OUTV, a cable television show produced by students and staff alike at Oakland University, may have dissolved at the dawn of COVID-19, but its alumni are still striving in the industry they broke into while at OU.
The list of successful OUTV alumni includes Charlie Tinker of NewsNet and a litany of others. Although none may have gone “Hollywood,” as Horatiu Zglimbea puts it, the influence of OUTV is still felt on airwaves throughout Michigan.
Zglimbea is the video production coordinator within OU’s Video Services, the same department that produced OUTV for over 20 years. Today, it is tasked with producing videos for clients, which consists mostly of university groups and admin.
“It’s always a grind,” Zglimbea said. “You get done with one project, there’s always another project. Since COVID, everyone wants video now.”
The videos seen on any OU site or around campus are done by the Video Services department. However, the essence of OUTV is still found in some of the department’s other work.
“We try to cover the local events with our two student [positions],” Zglimbea said. “It’s usually bigger events like SPB, and they’ll cover them b-roll-wise, and maybe do interviews.”
This mic-in-hand coverage is reminiscent of OUTV but is presented in a different format. It ultimately amounts to social media features that would be posted to platforms like Instagram or TikTok.
Video Services has also established a podcast studio, which can be booked for various rates, and is also reminiscent of the department’s time with OUTV.
“There’s a different way in which we have kind of evolved it, and it’s not so much OUTV, but it’s more do-it-yourself,” Zglimbea said. “That’s kind of where we can have that same [idea]. It’s not a place where we create content and put it on the web, but allow people to use that space and create their own content.”
Creating this space allows student programming to be produced for more modern suites, with the advent of social media and platforms such as YouTube. OUTV, being a public, education and government access (P.E.G.) channel exclusively broadcasted on Comcast, saw diminishing viewership and market share.
“It’s hard when you’re competing with Netflix and other services, everyone’s streaming now,” Zglimbea said. “No one’s really watching you.”
Although Zglimbea does not see a channel such as OUTV happening again soon, several changes would need to occur for a possible reboot to obtain success.
“It would have to be in line with things like your streaming [services],” Zglimbea said. “It would have to be all-out. It’s hard to retain that viewership, especially when you’re making stuff that is specifically about OU and what’s going on on campus.”
Despite the departure from OUTV, the spirit of the channel lives on through Video Service’s efforts at student involvement and its newly-added podcast studio.
For more information on OU’s Video Services department, please visit the OU webpage to learn about the opportunities and services they provide.
