Staking Out Its Corner of Web: Sam-Son Productions is Leaping into the Future With Video, Text Options.
By Steve Mocarsky, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader
Mar. 12–HAZLETON — Larger area media outlets aren’t the only sources investing big bucks to develop technologically advanced Internet offerings for an ever-changing information age in which consumers demand immediacy in their news and entertainment choices.
Sam Lesante, president of Sam-Son Productions, says he has more than $2.5 million invested in his Broad Street cable TV studio, with a sizeable chunk devoted to Internet technology.
And he plans to spend nearly another $1 million within three months on technology to further enhance media offerings for local viewers.
Lesante on Feb. 26 launched a new Web site platform with streaming video 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so people with Internet access can watch on their computers whatever is broadcast on the studio’s TV stations — Service Electric Cablevision Channel 13 in the Hazleton area and Comcast Cable Channel 7 in the Pottsville area.
The studio is also archiving its Hazleton-area noon and 5:30 p.m. newscasts and weekly TV shows so viewers can access them anytime on www.ssptv.com [http://www.ssptv.com] through a feature called “video-on-demand.”
And, like the other sources, Sam-Son is offering Web site users the ability to receive text alerts on breaking news through e-mail, cell phones or PDAs (personal digital assistants).
Viewers are responding well to the new offerings, said Tom Novotney, who Lesante hired as his chief technical officer in June.
“We just started (the new Web site) last Monday and we already got over 20,000 hits. With the old site, it took at least a month to get that many,” said Novotney, who designed the new site and oversees its operation.
Novotney also created 13Alert.com so cell phone and PDA users can view breaking news, weather, sports schedules, school delays and traffic conditions in a format specially suited for those electronic devices.
The station also purchased three high-definition video cameras so viewers with HDTVs can enjoy even sharper pictures when cable companies begin offering high-definition service on Sam-Son’s channels, said Sam Lesante Jr., Lesante Sr.’s and the station’s vice president and chief production officer.
And within a few weeks, the site will be a “one-stop shop” for all kinds of information about the Hazleton area, Lesante Jr. said.
Listings will include information on local taxes, municipal fees such as garbage collection, school information and just about anything someone who is considering moving to the Hazleton area might want to know about local life, he said.
Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 459-2005.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader
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