Channel 05 · Ownership & exit
Your channels. Your masters. Your timelines.
Every operator has a story about the agency that held the accounts, the freelancer who kept the project files, the login nobody could recover. LocationCast is structured so that story is impossible here — not by promise, but by where things live from day one.
What lives where
The inventory of yours
Channels & accounts
Created in your business’s name, under credentials you hold. The system is granted operating access; it is never the account owner. Revoke the access and the channels keep broadcasting what’s already published.
Masters
Every finished piece is delivered as a master file to your vault alongside its published copies — not streamed-only, not “available on request.”
Editable timelines
Every deliverable ships with its timeline file (OTIO/FCPXML) — the full edit, every cut placed, openable in professional editors. Your in-house person, your next vendor, or you in three years can reopen any piece and change the one thing that changed. Agencies don’t hand these over because the timeline is the lock-in. We hand them over because it isn’t ours.
The facts file
Your rate cards, offers, answers, and seasonal modules are your business records. They export with everything else, in plain formats. And they are never shared: your facts file and your call ledger teach nobody else’s content. What generalizes across groups is structure — which offer shapes ring in which trade — never your prices, towns, or numbers.
The presenter
The location’s presenter is cast and built for your brand. On exit, the rendered library is yours outright; the terms for the presenter itself are spelled out in the services agreement, in writing, before launch — not discovered at cancellation.
Leaving, described in advance
Cancel, and the flywheel stops at the end of the paid period. What’s published stays published. The final handover is an export: channels’ credential confirmation, the master library, every timeline, the facts files, and the call ledger. No exit fee for your own assets, no “migration assistance” line item, no 30-day hostage window. If a vendor’s business model needs your assets as collateral, their model is the problem this page exists to answer.
The full comparison
Four ways to run a location’s presence
Written to be fair: each column is the strongest honest version of that option. If one of the other three fits your group better, take it — the pilot will still be here when the season turns.
| Factor | Agency | AI video tools (DIY) | In-house hire | LocationCast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your weekly time | Approvals and meetings, ~2 hrs | Hours of prompting, editing, posting | Managing a hire and a standard | One interview per location, once a quarter |
| Localized per location | Shared creative, town swapped | Only as local as the hours you feed it, ×12 | Only where the hire can travel | Generated from each location’s own facts file |
| Speed to publish | 2–3 weeks typical | Same day — on the days you have time | Days, if the queue is kind | A weekly rotation, system-run |
| Always-on channel | No | No | No | 24/7 TV channel per location |
| Measured in | Impressions | Platform analytics tabs | Anecdote and effort | Tracked calls per location |
| Source timelines | Kept by the agency | Stuck in the tool’s project format | On a drive, if labeled | Handed to you with every piece |
| Failure mode | Quiet under-delivery, glossy report | The login you used twice | The resignation letter | Loud exceptions to a human operator |
| Cost shape (12 loc) | ≈ $555k/yr, counted whole (retainer + owner time, per channel 02) | Cheap licenses, expensive owner-hours | ≈ $780k/yr loaded | Per-location seat, declining with count; cohort terms at application |
Cost figures are the persona model from channel 02, assumptions shown there. LocationCast publishes no rate card during the pilot.