CatholicTV | |
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Launched | January 1, 1955 |
Network | CatholicTV |
Owned by | Boston Catholic Television Center, Inc. |
Picture format | 480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
Slogan | "America's Catholic Television Network" |
Country | United States |
Headquarters | 34 Chestnut Street, Watertown, MA |
Formerly called | Catholic Television Center / WIHS (1955–1964), BCTV (1964–2006) |
Website | CatholicTV.com |
Availability | |
Cable | |
Comcast (New England Markets) | Channel 268 |
Verizon FiOS (New England Markets) | Channel 296 |
Also available on selected cable systems nationwide | Check local listings for channels |
Internet television | |
Sky Angel | Channel 142 |
CatholicTV.com | Live Stream (worldwide) |
iCatholic.com | special features and video podcasts |
CatholicTV is a Catholic television network based in Watertown, Massachusetts. It is distributed on cable systems in eight U.S. states and via the internet.
CatholicTV broadcasts programming relevant to Catholic viewers, including live religious services, talk shows, devotional programs, educational programming, entertainment, and children's programs. It also presents coverage of special events at the Vatican and of papal journeys.
The current president of CatholicTV is Father Robert Reed.
Contents[hide] |
The first program of the Catholic Television Center of the Archdiocese of Boston was produced on the morning of January 1, 1955 when Archbishop Richard J. Cushing celebrated a Pontifical Low Mass in studios at 25 Granby Street near Kenmore Square in Boston. From that studio, equipped with three RCA TK31 cameras, the Center produced live and tape-recorded programs, and it purchased time from local commercial television stations to air the Sunday Mass each week. Live programs were transmitted to the broadcasting stations through a leased-line telephone connection. In 1961 the Catholic Television Center's studios became the temporary home of educational broadcaster WGBH-TV when that station's studios were destroyed in a fire.[1][2]
In 1957 the Catholic Television Center acquired a license to operate its own broadcasting station in Boston on channel 38 in the new UHF range of television channels. It adopted the callsign WIHS, and put WIHS-TV into service on October 12, 1964, with transmitting facilities on the Prudential Tower in Boston. It was the first full-time Catholic television station in the world employing a general entertainment format along with the daily and Sunday Mass. On July 27, 1966, Storer Broadcasting acquired WIHS for $2,276,513.16 and renamed it as WSBK-TV.[3]
With funds from the station sale, the Catholic Television Center built an Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) system for distributing programs to Catholic schools, and it continued to produce live broadcasts of the Sunday Mass under the name Boston Catholic Television (BCTV). In 1970 BCTV moved into leased studios at 55 Chapel Street in Newton, Massachusetts.[4]
In April 1983 BCTV began offering programs to home viewers several hours a day through its own channel carried by cable television providers, at first in Massachusetts, then elsewhere in New England, and also as far away as Montreal, Quebec. In addition to the Sunday Mass broadcast on conventional (over-the-air) television, weekday Masses were also presented Monday to Friday, originating from a chapel in the Archbishop's residence in Brighton.
In 2006 the channel adopted the brand name CatholicTV and the slogan America's Catholic Television Network. By 2007 it had entered into a programming exchange agreement with the Canadian channel Salt + Light Television.[5] The channel converted its video format to HDTV on October 13, 2010.[6]
CatholicTV relocated its studios and offices to Watertown, Massachusetts in 2007.[4][7]
CatholicTV's programming service is seen on cable systems in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, California, Louisiana and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is also available by digital C band satellite, via AMC 11, and for on-line viewing through Internet streaming video and Sky Angel IPTV. Select programs are available for download at iTunes. Video-on-demand service is available on Sky Angel IPTV (nationally) and Verizon FiOS in most markets. An iPhone app is available.
CatholicTV presents Sunday Mass live from the University of Notre Dame and the weekday and Saturday Mass from its own chapel, as well as a wide variety of Catholic educational and inspirational programming. This includes live talk shows such as "This is the Day", and devotional programming such as the Holy Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Benediction, catechetical programs, music shows, entertainment/variety shows, youth and children's programming such as WOW: The CatholicTV Challenge. CatholicTV also broadcasts programming and special coverage from Vatican Television of live coverage of world Catholic events from the Vatican, including the journeys of Pope Benedict XVI.
A partial listing of CatholicTV programs:
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux is the patroness of CatholicTV.
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