Module 68
Updated: 07/21/2004
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Religious Broadcasting
An area of broadcast television that has been rapidly growing is religious programming. This area includes over-the-air broadcasting, cablecasting, satellite-to-home distribution, and closed-circuit and instructional programming.
The Catholic Church has the largest radio and TV broadcast system. However, the various fundamentalists Christian groups constitute the largest block of broadcast outlets.
Most of the fundamentalist TV ministries depend upon viewer contributions for their survival. Although various scandals within these TV ministries hurt funding for some time, revenues have recently rebounded, and this is an area of broadcasting that is seeing rapid growth.
At the same time, many cable and satellite shun religious broadcast programming because they are not backed by the huge media conglomerates that can provide financial incentives. There is also the fact that most religious programming does not contain "slots" for inserting local commercials, which provides additional revenue for the cable and satellite providers that deliver the programming.
Sky AngelIn 1996, Robert Johnson saw the problem of getting religious programming distributed on cable channels. To get around some of these problems he launched Sky Angel on the EchoStar III satellite. Soon he was leasing satellite transponder space to 20 inspirational television networks ad 16 radio channels.
Many viewers like the fact that once they install the equipment and sign up, that they find themselves in an "inspirational broadcast world," largely shielded from programming they may find objectionable.
Sky Angel uses DISH Network's uplink facility in Cheyenne, Wy., and those who wish to view these channels must install an 18-inch dish and pay $120.00 annually.
Recently, DISH tried to add two religious networks to their service, Daystar and FamilyNet. DISH said they had to comply with federally mandated requirements in the matter. However, Sky Angel sued, saying that it had the legal right to be the exclusive carrier of most of DISH's religious programming. Subsequently, a federal judge ordered DISH to drop Daystar and FamilyNet.
Sky Angel has announced plans to bypass the DISH uplink facility and build its own $25 million uplink base in Florida. It also wants to launch its own satellite in 2006, which would expand its channel capacity.
The table below lists some of the most popular outlets for faith-based and inspirational broadcasting.
N/A 11,500,000 500,000 50,000,000 36,000,000 12,000,000 6,000,000 6,000,000 3,000,000 1,500,000 73,000,000 80,000,000 20,000,000 6,500,000 66,000,000
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