Screens around a church cost two things: a small device behind each TV, bought once, and the software that puts your content on it, paid monthly or yearly. Add the two together for the rooms you actually have, and that’s your budget line. Here’s how to work it out, with the numbers for one, three and six rooms.

The two costs: the device and the software

Most churches already have the TVs. What’s missing is something behind each one that knows what to show.

The device is a one-time cost. Displayte runs on Apple TV, one per TV. An Apple TV 4K is $129. If you already have an Apple TV HD in a cupboard, that works too.

The software is the ongoing cost. Displayte is one plan: $12 a screen a month, or $10 billed yearly, which is $120 a screen a year. A screen is one Apple TV showing Displayte.

That’s the whole list: one plan, one price, with no charge per person and no higher tier holding back the features you need.

Displayte’s price calculator: $12 per screen, per month, with How many TVs? set to 3, which comes to $36 a month.

What one, three and six rooms cost

Here are the numbers on the yearly plan, with a new Apple TV 4K for every TV.

One room, like a lobby welcome screen:

  • Apple TV 4K, once: $129
  • Software: $120 a year
  • First year: $249. After that: $120 a year.

Three rooms, like the nursery, preschool and elementary rooms:

  • Three Apple TV 4Ks, once: $387
  • Software: $360 a year
  • First year: $747. After that: $360 a year.

Six rooms, like three kids’ rooms, the lobby, the café and a hallway:

  • Six Apple TV 4Ks, once: $774
  • Software: $720 a year
  • First year: $1,494. After that: $720 a year.

Paying monthly instead, the software is $12 a screen: $12, $36 or $72 a month for one, three or six TVs. Yearly saves $24 a screen a year.

Displayte’s price calculator set to Yearly: $10 per screen, per month, billed yearly ($120 a screen), with How many TVs? set to 6, which comes to $720 a year.

Another way to put it to a finance team: on the yearly plan, each room’s screen costs $10 a month, about $2.31 a Sunday.

The costs that don’t show on a price list

The price is only part of what screens cost a church. Ask about these too:

  • Charges per person. If every volunteer who changes a screen needs a paid seat, you’ll share one sign-in, and then nobody knows who changed what. Displayte has unlimited people, each with their own sign-in and the right role.
  • A computer behind each TV. Some setups need a laptop or small computer per screen. Each one is another thing to buy, update, sign into and keep from being borrowed.
  • Storage limits. Displayte gives 100 GB for every screen, shared across your church, so three screens means 300 GB for all your rooms. If you ever run out, new uploads pause until you make room or add a screen. Nothing is deleted to make room, and nothing is charged without asking.
  • Volunteer time. The real cost of a hard tool is the Saturday evening someone spends fighting it, and the Sunday morning a room shows last week’s story. A tool a first-time volunteer can use alone gives those hours back.
Displayte’s Library, with the room the church’s files take under the folders: 5 MB of 1000 GB used, from 100 GB for each of the demo church’s ten screens.

Monthly or yearly?

It’s the same plan either way. Yearly costs $24 less a screen each year; monthly asks less of the budget up front.

Either way, you choose how many screens your plan covers, and you can change that any time in Billing. Removing a TV frees its screen for another one, so moving a screen from the café to a new classroom costs nothing extra.

Every payment comes with an invoice and a receipt (PDF). Link, from Stripe, emails the receipt, and every invoice is in Billing, under Manage billing.

What happens if you stop

Budgets change. If you cancel, your screens keep playing until the end of the time you’ve paid for, then show a short notice instead of your content. Your files are kept for 30 days, then deleted. Your team, presentations and settings stay, and if you subscribe again within those 30 days, everything comes back at once.

The Apple TVs are yours either way.

Putting it in the budget

For most churches it comes down to two lines:

  1. This year, once: one Apple TV for each TV that doesn’t have one.
  2. Every year: $120 for each screen on the yearly plan, or $144 on monthly.

There’s no free plan: one plan and one price, the same for every church. You can try the whole thing first, though, without signing up.

The pricing page has a calculator for your number of TVs, and the demo is a church with six TVs already set up.