Spreading the Word

About 82 percent of Americans consider themselves Christians, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life; the growing Hispanic population in this country has strong religious underpinnings; and the leading Christian networks offer their programming to the network operators that distribute it for free, so it would seem telcos getting into TV have nothing to lose and everything to gain from adding a little Amen! to their program lineups.

And that’s just what they’re doing, according to Bob Higley, vice president of affiliate sales and marketing at TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network), the highest-rated faith-based channel in America.

EWTN’s Chris Wegemer

The TBN flagship station offers kids’ programs, talk shows, church services, music, movies, and occasional on-site coverage of major events like Billy Graham crusades. TBN also has four digital stations, which offer more specialized programming.

JCTV is targeted at the 13- to 29-year-old set and offers music videos featuring Christian artists and extreme sports. Smile of a Child, launched on Christmas Eve, presents Christian-themed cartoons and puppet shows for the 2- to 12-year-old age group. The Church Channel is a multidenominational religious network featuring round-the-clock church services. There’s also a Spanish-language version of TBN called enlace USA, which Higley says launched in the United States in 2002 after TBN noticed Hispanics were the largest minority group listed in the 2000 census.

TBN, which is owned by nonprofit Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, Calif., offers all of the above for free to distributors. TBN’s costs are paid for by money made during two annual viewer fundraising drives.

Today, the flagship TBN station reaches a third of its 95 million households through broadcast and the other two-thirds through cable and DBS.

Now, in addition to working with the DBS operators and major MSOs, TBN has deals in place with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. These telco TV outfits are welcome additions, Higley happily notes, because they were willing to accept all of TBN’s digital networks — and to make all of that programming available to end users. The cable and DBS companies, meanwhile, “cherry pick from our programming,” saying they don’t have the channel space to run TBN’s full suite of programming, Higley notes. “As Verizon is the first out of the gate, they’ve made good on their promise,” he continues. “Every new city that they start their service carries all of our networks, which is great because the cable companies will give you a hunting license. They’ll say ‘OK, we’ll sign your contract, but we’re not going to guarantee it’s going to get added anywhere unless that local system wants it.’”

In addition to getting distribution for its digital programming through telcos and others, TBN broadcasts its digital channel through multicast free over the air in 20 markets and plans to bring it to 15 to 20 more markets using this medium. Many TBN shows also are available for download via the organization’s Web site. Higley says TBN archives popular shows like “Praise the Lord” for 30 days on its Web site.

The Daystar Television Network, headquartered in Dallas/Fort Worth, is another nonprofit religious programmer. But it’s smaller and hasn’t been around quite as long as TBN and the other major U.S. Christian network, the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) — Global Catholic Network, also a nonprofit.

EWTN, started in 1981 in a garage by a nun named Mother Angelica (who for years hosted EWTN’s most popular show, but at 83 now is retired), serves 125 million homes worldwide, most of which are in the United States, says Chris Wegemer, vice president of marketing.

Today, EWTN — which has nearly 5,000 affiliates including all of the top MSOs in the United States and Canada — offers Mother Angelica reruns along with a broad range of other programming genres including documentaries, movies, news, kids’ shows and major church events such as appearances of the Pope.

A sister network provides a Spanish-language version EWTN in various Spanish-speaking countries, says Wegemer, but now EWTN is looking to create a special network targeted specifically at Hispanics living in the United States.

EWTN also has English- and Spanish-language radio networks, concentrated mostly on Englishand Spanish-speaking countries, delivered over AM/FM, by Sirius Satellite and via streaming.

To read about how various religious groups are using cell phones to commune with the god of their choice, see "A New Calling" in the Added Insight section of xchange.