Level Up Your Storytelling – Turn Ideas Into Impact
Level Up Your Storytelling – Turn Ideas Into Impact
DCTV has broadcast local, community-made programming in Washington, DC since 1988, when it launched under then-Mayor Marion Barry as one of the city’s first public access platforms. Today the network runs seven channels across Comcast, RCN/Astound, and Verizon FiOS, reaching nearly half a million viewers on-air and online, and it trains local creators and nonprofits in production alongside its own broadcasting. But the site behind all of that hadn’t kept pace: visitors landed on a WordPress page that then handed them off to separate Drupal pages just to watch anything, a clunky two-system relay that made a genuinely innovative organization look stuck in an earlier era of the web. DCTV needed a full overhaul, faster load times, an interface that felt like a real streaming platform, architecture that could scale as new channels and content were added, and all of it live by a fixed April 2, 2025 deadline.
Black Digital started by studying how Netflix, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime actually structure browsing and discovery, then adapted those patterns to DCTV’s own content and audience rather than importing them wholesale. The team eliminated the WordPress-to-Drupal handoff entirely, rebuilding the site as a single, fully functional WordPress platform with real backend work behind it: faster page loads, fewer rendering errors, and a more responsive experience end to end. Because DCTV needed to keep publishing new content constantly, the team also trained DCTV’s own project manager to add and manage content independently once the build was handed off, so the platform wouldn’t depend on an agency for day-to-day updates. The whole build was finished well ahead of the April 2 target, and once DCTV gave final content approval, the new site went live within 24 hours.
Public access media depends on members being able to actually use the tools available to them, and on the platform looking like it belongs in the same conversation as the streaming services people use every day. This redesign gave DCTV both: a site that finally matches the ambition of a network that’s been amplifying DC voices for nearly 40 years.
Website Redesign
Member Portal
Streaming Platform
User Research
Information Architecture
Interface Design
Development
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