Religious broadcasting

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Religious broadcasting is broadcasting religious organizations, usually with a religious message. In the United States, Christian organizations are by far the most widespread compared with other religions, with upwards of 1,600 television and radio stations across the country (not necessarily counting broadcast translators, though because many outlets have low power and repeat national telecasts, the difference is often hard to define). Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and so naturally moved into distributing content on their websites. During these past couple of years, there has been an expansion to the listening or viewing of religious content delivered over the Internet.

The United States is by no means the only country with Religious Broadcasting although it is the most developed in this genre. The United Kingdom currently has a growing Religious Broadcasting scene, with both Christian & Muslim TV & radio channels operating.

1 Radio
2 Television
3 Industry Organisations
4 Funding
5 Criticism of Religious broadcasting
6 External links

[edit] Radio

Christian radio is very common, and can be funded either commercially or through some sort of public broadcasting-style arrangement (churches are generally recognized as non-profit organizations).

In the UK, there are currently under 10 radio stations that are labelled Christian (March 2006). One the anomalies in the UK is that Government-enforced broadcasting laws that prevent religious organisations from running national analogue terrestrial stations. This means Medium Wave and FM frequencies are only availably locally. This is in direct contrast to non religious organisations who may apply for such licenses, although there are identical restrictions on political parties, local government and trade unions running national analogue terrestrial stations. However, as the allocation for national AM and FM frequencies has been assigned following award to the highest bidder, the possibility of Christian national station is a remote one. As a result Christian radio is fragmented in the UK. National radio stations make much more sense (because of the relatively small size of the Island compared to the US) so to not have a national presence can be quite damaging. Christian radio in the UK is either stuck on local FM or MW frequencies or they are forced to transmit nationally only on platforms such as Digital TV (Satellite, Digital Terrestrial, Cable), new but as-of-yet not mass market Digital Radio, such as DAB, and the Internet.

There are two channels, Premier Radio in London and UCB in Stoke on Trent that both have a national focus and yet its still not possible to tune in to either on a car radio anywhere in the country. Premier are on MW in London and UCB have no official MW or FM frequency, even locally in Stoke.

A number of additional UK-based radio stations exist to either serve a genre group and/or locality. The most developed and professional of these is Cross Rhythms, also in Stoke On Trent. A contemporary music channel, Cross Rhythms have a local FM license. Like most of the others they also use Digital Television platforms and the Internet to gain national coverage.

There are other UK-based radio channels apply for regular temporary licenses, such as Flame FM in The Wirral, near Liverpool. Flame FM get two months of broadcasting a year on a local FM frequency that covers their area, for example.

An alternative to the very high capital investment, and limited audiences, for temporaty licences is to produce programmes for placing on the existing mainstream stations where the opportunities for reaching a non-churched audience are much greater. Obviously relationships have to be built and the quality of the programmes has to be such that the local station would want take them, but this may be better stewardship of limited resources. There is the possibility of syndication though services like Audiopot.

Also there are religious broadcasters that transmit to the UK on Mediumwave at nighttime (when MW signals travel further) by buying airtime on commercial stations on the Isle of Man or overseas such as Trans World Radio who broadcast from Monte Carlo.

Although there are tight restrictions on religious groups setting up their own radio and TV stations there is a legal requirement for the BBC and ITV to broadcast a certain amount of religious programming. Also some commercial local radio stations carry a limited amount of religious programming - particularly in Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland

[edit] Television

Christian television outlets in the US usually broadcast in the UHF band. Religious organizations large and small also often have a presence on cable television systems, either with their own channels (such as the 3ABN service) or by transmissions on public access (common for local congregations) or leased access channels. Sunday mornings often see religious broadcasts on regular commercial broadcasting and BBC outlets.

Some Christian broadcasters in the U.S. include:

Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN)
Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)
Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN)
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)
Christian Television Network (CTN)
Salem Communications
Calvary Chapel

In the UK, Christian TV operates differently to the US. No Christian TV has any presence on the Terrestrial transmission system - analogue or digital. Nearly all Christian TV channels transmit on Direct To Home style satellite (Sky). Compared to terrestrial transmission, the costs are relatveily cheap. In March 2006 there are 11 TV channels operating on Satellite. A few of them also stream their signals on the Internet.

GOD TV, whose UK base is in Sunderland, is the longest established of the currently running TV channels on Sky in the UK, and the only one that is also on the major cable TV systems in the UK.
Revelation TV, in London, produce a lot of live programmes from their studios.
UCB TV in Stoke - a sister to UCB Radio discussed earlier - are also a well funded and increasingly respected channel.

Interestingly as all Christian TV channels in the UK are not encrypted they can be picked up on any DVB-branded satellite receiver without having to subscribe to Sky at all so long as the dish is pointing at the right satellite.

In the UK we are seeing the dawn Internet TV as a specific medium for transmission. A UK based News organisation has made an Internet branded TV Christian News programme, called UK Christian News. Increasingly Christian broadcasters, certainly in the UK, are looking to expand distribution in this medium and Premier Radio has already entered into this market with the launch of their Broadband TV service, Premier.TV, in May 2006.

[edit] Industry Organisations

Christian broadcasters in the U.S. are organized through the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) organization. In the UK the equivalent is the Christian Broadcasting Council, but affiliation is much less common than broadcasters are with NRB in the States.

Additionally in the UK is the Churches Media Council. However this organisation tends to represent the Religious programming departments of Public Service Broadcasters like the BBC and UK-based Channel 4, and doesn't generally represent the more evangelical wing of broadcasting that the Christian stations listed through this article tend to be.

[edit] Funding

Financially, US channels tend to fair a lot better than UK based ones. The American concept of asking viewers to donate money to a channel to keep it going on air is considered more culturally acceptable than in the UK and much finance is rasied this way. There is no advertising revenue model that works for Christian TV channels in the UK - the traditional method of running commercial TV in the UK. The UK Government have passed a law that prevents UK based Christian TV channels from asking for money on air which technically also prevents the organisations from being able to raise funds this way.

The UK culture tends to be far more apprehensive of directly asking for money on air unless its for recognisable national charities. Christian TV channels aimed at a UK audience tend get round this law by basing themselves off shore - in an European country that permits asking formoney on air. At present of the 11 channels on Sky, only two, Revelation TV & UCB TV, are truly UK-based and so are restricted for asking for funds by law on air whilst the other 9 are free to do so, despite all of them giving the appearance of being UK based channels for a UK target audience (or a European / International audience including the UK).

The other primary method for raising funds to run Religious channels is to sell airtime. Travelling preachers and large churches & ministries will often set up a TV department filming what they do. They then buy slots on TV channels to show their programmes. Often you will see the same programme from an organisation appearing on multiple channels at different times as they buy slots. The vast majority of organisations who do this are US based. In the UK this tends to make Christian TV channels give an appearance of being US stations as much material is US culture and accent. Some UK TV channels have invested in making programmes to complement the sold air time slots - most notably GOD TV and Revelation TV have gone down this route.

[edit] Criticism of Religious broadcasting

Some people oppose the licencing of religious broadcasting (particularly on terrestrial broadcasting frequencies) on the grounds that as it is impractical to give all religious groups their own radio stations (due to the insufficient number of frequencies available) licencing any group (to the exclusion of others) amounts to religious discrimination.

Some atheists and agnostics are also opposed to religious broadcasting some going as far as denouncing it as a fraud designed to swindle money from vulnerable members of the public although others maintain that it should be allowed on free speech grounds. There are even some Christians who oppose it maintaining that the excesses of some televangelists gives Christianity a bad name. Many people (particularly in the USA) are concerned at the attempts by some leading religious broadcasters to influence or become involved in the political process.