Council spends €36,488.95 to webcast meetings but is anybody is watching?

Fingal County Council will spend €36,488 this year to broadcast 120 hours of council meetings on the Internet. The information was supplied in response to a question I had about the cost of webcasting the monthly council meetings, the various local area meetings and the number of viewers they attracted.

This works out at €304 per hour. Bear in mind that the figure given is just the cost of the contract with the UK company that handle the webcasting. There are council staff costs that are not included such as the cost of operating the equipment and preparing the meetings. 

 The number of viewers does not seem to justify the cost of webcasting the meetings. Viewership was higher last year because of the local elections. However, the last three council meetings averaged 131 viewers and as each takes 3 hours, the cost of webcasting is €912 per meeting or almost €7 per viewer.

I’m quite sure many of these are council and oireachtas staff watching it at their desks as well as those journalists, who rarely seem to go to the actual meetings anymore. This is a real shame as the webcasts only pick up the person talking and often miss interjections from other councillors. For example during the county development plan the Labour Party councillors called a three minute recess to decide how they would vote on a motion to dezone land back to green belt in the Liffey Valley. They split their vote and the motion was defeated but viewers and journalists looking on had no idea what had happened.

The viewing figures will be particularly disappointing to those councillors who constantly put down motions that are not relevant to council business and then indulge in long windy speeches as if they were going out live on sky news. Could it be that they are really only talking to their own supporters.”

Fingal County Council Meeting 

12^th April, 2010

Item No. 20

Question:  Councillor K. Dennison

“To ask the Manager the cost of webcasting;

(a)        Council Meetings and Local Area Meetings and

(b)       indicate the average number of viewers for the monthly Council Meeting and for the various local area meetings?”

Reply:

The annual licence cost for webcasting for the year 1^st March 2010 to 28^th February, 2011 is €36,488.95.  This sum covers 120 hours of live broadcasting monitored by Public I, hosting of archives and maintenance and replacement of hardware as required.

Below is a table showing the number of viewers of the County Council Meetings and Area Committee Meetings

Date of Meeting	Title	Viewers
9th March 2009	Monthly County Council Meeting	438
12th March 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services A	219
26th March 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services B	221
9th April 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services A	245
15th April 2009	Monthly County Council Meeting	371
23rd April 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services B	260
7th May 2009	Castleknock/Mulhuddart Services B	147
11th May 2009	Monthly County Council Meeting	273
14th May 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services A	263
28th May 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services B	256
6th June 2009	Local Election Count	1938
19th June 2009	Annual Meeting	386
13th July 2009	Monthly County Council Meeting	415
10th September 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services	226
14th September 2009	Monthly County Council Meeting	499
24th September 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services B	155
8th October 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services A	135
12th October 2009	Monthly County Council Meeting	284
22nd October 2009	Castleknock/Mulhuddart Services A	120
22nd October 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services B	84
9th November 2009	Monthly County Council Meeting	309
12th November 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services A	88
26th November 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services B	135
3rd December 2009	Castleknock/Mulhuddart Services B	102
10th December 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services A	91
14th December 2009	Monthly County Council Meeting	202
15th December 2009	Balbriggan/Swords Services B	93
15th December 2009	Castleknock/Mulhuddart Services A	70
7th January 2010	Annual Budget Meeting	214
11th January 2010	Monthly County Council Meeting	169
13th January 2010	Castleknock/Mulhuddart Services B	104
14th January 2010	Balbriggan/Swords Services A	128
4th February 2010	Castleknock/Mulhuddart Services B	58
8th February 2010	Monthly County Council Meeting	119
11th February 2010	Balbriggan/Swords Services A	111
16th February 2010	Special County Council Meeting – Works Programmes 2010	45
18th February 2010	Special Meeting Castleknock/Mulhuddart Services B	75
23rd February 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	262
24th February 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	183
25th February 2010	Castleknock/Mulhuddart Services A	62
25th February 2010	Balbriggan/Swords Services B	69
26th February 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	99
2nd March 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	160
3rd March 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	383
8th March 2010	Monthly County Council Meeting	105
9th March 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	178
10th March 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	197
11th March 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	223
12th March 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	138
15th March 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	126
16th March 2010	Draft Development Plan Meeting	181
25th March 2010	Balbriggan/Swords Services B	173