Gospel to Fans: Testify

The Gospel Music Channel will rely more heavily than ever on its church-going fans to spread the word of its arrival in 60 new markets gained through its deal with Black Family Channel.

When Black Family Channel stopped operating as a traditional linear network at the beginning of May, Gospel gained its 16 million cable and satellite homes, including access to all of the Top 10 markets in the U.S.

Gospel Music expects to be in 20 million homes by year-end, executives said, an enormous growth spurt for a channel not yet three years old.

“Our typical growth is market-by-market, taking it one at a time so we're able to deal with it on a rolling basis,” said vice president of marketing Wendy McCoy. “Here, it's like a light switch with a huge number of homes we have to give a base level of awareness.”

The channel, in kind, is ratcheting up its congregational outreach, using local churches and their music ministers to disseminate the word about the change. Gospel is setting up roundtable meetings in some of its new markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Dallas and Boston, where it will bring together various faiths to share their religious outreach projects, as well as share Gospel's programming plans with ministers. McCoy said video-on-demand exposure for local church programs will be highlighted at these meetings.

The channel has prepared “church kits” for distribution that will include programming highlight DVDs, bulletin ads and posters, customizable with local channel information.

Later this year, the channel will launch a ministry microsite, providing user guides for youth ministers and a program schedule for the linear channel and VOD, among other resources.

Gospel is also recruiting non-paid ambassadors, local fans who will tout network programming to fellow church-goers, as well as provide the channel with information about local musical programs that could fit the network's schedule. The channel has also expanded its music ministry division, which tracks down performances that can be recorded for the channel.

“Music ministry is at the center of our bull's eye,” McCoy said, noting local tapings build goodwill for the channel and the local cable affiliate.

Local affiliates are also included in informational efforts at events such as the Women of Faith conferences (28 to 30 meetings a year drawing up to 20,000 women) and the Judah Praise Conference, a music leadership conference. The local cable operator participates at Gospel's table, selling cable subscriptions and digital upgrades on the spot, McCoy said.