Hope you enjoyed our video! Now to the why’s and how’s……
Why does keeping the Community Channel matter?
Put simply, it is the only channel that turns viewing into doing. That’s why Community Channel continues to change countless lives right across the UK.
In the last five years Community Channel has trained, filmed, showcased and resourced nearly 4,000 charities, and the channel has tripled its advertising, sponsorship and partnership income to over £300,000.
During the same period the channel has grown its annual audience from four million to over ten million unique viewers, plus tens of thousands more online and on-demand.
And that’s important, because only one in eight people can name two or more local charities. With all the great work happening right across the UK, it’s vital that charities, communities and individuals have the opportunity to share their stories and get their positive messages heard.
But it’s better than that, with our viewers telling us they are being inspired to drive real social impact. A million people a year now do more for others
thanks to the channel (based on external research surveys of over 1,000 people).
Media can change lives!
Community Channel is the UK’s only TV channel dedicated to telling the stories of those brilliant people who make our communities better for us all. The stories of the charities that bind us together as a society. Your stories.
Community Channel’s viewers are the backbone of the UK: a diverse mix of community-minded, mainstream men and women from across our four nations.
And thanks to Community Channel, we can access these stories for free, 24/7 across all the major TV platforms in 26 million UK homes, streamed and available on-demand. In 2015 ten million people like you tuned in. (BARB 3min+ viewing, for more information visitwww.barb.co.uk).
There is no other channel in the UK that exists solely to showcase social good and inspire the public to generate positive social impact. We have shown that media can be a powerful force for change and the common good.
Now is the time to harness that passion, build on it and inspire even more people. So join together with people from across our four nations to become our stewards, our advocates and supporters. We believe the future is exciting and bold.
And we want you to be part of it.
What our viewers say
It’s not just us saying it…
Here are just a few of the things our viewers have told us:
“It is a hidden gem! More promotion of this channel is a must!”
“Please keep sharing the wonderful positive stories!”
“Always surprises me with some programme that I don’t necessarily expect to interest me, so thanks for giving that for us lucky viewers!:-)”
“It makes me want to help.”
“I love the channel, it inspires and enriches, programmes remind that we are all ultimately the same no matter race or creed…it’s inspired and helped me engage with people and the community after a period of isolation and illness.”
““It makes me feel humble, and that we all take too much for granted.”
“I love the channel. I wish I’d found it sooner.”
“To be inspired, to get involved and make it happen, I want to be involved and make a difference to my community and country.”
“I see the world differently now. I have made many new friends in the last year of volunteering, and seeing them makes the world a brighter place. I have encouraged others to do more by watching Community Channel and getting involved in local projects, and they have had a positive on their lives and others.”
“Keep up the good work. TV is an excellent medium for allowing people to make a difference.”
“I simply love the Community Channel!”
There are lots more quotations and case studies, from charities, communities, filmmakers and viewers, in the Business Plan below.
So, what’s the story?
Communications charity Media Trust founded and has run the channel for sixteen years as a wholly-owned subsidiary. But now the channel needs to fly the nest and become independent. With your support, it can.
We want to be a channel of the community, by the community and for the community – independent, creatively renewed, and committed to being not-for-profit.
By becoming a Community Benefit Society (designated as an organisation that conducts business for the benefit of the community) and issuing community shares, we aim to raise at least £300,000 to secure and grow Community Channel for future generations.
But why become a Community Benefit Society?
We have given much-needed profile and coverage to thousands of communities and charities during the past sixteen years.
But now it is time to hand the channel over to the people that benefit from it and watch it! We want you to be closer to the channel and we want the channel to be closer to the people it serves, more accountable to the community and dedicated to fulfilling its goal of mobilising people across the UK to do more in the community for themselves and for others.
Over the next five years the channel will become self-financing as it grows advertising, sponsorship and grant income and launches new revenue streams.
Investment will help enable the channel to do this.
The vision is to think bigger than television, to continue to grow the TV audience and, alongside this, launch digital and social media services that connect more closely to our supporters and viewers, creating meaningful engagement.
The opportunity is there to launch a reinvigorated Community Channel that can grow significantly over the next five years. Join us and be a part of its success.
What do I get as an investor?
By investing you will become a co-owner of a channel that inspires good, and the first social investor and owner of a TV channel in the UK ever.
As an investor, big or small, you will have the right to elect board directors who will oversee Community Channel. Your ownership will guarantee that the channel will always be focused on it’s mission to drive social impact.
And, depending on the reward level you choose when you invest, you can get your hands on some amazing extras, from a limited edition t-shirt and access to events to on-air thank you, programme consultations, voicing a season and helping develop new shows for the channel.
Rewards (see full list on the right) are limited, so make sure to get in quick!
How will the money be used?
The money raised will help cover costs while a team is built, develop new digital platforms and grow the audiences, income and impact across TV, digital and social platforms. It will enable the channel to boost existing income and launch new income streams to sustain us in the long-term.
Financial and strategic plans have been developed that builds a sustainable income from advertising, partnerships and grant funding over the next five years. Priorities are to:
- Grow TV: Ensure this unique TV channel continues to grow its audience and impact, increases its income and engages people right across the UK.
- Grow Digital: Investing in online and mobile – including launching new responsive websites, a new video offer, new distribution partnerships with leading catch-up services and potentially launching a social good newswire – further increasing audience engagement and social action.
- Grow Income: Developing new income streams from digital advertising, running our own lottery and securing new grant partnerships. We will become a talent incubator for diverse and underserved communities and young people, a training ground for people to go into the media industry.
- Strengthen Partnerships: Strengthening our partnerships across the media industry, charity partners, funders and sponsors.
- Refresh the brand: During the first year we will rebuild the brand from the ground up, refreshing it for the multi-platform and multi-device world, reaching into every UK home.
For more detail, please see our business plan.
Can anyone buy shares?
Yes! That’s the amazing thing about our community share offer: it’s for everyone! You can buy shares from anywhere in the world, as long as you’re over 16. For every £50 you invest, you get 1 share, with a minimum investment of just £50. We’re going to apply for Social Enterprise Tax Relief, which, if we’re successful, will mean that for every £100 you invest, you can claim £30 of tax relief (for the first £270,000 of investors).
If the campaign is successful, the precise amount of investment that we can offer this is capped according to a formula determined by the EU. At the start of the offer, this is around £260,000 but if it is available, tax relief will be on a first-come first-serve basis up to a total of the equivalent of 344,000 Euros on the day the shares are issued.
However, this is not guaranteed as if this is not granted by HMRC then you will not be able to claim this tax relief on their investment.
Each investor can invest anywhere from £50 to £100,000. We are offering investor rewards (on the right hand side) at various levels between £50 and £50,000.
FAQs
The Business Plan answers questions such as How much investment is being raised? What happens if we overfund? How do I buy shares? Can I make any money? Can I sell my shares?
For these and more please see the business plan section 2 – Community Shares – how it works.
Important Documents
Business Plan
Community Channel Constitution
We will be trailblazers – the first people-owned TV brand for social impact
Risk Warning: Funding pitches through Crowdfunder.co.uk carries some risk. There is no guarantee for members making donations that any reward offered will be delivered. Equally, when members invest in community shares the capital they invest is at risk and they may not get back what they put in. Rewards based crowdfunding and the sale of community shares are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, nor covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Click here to read more about the risks.