SCM Producer Newsletter

Seattle Community Media Producer Newsletter / Feb 2013

Every member of SCM is a producer, so this is for you.  We hope everyone is off to a great start for 2013.  Here are a couple items of information we wanted to get out to you. 

SCAN Donation  –  SCCtv was the very fortunate recipient of a donation from SCAN.  The funds will be put to use in both Studio B, for new LED lights and in upgrading Studio A, which is currently open as empty studio space to certified SCM producers one day a week.  Because the costs of production gear have been dropping while the quality has dramatically increased, we will be able to outfit Studio A with a light grid, LED lights and new (yet inexpensive) HD cameras. 

Series and One-Off Program Scheduling – As you likely know, producers who qualify get a regular, weekly time slot for their program as well as a couple repeat slots.  We felt it would be great to offer these producers the ability to schedule outside of their time slot other “One-Off” programs that might not fit into their Series.  Without this option, someone producing a Series focused on, say, Elephants, would have to show their special program on Tigers during the Elephant Series. 

Unfortunately, there are several producers who are abusing this option and are scheduling their regular Series programs in these time slots as well.  When scheduling using this method, you’re provided a choice of six times to choose airing your program.  These producers are also choosing to air their program all six times.  The end result is a significant increase in broadcast time for the producers doing this, which is unfair to everyone else. 

We are considering taking this option away.  We don’t have the option to take this privilege away from only the producers taking advantage of the system so it will be taken away from every producer who has a regularly scheduled time slot.  This means you will have to schedule your One-Off programs into your regularly scheduled time slots.

If you value having this option, please don’t take advantage of this nice option and encourage other producers to do the same.  The option will disappear sometime in the next month If the abuse continues.

Contact Information for Your Viewers – We get callers every so often trying to reach the producers of a show they just watched but there is no contact info during the broadcast or on the website.  We want viewers to be able to get in touch with those responsible for the programs broadcasting on SCM, the producers.  We strongly encourage but do not make it a requirement to include contact information in your program. 

Another option to make yourself available to your viewing public is on the website.  Just signing in, click on “My Profile” in the “Member Tools” box.  Once the page opens, click “Edit.”  Toward the bottom of the page you see “Contact Settings.”  Check the box next to “Personal contact form” to allow viewers to email you from your Series page.  They will not see your email address and will not receive any contact information.  You will receive any email sent.  Should you choose to reply to the viewer email, the viewer will see the email address you are replying from.   

Policies and Elections – We just wanted to point out one that we’ve updated the policies to more closely reflect how things operate at SCM. While in the process of doing this we were reviewing the policies a couple polices (federal rules) that  we thought producers should be reminded of:

     5.2.1,  The following are absolutely prohibited:

     Licensed Material: Material that is copyrighted or subject to ownership or royalty rights, union residuals, or other payment (e.g. music, written works, photographs, film, video) unless producer has obtained all necessary permission, releases, licenses and made all necessary payments to authorize televising of any such material. SCCTV may require producers to provide evidence of such payment or permission. If a copyright claim is made, the episode will be made unavailable on archive.org and will be deleted from the Seattle Community Media website and will no longer be broadcast, until proof of permission is provided to Seattle Community Media staff.

      Advertising / Commercial Endorsements: Advertising or other material that is designed to promote commercial businesses, the sale of commercial products, , or any call to action resulting in any profit for anyone involved is prohibited . This includes but is not limited to, product or business endorsements and/or service descriptions. For example: A program guest may be identified as “John Doe - Owner ABC Business Supplies” but not “John Doe, owner ABC Business Supplies, the best selection and the lowest prices in town.” To advise viewers how to get more information about program topics, program credits can include a contact name, phone number, web site or e-mail address.

And:

      5.5 Political Programming

The second paragraph states :
     Programs on Seattle Community Media cannot be used for solicitation of funds nor for political purposes. Broadcast time may not be used for political campaigning by individuals or organizations seeking public office or legislation.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Thanks,
SCM Staff