Rochester unveils new, upgraded streaming service, meeting videos on demand

ROCHESTER - The City of Rochester recently announced that GovTV, formerly known as the Rochester Government Channel, has received a major update to its video-on-demand and live-streaming services.

GovTV is the place for citizens to watch public meetings, including City Council, Public Safety, Planning Board, School Board, Police Commission, and more. The channel is available to stream live and videos are available on-demand. GovTV also features a rotating community bulletin board, public service announcements, and other special content.

According to Public Information Manager Matt Wyatt, the new website is user-friendly, and fully compatible with most desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets.

"Our mission is to make local government transparent and more accessible to the public," said Wyatt. "We recognize the need to keep up with the times... Our new website is a major upgrade for those looking to stream the meetings online at their leisure."

Wyatt says the city will continue to broadcast on Comcast and Breezeline cable services, stating "This new service is in addition to our current offerings."

Media Services Coordinator Celeste Plaia says that viewers can expect more features in the near future, including Closed Captioning for the hearing impaired. In addition, viewers will soon have the ability to tune in to GovTV on other streaming devices such as Apple TV, Roku, and Fire TV.

"Our goal is to make GovTV available on as many devices as possible so more people can have access to our content," said Plaia. "We look forward to releasing more information in the coming months."

Plaia reports that all of the GovTV upgrades have been achieved through the use of grant funding.

The new video-on-demand page is available now. Viewers are encouraged to update their bookmarks with the new URL, which can be found here.