This month we had the opportunity to interview Jeff Pepper, Founder and CEO of Touchtown. Jeff explained that the television and communication needs and desires of members of senior communities are different than other types of private television systems (such as hospitality TV), which creates new challenges and revenue opportunities.
Senior living community residents may pay for their television programming directly to a local television provider (satellite, cable, or IPTV) or the facility may obtain the programming at a wholesale rate (obtaining discounts) and resell the services to the residents. While senior living television systems can generate revenue from programming services, Jeff explained that the key value of these systems is for community content distribution and interaction. Senior living television and media systems can help facilities increase their

Senior living television systems can simplify and unify residents in the ways that communities share information. They can be used to coordinate announcements (such as trips, birthday parties, or dining menus). These announcements can be entered into the media system once and distributed to all the televisions in the facility.
Figure 1 shows how complicated and resource intensive information distribution can be in senior living facilities. One system may be used to send announcements (such as menus) to televisions. Another system can be used to produce and print schedules which are distributed to residents. Another system posts messages on a bulletin board. A separate system requires that new information be continually entered into a web site

Figure 1, The Hard Way to Share Information
Source: Touchtown

Touchtown determined that what senior living facilities need is an integrated television and web distribution system. To simplify the creation of senior community programming, Touchtown has created a simple editing system that can select from a set of media templates. The media is distributed through dedicated community TV channels and to the community web sites.

Some of the television channels distributed in the facility are created and managed by the senior living facility. This enables residents to have and produce their own channels. They can create their own TV shows, and share their videos or photos. The Touchtown system even has the ability to stream the community channels to the web site to allow family members to see, share, and interact

Touchtown provides the TV+ production equipment that automates the formatting, scheduling, and distribution of the media. The system can merge private channel television with interactive web portals. It supports discussion forums, activity planners, announcements, news, dining menus, and maintenance requests. The Touchtown system can insert the brand on the community TV and digital signage channels.

In addition to the better life this system provides senior living residents, it also reduces the need for information displays (bulletin boards) and materials (flyers and schedule lists) which saves administrative staff and printing costs.
 

Figure 2 shows how a unified communication system can simplify and improve television and media distribution in senior living facilities. This system requires information to be entered in one location which can be converted and distributed into many formats. Announcements and media can be sent to televisions, schedules can be printed when needed, digital signage can be sent to displays throughout the facility, web sites can be automatically updated, and emergency notification systems can be setup.

Another potential source of revenue for senior living facilities is television advertising revenue. Jeff explained that senior living facilities have been slow to adopt or use local advertising and providers tend to reject advertising sponsored and television commerce programs. Caretakers are concerned about increasing advertising pressure on residents. He stressed that less than 1% of the senior living facility customers he works with offer local advertising services.

Jeff explained that Touchtown is continually improving its system. Touchtown is reviewing additional sources of programming, such as health related videos, to continue to build on the success of their senior living television and web systems.

For more information you can visit www.touchtown.us or call Touchtown at 412-826-0460.

Figure 2, Touchtown Unified Television System
Source: Touchtown