Nets Seek and Find Digital Calling
From High-Definition to High Costs, DTV’s Impact Is a Mixed Bag
By Tim Kridel -- Multichannel News, 10/28/2007 8:00:00 PM
February 2009’s digital-TV transition deadline will certainly impact religious networks, but whether the effect will be positive or negative remains unclear.
One concern for programming is that the cost of upgrading a station for digital, let alone high definition, can be prohibitively expensive.
“When you look at independent stations and small group owners, you do see a disturbing number that have sold, both secular and religious, due to the disproportionate cost DTV has levied against their bottom lines,” said Garth Coonce, president of Total Christian Television.
The sell-outs have been underway for at least a decade. In 1997, Kansas City Youth for Christ sold KYFC-TV to Paxson Communications for $16.4 million.
More recently, New Life Evangelistic Center sold its Jefferson City, Mo., station to Christian Television Network, partly to help finance digital upgrades to its St. Louis station. The $3.25 million sale closed in June 2007.
“I’ve seen a lot of religious stations sell to secular groups because they’ve had to go digital,” said Larry Rice, founder and director of New Life Evangelistic Center. “Pax picked up quite a few because of that.”
On the flip side, Rice sees digital opportunities as secular stations look for programming to fill their multicast channels. Currently, many secular stations fill that space with weather programming, such as NBC Weather Plus, but that accounts for only one channel.
“I think the second channel might be wide open for religious broadcasters,” Rice said.
EXPANDING MINISTRIES
By going on secular stations’ multicast channels, Rice can expand his ministry into markets where he doesn’t own stations. And digital expands the coverage areas of his seven low-power stations in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. “We’re putting those into digital, and they’ll become quite powerful stations,” Rice said.
Multicasting also offers an opportunity for faith-based networks to reach beyond their core audiences, something some are already doing today. One example is Rice’s Missouri Renewable Energy show, which helps his ministry catch the attention of channel surfers who otherwise might skip past a religious station. Although the show currently is available on the main feed of Rice’s St. Louis station and via cable retransmission in distant markets such as Columbia, Mo., Missouri Renewable Energy is the kind of outside-the-box programming that’s a potential fit for multicasting.
“We’re got a whole new audience niche with our renewable energy programming,” Rice said. “We’ve been able to bring in new people instead of just traditionally religious folks. I don’t know where people got the idea that renewable energy should be just for people in the New Age movement.”
At the same time DTV promises more opportunities for a wider range of faith-based programming, broadband continues to grow as an alternative to telecasting.
“The Web has emerged as a viable platform for short-form video news from Israel,” said Shalom TV chief operating officer Bradford Hammer. “These packages, either self-produced or culled from existing news services in that country, are now showcased on several sites, as well as being available via e-mail.”
BIGGER AUDIENCES?
Another DTV-related opportunity is buying secular stations that couldn’t afford digital upgrades — something that Trinity Broadcast Network is considering. (See Q&A with TBN’s Paul Crouch Jr., page 17) That strategy also could help some religious networks reach a wider audience.
For example, suppose that a religious network buys a station, upgrades it to digital and then begins sending out four of its channels via multicast. If those channels previously were available only on the local cable system’s digital tier, retransmission would move them down to the basic tier, thus putting them in front of all of the operator’s customers.
Some religious broadcasters also see opportunities in radio’s digital migration “Digital AM holds a lot of possibilities,” said Rice, whose ministry owns 15 stations in four states.
On the FM side, multicasting makes it possible to reach more people with multiple feeds on a religious station or with faith-based programming on a secular station’s signal.
“The development of HD radio and its capacity for multiple channels is a great benefit for religious programmers,” said Michael Warsaw, president of Eternal Word Television Network. “That’s definitely something we’re pursuing with our radio distribution.”
But some religious radio network owners are skeptical about secular stations’ ability to make a business case for using faith-based programming to help fill the multicast channels.
“The problem with Christian programming [on] secular stations is the bias that the advertising agencies hold toward Christian radio,” said Dick Jenkins, president of EMF Broadcasting, which operates the K-LOVE and Air 1 Radio networks. “You may get people to listen, but can you get the ad agencies to buy?”
A HIGHER-DEF AUTHORITY
Most religious networks also are looking closely at HD. That’s noteworthy for cable, telco TV and satellite operators because it means yet another category of HD content that their bandwidth would have to accommodate.
TBN may have the most aggressive HD timetable: It is about 90% finished with the DTV upgrade to its 34 stations, and it has upgraded its Tustin and Costa Mesa, Calif., facilities to HD. TBN also is lining up high-definition content from churches to supplement its own HD library, including roughly five years’ worth of movies shot in high-def. All of that sets up an HD launch by the end of this year or first quarter 2008, according to TBN vice president of administration Paul Crouch Jr.
Another network pushing forward with HD is TCT, which has upgraded its network control center to digital. “It distributes two satellite feeds for our domestic and world markets,” Coonce said. “The center is presently broadcasting in [standard-definition] digital and ready for HD although, like most other networks, we are still working to build a quality lineup of HD programming before we launch.”
HD also complements the trend in religious programming away from a reliance on teaching-and-preaching, which is steadily being supplemented with — and in some cases, replaced by — a more diverse array of content.
“I think that more and more, you’re going to see religious get into narrative and stories and movies,” said Edward Murray, president and CEO of Faith & Values Media, whose movies include Love Comes Softly. “These have been incredibly successful: among the top-rated shows on Hallmark Channel. Movies are a trend in religious TV that we’re going to see more of.”
Another example of the movement away from talking heads is Faith TV’s 16-part reality series, Journey Into the Amazon, which follows the families of the five missionaries slain by the Auca Indians more than 50 years ago as they retrace the steps that led to their relatives’ deaths.
“Only a small fraction of our programming is of church services,” Faith TV president Jim West said. “We think today’s Christian family wants clean programming, but in a variety of forms that includes documentaries, reality series, biographies, music, youth, drama, classic TV, outdoor and sports.”
The business case for high definition also gets a boost from the demand side.
“Simmons (2006) reports that Christian consumers are 8% more likely [than the national average] to own TVs that are HD-ready,” said John Roos, Inspiration Networks’ senior vice president for corporate communications and research.
“The creativity is there; the demand appears to be there,” Coonce said. “It’s really just a matter of getting enough assembled in a sustainable stream for HD to make its way to the bread-and-butter side of the equation.”
One reason for more diverse programming lineups — particularly those heavy on original and exclusive shows — is that faith-based networks are looking for more ways to differentiate themselves in the crowded religious market. Another is that a wider range of programming helps them tap a wider audience.
“One of Daystar’s newest original programs, the Emmy-nominated Sound Check, is designed for teens and provides a faith-based alternative to mainstream music and entertainment programs,” said Daystar senior vice president of affiliate relations Steve Wilhite.
Meanwhile, religious networks increasingly aren’t the only programmers exploring the role of faith in day-to-day life. One example is HBO’s Big Love.
“I don’t think it’s the polygamy theme that’s most interesting,” Murray said. “I think [it’s] what happens in a community that is ruled by its religion. It’s a very interesting study in a world with jihads and Islamic movements looking at Sirah law: building countries that are patterned after teaching. Big Love tackles that. I don’t know if it’s doing that on purpose, but it’s coming off that way to me.”
At least one faith-based network is making the case that one of its channels belongs in a broader lifestyle tier rather than pigeonholed among religious networks. That’s one of the challenges faced by INSP with i-Lifetv, which has ample third-party research showing that it’s popular with women who don’t consider themselves to be religious.
“Cable operators are surprised that we’re doing that well with women, so part of our strategy now is to get i-Life out of the religious tier,” Wendy Vinson, senior vice president of marketing. “But the cable operators’ mindset is: You’re religious. I don’t care that your programming looks different from TBN. You’re religious.”
Going Green
04/07/2008Delicate Balance
04/04/2008Networks See Digital as a Mixed Blessing
10/29/2006Electronic Shepherds
09/19/2008Tending a Growing Flock
04/08/2007
