It not “Deadliest Catch” or Oprah-worthy, but Flagler County’s government television channel is now available on U-Verse, AT&T’s new cable television networks, which serves Flagler County. The system is available from $29 a month and up. Palm Coast’s municipal access channel will soon join it.
“We’re poised to do the same any day,” Tom Hanson, who heads the Palm Coast operation, said. “It’ll be sooner than later.”
FCTV is the Flagler County government channel. PCMA is Palm Coast’s equivalent. The two carry live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of county commission, school board, Palm Coast City Council, Flagler Beach City Council and other major local government meetings in addition to county and city events, informational programs and school events. Bunnell is the exception. Bunnell recently began live-streaming the audio of its meetings.
The two systems do not, however, carry those governments’ workshop meetings, where most of the action often is. Those meetings are generally webcast live through the county’s, city’s or school board’s websites.
FCTV also carries the Florida Channel, which provides live coverage of the state legislature, state committee meetings, Florida Supreme Court proceedings and other matters of state interest.
U-verse offered in many areas of the state. U-Verse carries a special government Channel 99 that offers the television stations of numerous area governments. U-Verse subscribers in the Orlando and Daytona Beach marketing area now have the option of selecting Flagler County’s channel on U-Verse channel 99.
Brighthouse splits its government access channels in two, with Flagler, the school board and the Florida Channel appearing on Channel 198, and Palm Coast’s channel, along with Flagler Beach’s meetings, appearing on 199. Even though U-Verse will devote only one channel to government access, all feeds will still be available, even when there are overlapping meetings, as viwers will have a choice through a menu. “You have one channel with multiple government options on that one channel. That’s my understanding of how it works everywhere else across the country,” Hansen said.
“We make every effort to keep Flagler County government as transparent as possible,” County Administrator Craig Coffey said. “We have been working with U-Verse since they entered the Flagler County market to be able to provide their subscribers our county channel. We are excited to be able to offer live coverage of our meetings and other programming to more of our county residents.”
U-Verse subscribers can access Special channel 99 by selecting Government Education and Public access from the Live TV section of the main menu; by accessing the Guide and scrolling to Channel 99, or simply by entering 99 on the remote control.
A guide for weekly programming and all of the locally produced programs and meetings are available on demand on Flagler County’s website.
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