Preaching Across Platforms

Faith-Based Networks Are Expanding Their Outreach Digitally

By Andrea Domanick -- Multichannel News, 10/4/2010 12:01:00 AM

In recent years, faith-based networks, like their secular counterparts, have embraced a multiplatform approach to their programming by including video-on-demand, mobile applications and Web series as part of their business strategy.

But religious networks also face the challenge of preserving a distinct spiritual message while embracing the new-media outlets. Welcome to Faith 2.0.

Faith-based programmers have found success with the multiplatform approach, according to said National Religious Broadcasters senior vice president and general manager Craig Parshall, whose organization represents 1,700 faith-based TV and radio broadcasters.

“You have to be on multiple platforms — wherever there are eyeballs, you have to be,” Parshall said. “If not, you’re missing a much larger audience. It helps everything you do and lifts the number of people who are exposed to your message. We’re not turning back.”

Larger networks, l ike the Christian Broadcasting Network, are reaping more than the spiritual benefits of that exposure. According to CEO Gordon Robertson, since CBN launched 700 Club Interactive — a Web iteration of the flagship news talker where viewers can interact via Skype, chat and e-mail with the host — in June 2009, The 700 Club on ABC Family has seen a 7% increase in viewership.

700 Club Interactive, which airs weekday mornings on ABC Family, also saw a 33% increase in its year-to-year Nielsen numbers in September. On-demand views via CBN.com were also up 20% from the second quarter, to 4 million in the third quarter.

“We found a strong correlation with the main host interacting with our audience on Skype, and our growth from a [television] ratings standpoint,” Robertson said.

As a result of its multiplatform success, CBN plans to relaunch Superbook, its popular 1980s animation franchise, in fall 2011 as a CGI series. A new website to accompany the redesigned show (www.superbook.tv), which includes social-networking features, games and contests for kids, is already up and running.

Since its launch in November 2009, Superbook.tv has received 4.4 million page views, averaging 435,000 each month — making up nearly 10% of CBN.com’s page views.

Faith-based FamilyNet is expanding multiplatform programming through television, radio and the Internet through a simultaneous broadcast, or “Mega- Cast,” as dubbed by the network, of FamilyNet Radio programs. The first such MegaCast was the Oct. 4 broadcast of The Kevin Mc- Cullough Show.

As a result of these brand extensions, said FamilyNet CEO Chris Wyatt, who also helped found social network and video platform GodTube.com, the network has added millions in revenue to its bottom line, has shortened its return on investment timeline by 70%, and has increased viewership by 40% in the past year. Wyatt largely credited that to the network’s transition from programming aimed at a 50-to-64-year-old demographic to targeting those 35 to 49.

A multiplatform strategy has become part of FamilyNet’s identity. “We are not only a faithbased broadcaster, we’re also a technology firm,” Wyatt said, citing a new mobile application, next-generation video technologies and the launch of a revamped “GodTube on steroids” as upcoming projects. “Without our multiplatform strategies, we would have to rely solely on our television and radio platforms. As a result, we would not be profitable.”

Smaller networks like Bostonbased CatholicTV, are simply grateful for the increase in exposure and ability to get their message out.

The recent launches of the network’s iPhone app and video widget, CatholicTVjr, have expanded its brand awareness to parishes and dioceses across the country — and even to users in India.

“It’s given us some awareness of who’s watching,” CatholicTV director of marketing and programming Bonnie Rodgers said. “The way [non-subscribers] can see us is through the Internet, but they wouldn’t know to go look for us. So, being on a diocese’s website generates some interest and awareness in CatholicTV that we would not have otherwise gotten.”

With the Sept. 23 launch of the social community iCatholic.com, the network has also gained the confidence to start thinking big. “Our growth since introducing digital media has been more anecdotal than quantifiable, but [that media] puts us out there for providers and generates interest,” Rodgers said. “Our goal now is to be launched on all major cable and satellite carriers, and to provide as much Catholic programming in the U.S. as possible.”

Inspiration Networks has redefined its brands along a “multigenerational, multiplatform strategy,” John Roos, senior vice president of corporate communications at the programmer, said.

Inspiration targeted the hard-to- reach youth demographic with last October’s relaunch of iLifeTV as Halogen, a channel that emphasizes entertainment and lifestyles rather than religion, and is aimed at socially conscious 18-to- 34-year-old viewers.

Halogen defines itself as multiplatform, rather than just as a television network. Though it first launched as only a linear channel and website, Halogen has extended its brand over the past year to a Halogen on Demand VOD platform; a robust social-media presence on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube; and its own online community and feedback platform, Halogen Insiders.

Halogen’s social-media focus and presence contributed to its recent launch on AT&T.

According to Kristina Hill, media relations manager for Inspiration, Halogen’s presence and focus on social media contributed to its recent launch on the AT&T U-verse channel lineup. As of August, Halogen’s availability was up almost 20%, reaching nearly 14 million households nationwide. Next, the network plans to go mobile.

Sometimes, digital platforms can also be used as a means to highlight content that didn’t make a splash on the small screen. Inspiration’s reality drama The Uprising, part of its “Steelroots” block, failed to draw a significant telecast audience in its first season, so Inspiration chose to relegate it — and the rest of the Steelroots content — to the Web instead of canceling it outright.

“Steelroots content was placed online because this is where the target audience is, and this is how they view content,” Hill said. “This strategy has resulted in increasing Web traffic for the platform.”

In recent weeks, Steelroots. com also began st reaming monthly live concerts; in November, it plans to launch a new Web drama titled Next.

Shalom TV, a Jewish-targeted network distributed in 40 million homes, is also harnessing the power of new technology to bolster itself as a source for Jewish perspectives on news and current events. According to Rabbi Mark S. Golub, Shalom’s CEO, the network is “putting the finishing touches” on a Shalom TV server that immediately transmits news to myriad subscribing Websites, as well as making video available to the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, JerusalemOnline. com and other news partners.

Golub said that Shalom TV is aware that some viewers may not adapt to new technology so easily.

“We are also conscious that a number of Shalom TV viewers may be pressing the On Demand button on their cable remote for the very first time,” he said. “So, we’ve outfitted our website with an entire page that introduces On Demand to novice users, with step-by-step instructions and screenshots designed to demystify the technology for our audience.”

Beyond the hurdles of transitioning from traditional to new media NRB’s Parshall said that faith-based broadcasters must deal with another challenge that the mainstream broadcasters don’t.

“Connectivity and interactivity in our media platforms are crucial, but only if at the end of the day what has been transmitted [old-fashioned content] is transcendent truth,” he said. “If the medium distorts that message, it has to be rejected.

“Right now, we at NRB are concerned about being futurethinking in terms of 21st century rel igious liberty at the crossroads of a technological revolution. Things are changing so fast that we can’t afford to ‘catch the wave’ when it hits us — we have to be way ahead of the wave.”

CASE STUDIES: FAITH-BASED NETWORKS GO MULTIPLATFORM
How these religious nets are expanding their digital presence and what’s next:

SHALOM TV
Video broadcast server
• Immediately transmits news to a myriad of Web sites, makes video available to the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, JerusalemOnline.com, and others
Video on demand
• Distributed to more than 40 million homes Social media/video
• Network presence on YouTube, Vimio, DailyMotion, Yahoo and MetaCafe and series-specific Facebook sites have allowed Shalom TV to "build an online community of active viewers for the sharing of thoughts and opinions on both our programming and current event issues," according to CEO Rabbi Mark S. Golub
What's next
• Podcasts of original shows via the iTunes Store, including Jewish 101
• Mobile platforms
• Standalone linear channel

 

CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK
Video on demand
• 10.5 million VOD views year-to-date, up from 9 million in all of 2009
• 20% growth in VOD views from Q2 to Q3 (to date), up from 3.3 million views in Q2 to 4 million views in Q3. (Views include both the CBN TV VOD Player and the CBN TV Embeddable Widget Player) Mobile
• Over 280% growth in number of monthly visitors to mobile website over the last 12 months
• September drew 65, 539 visitors to the site
• CBN TV mobile app available for iPod, iPad and iPhone; users can view topical content, full episodes, teaching series and more Social media
• myCBN, CBN's online community, has more than 47,000 registered users
• Facebook - branded groups and pages for CBN's different brands and shows; CBN pages and groups total 42,000 Facebook fans
Website
• Monthly unique visitors up 36.7% from August 2009 to 2010
• Visits for the year-to-date grew by 25.8%
What's next
• Live streaming video available to mobile devices beginning Dec. 1
• CBN TV available on Android-powered mobile devices on Dec. 1

 

EWTN GLOBAL CATHOLIC NETWORK
Website
• 17.4 million visitors in past 12 months
• 1.4 million visits in September, with number of visitors increasing monthly
• In addition to U.S. significant traffic from the Philippines, the UK, Malaysia, India, Italy, Australia, Brazil, and Mexico
Streaming video
• EWTN live stream draws close to 10,000 viewers per day
Mobile
• 40,000 visits a month to EWTN.com and EWTN's YouTube channels from mobile devices
Social media/video
YouTube channel
• Channels in English and Spanish
• 3,464 total subscribers
• Nearly 650,000 total viewers since March
• 30,000 users have embedded EWTN player to their sites
• Beyond the U.S., receives significant traffic from Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Facebook
English page:
• 48,114 fans
• 35,603 monthly active users
• 240 daily new "likes"
• 14,732 daily post views
• 252 daily post feedback
Spanish page:
• 19,664 fans
Twitter
• English: 6,288 followers
• Spanish: 2,202 followers
What's next
• Plans to expand mobile presence

SOURCE: Each network provided data