Hall County and the City of Gainesville are working to bring the public "timelier, informative and engaging" video content at their fingertips, and are shutting down The Government Channel.
"Over the past six months, we have been conducting surveys with residents to find out how they are consuming videos and what their preferences are when it comes to receiving information from their local government," Hall County Public Information Officer Katie Crumley said. "What we've learned is that typical cable service is evolving, and citizens have a desire for more online video content."
As a result, the city-county video production team will be phasing out cable broadcast and transitioning to a more online-driven video content model. In conjunction with the transition, the local government access channel (known as TV 18, the Government Channel, which is currently only available on Charter, Comcast and AT&T U-Verse) will cease to carry the TV 18 signal at midnight on Dec. 31.
"We are seeing stronger citizen engagement and viewership online, and this is an effort to meet more citizens where they are in order to keep them updated on the latest happenings within their local government," said Nikki Perry, public information officer for the City of Gainesville.
Crumley said the change will in no way compromise the City or County's ability to record government meetings and make those recordings available to the public.
"All Hall County Board of Commissioners meetings and Gainesville City Council meetings will continue to be recorded and will be available for viewing on the respective government's website," she said.
Pertinent information for both governments, including online videos, is already available online at www.hallcounty.org and www.gainesville.org as well as on both the City and County's social media pages.
"Our goal is to create timelier, relevant online video content for the citizens of this community," Perry said. "We believe this new approach will allow us to do just that."
As a result of the change, Hall County has hired Brian Stewart as its Digital Media Specialist. Stewart, a 2014 graudate of the University of Georgia, has worked for the past four and a half years as a reporter and news anchor at AccessWDUN in Gainesville. Stewart also was the host of WDUN's Afternoon News Wrap.
