With the help of generous donations, Easton Legacy Fund aims to help Easton not-for-profits support and give back to the town through various projects. Below, we highlight Easton Community Access Television (ECAT), which we feel is a strong consideration for future Legacy Fund grants.
Easton Community Access Television (ECAT)
50 Oliver Street, North Easton | Visit Site
Founded in 2010, Easton Community Access Television (ECAT) is a non-profit, multi-channel media organization with television production facilities located at 50 Oliver Street, Suite 201A in North Easton, Massachusetts.
ECAT is an educational resource and provider of community programming that helps residents, government, schools, and community organizations of Easton produce and share their stories and events with the worldwide Easton community.
ECAT’s mission is to develop and produce educational, cultural, and informational community programs for the Town of Easton and to provide an electronic forum for the free exchange of information and ideas that reflect the talents, interests, concerns, and diversity of its residents.
Moreover, ECAT produces a weekly half-hour news program, livestreams the town’s government boards and committees, covers many local events, and livestreams most home high school varsity sports games.
Easton residents and business owners are encouraged to create their own television programs and have their voices heard. Programs can be developed without the requirement of any technical skills.
ECAT provides free one-on-one training in all aspects of media production for all ages and provides week-long workshops on filmmaking for middle school students during school breaks.
ECAT holds two annual film festivals in our efforts to encourage creativity and to inspire an interest in media. The high school competition, the Hockomock Film Festival, encourages students to be creative, have fun, and work collaboratively to create unique films. After a panel of judges reviews the films and determines the winners, ECAT holds an awards ceremony featuring the winning films and their creators who receive cash prizes supplied by cultural councils and supportive individuals and businesses.
ECAT’s “Film Sprint” allows participants of all ages to work together to create films in the space of 48 hours with a randomly selected theme and prop. It is followed by a public gathering for a screening to celebrate the creativity of the Easton community.
ECAT’s programming is shared on four channels. Community events, concerts, and residents’ programs can be viewed on our Public Channel, Comcast 9, and Verizon 22. School events, concerts, sports, and the Oliver Ames High School News can be viewed on their Education Channel, Comcast 97, and Verizon 23. Live-streamed government board and committee meetings, live-streamed Town Meetings, and information relating to town government are on the Government Channel, Comcast 98, and Verizon 22. The Essentials Channel on Comcast 1072 and Verizon 2122 includes the highlights of our recent programs as well as original programs which the leadership believes are essential viewing.
Furthermore, all of ECAT’s channels can also be viewed live on their website, eastoncat.org. In addition, all of their programs are available on demand on eastoncat.org and YouTube.
ECAT is funded through cable franchise fees paid by Easton’s cable subscribers. Because each year more cable subscribers are canceling their subscriptions, ECAT is increasingly in need of community donations and financial support for its programs.
In the future ECAT’s vision is to modernize its main studio and podcast studio as well as government meeting sites to better facilitate productions that are both in-person and remote.
ECAT has seen increased demand for its programs especially with the changing media landscape post Covid.