There appears to be little interest in watching live streams of council meetings.
That was the indication in a memo from City marketing and communication co-ordinator Mike Halstead presented to council Dec. 9.
The memo came in response to an inquiry from Councillor Trent Houk at a previous council meeting about live-streaming. Houk had indicated there had been some interest expressed.
However, there are expenses involved. Halstead looked into the efforts at live streaming in other communities including Saskatoon, Yorkton and Kindersley, and reported back to council that monthly live streaming costs range from $50 to $625.
The more expensive package would included an embedded player on the City website as well as servicing, storage and archiving of videos. A less-expensive package would simply include a link of the City's home page to the streaming site.
As well, there would be one-time equipment costs to the City of $3,000 to $5,000 to set up the service.
Beyond that, however, there simply aren't many people interested in watching city council meetings on the Internet.
Halstead reported viewership was low everywhere. His written report noted Prince Albert had discontinued live streams after a year because of low viewership.
He told council Yorkton was receiving zero to three viewers per meeting for their live streams.
Halstead said viewership was sometimes as low as "zero" of videos of previous council meetings obtained from Access Communications and uploaded onto the City's website.
Councillor Greg Lightfoot noted anyone interested has the opportunity to come and sit in the gallery and watch any council meeting they want live.
In a newsoptimist.ca poll on the issue, 43.2 per cent of voters indicated they would tune in to live streaming, while 33.8 per cent said they had better things to do than watch live streaming on the Internet. Another 23 per cent said the current practice of uploading videos is adequate.
