expanding our short videos that we share on social media so we can continue to reach this audience with city information. To make sure residents know all the ways they can watch our meetings and other programs, we will continue to share this viewing information on the website and with our weekly Council preview story in City News. Please feel free to direct all questions to Michelle Gutt, Communications & Public Engagement Director at michelle.gutt(a)fortworthtexas.gov or 817-392-6248. David Cooke City Manager ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS