Charter, ExpoTV 'Beat the Heat’

Charter Communications cable customers in St. Louis can share their favorite summer cool-down solutions with the community while the cable operator gains local user-generated content through a “Beat the Heat” sweepstakes now underway.

Consumers have been solicited to offer “videopinions” on products and services and submit them to Charter’s partner in the venture, Expo TV. Expo’s employee reviewers will vet the content for technical quality and appropriateness, then the videos will be places in the “iWant More!” destination, Channel 999, on the St. Louis system.

The content will also be available on Expo TV’s OnDemand channel and at Expo’s Web site, www.expoTV.com.

OnDemand viewers will vote for their favorite summer cool-downs through Sept. 3. A winner will be announced in mid-September, and will take home a Panasonic PV-G320 wide-screen camcorder and Power Director 5 video editing software.

Consumers have already begun submitting their top picks: One subscriber touts the cooling power of a gel-based sunburn remedy, while another man features his favorite roadside frozen custard stand.

Expo TV president Bill Hidebolt called this the first market-specific content solicitation and sweepstakes with Charter.

Expo TV also provides on-demand content for Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon Communications. In all, its content is available in 25 million video homes, Hidebolt said.

Charter is generating ad sales from the effort, placing an ad for a local Chevrolet dealer group ahead of the ad promoting the contest, Hidebolt said.