The number of viewers watching council meetings over the Internet has steadily dropped since the initiative was introduced last September.
According to statistics from meetings between Nov. 5 to Dec. 3, 2012, there were 40 unique live viewers on Nov. 5, 18 on Nov. 19, 21 on Nov. 26 and only 14 on Dec. 3.
A unique live viewer is considered to be one computer streaming the meeting.
While the numbers were low for the live broadcast, they jumped significantly in the agenda items viewed category.
After the meeting, the video is broken into segments, allowing residents to watch only the agenda items in which they are interested. Each click is counted as one view, even if someone watches the same clip over and over again from the same computer.
The number of items viewed range from 957 for the Nov. 19 meeting to 89 for the Nov. 26 meeting.
Council members were generally pleased with the added chance to reach out to the public, but Mayor Ted Adlem noted it is still too early to determine whether or not the project is considered successful.
“It’s still pretty new,” he said, adding most people Few resiestill aren’t aware of the service.
The district has increased its budget for webcasting to $21,700 annually in order to broadcast all council meetings through a secure audio/video feed, and archive the material using a data storage facility in Canada which adheres to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act as required by municipal governments.