TWC Leverages Local Programming to Give Back to the Community
High Schoolers Rewarded for Both Sports and Academics
At Time Warner Cable, we understand how important high school sports are to our customers, and in turn, local sports provide us an avenue to make a stronger connection to each community we serve. We operate seven regional sports channels across our footprint that are exclusive to our customers, and through these channels we focus on content like high schools sports that fans cannot find anywhere else on TV. Because of this connection, high school sports also give us a platform to give back to the local schools we promote through programming.
Each year, we organize a series of “Play of the Year” contests through each TWC SportsChannel for different high school sports seasons, including football and basketball. For example, during this past high school football season, fans in each region were able to vote on a featured high school football play from each week, and the winning school was awarded a $1,000 donation to their athletics department courtesy of Time Warner Cable. Currently in Wisconsin, we are featuring a “Play of the Year” contest for fans to vote on their favorite high school basketball play, and the winning school will receive a similar donation. These are just a few examples of the many ways Time Warner Cable supports local high school athletics.
We also use our TWC SportsChannels to showcase high school athletes in the classroom as well as on the field. In 2014, we organized a Time Warner Cable Scholar Athlete awards program in Central Texas, featuring a high school athlete each week on TWC SportsChannel that also excels academically. We then organized a social media campaign to promote each athlete and encouraged fans to vote for their favorite scholar athlete online. At the end of the campaign, Time Warner Cable hosted a reception in Austin awarding 26 students with a $1,000 scholarship, and the overall winning athlete was awarded an additional $1,000 scholarship with their school receiving a $5,000 grant.
Ryan Kelly, Communications Manager at Time Warner Cable, oversees media relations for all our regional TWC SportsChannels, and is also involved in organizing social media campaigns. His efforts have generated strong participation in each regional contest, utilizing traditional media and social media to connect the community with our philanthropic efforts. Plus, Ryan works with the various school districts to find additional ways to promote their high school athletics programs and their scholar athletes both through media coverage and additional promotion on our TWC SportsChannels.
Customers can find our TWC SportsChannels in these regions:
- New York
- Ohio
- North and South Carolina
- Nebraska
- Kansas City
- Eastern Wisconsin
- Texas