Adventist Television Network is proceeding with implementation of its earlier announced plans to begin full-time satellite broadcasts.
Adventist Television Network is proceeding with implementation of its earlier announced plans to begin full-time satellite broadcasts.
Meeting on April 10, the ATN Operating Committee approved the budget to bring a full-time 24-hour-seven-days-a-week global television program to viewer’s homes in mid-2003.
According to Brad Thorp, executive director of ATN, the network will now proceed with plans to finalize programming and its daily scheduling, complete additional satellite space contracts, and secure and install a broadcast server for a global system that requires consideration of all world time zones.
“This is a major step forward for ATN,” Thorp said. Our goal for a number of years has been to provide in-home programming worldwide. A large number of individuals have earnestly worked toward this goal, and now that this plan has been approved, we will immediately take the necessary steps to implement [it].”
Ted N. C. Wilson, a general vice president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and chairman of the ATN Operating Committee, added that the decision is “a step in faith, and by God’s grace these plans will be successful in their implementation.
“ATN is poised to move into an even greater ministry of evangelism and witnessing,” Wilson said. “Through the powerful use of satellite technology, as a church we will endeavor to involve ourselves in a much wider spiritual impact of the Advent message throughout the world.”
Currently ATN is broadcasting an hour and a half of weekly programs, which includes a 30-minute “Adventist NewsLine” newscast, a devotional called “His Word Alive,” and a Bible study discussion entitled “Sabbath School University.”
As the television network expands to a wider and more international programming schedule, Wilson encourages church members to support the ministry through ATN’s fundraising and by “encouraging friends and neighbors to watch ATN.”
According to Thorp, programming “will be attractively oriented to an in-home viewing audience for anyone who is spiritually open to consider Bible teachings.”
Adventist television programming is providing a “challenge because we must recognize the cultural and linguistic diversity of the globe, as well as differing interests anticipated by the younger and older, the Christian and non-Christian viewers,” said John Banks, ATN assistant director and associate director of communication at the Adventist Church World Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.
“Our programs must reflect what we as Seventh-day Adventists stand for, but also should be entertaining in the way the programs are presented, and also for a desired effect, because that’s the nature of television,” Banks explained.
“It is anticipated that all new programming for ATN will take into consideration our broader audience,” Thorp said.
After explaining how African audiences are eager to watch religious television, Pardon Mwansa, president of the church in Southern Africa, asked ATN executives to accelerate putting church television programs alongside other options African viewers have. “Do it soon and tell us where to watch our own Adventist programs,” he requested.
The Operating Board also voted a set of recommendations that will be reviewed by regional church leadership for their sustainability in moving the network from a stage of development to the next phase, namely channel availability, and finally to bringing the satellite signal to the homes of the viewer.
It is envisioned that locally the ATN signal will be made available through satellite dishes, cable, national and private television networks. In North America, according to Thorp, the ATN programming will be positioned alongside at least three other television channels associated with the church: Three Angels Broadcasting from Illinois, Loma Linda Broadcasting Network from California, and SafeTV from Arkansas.
According to Thorp, recent decisions push ATN leadership to “be ready and begin the global broadcast by June or July of this year.” Currently the ATN team is negotiating a 24/7 satellite space contract for the Pacific Rim, securing of which will mean the island countries of the Pacific will have full-time ATN coverage.
Currently ATN is negotiating satellite contracts for North America and Inter-America to allow for a Spanish and French language channel, in addition to a church business channel for special programming. “Adding this to the current Portuguese and Spanish channel coming from our Latin American network, which covers South and Inter America, we will have Spanish language coverage of all of the Americas,” Thorp explained. “With the launch of the 24/7 service in English, we will also launch this channel to serve the major language audiences of North and Inter-America.”
It is planned that the satellite uplink for ATN global service will be broadcast from the Adventist Media Center in California, and be provided by Adventist Media Productions. The signal will be uplinked to the AMC 4 satellite for broadcast to North America and Inter-America. A separate signal will be uplinked to a Pacific Rim satellite, and then turned in the Philippines to PAS 7 satellite for coverage of Africa, Europe, India, Russia and central Asia.
Thorp explained that the broadcast video server, which ATN is acquiring, will provide for several simultaneous programming outputs. “It will allow us to output similar but different programming streams for North America and the rest of the world. We will have significant flexibility to customize programming and content appropriate to the prime viewing hours of each region,” he said.
ATN began its international broadcasts in 1996, and was then known as the Adventist Global Communication Network (AGCN). Its broadcasts, mainly featuring evangelistic series, known as Net evangelism, soon expanded to perhaps the largest private television “business network,” with nearly 14,000 downlink sites on all continents. What began seven years ago is today seen as giving birth to the current pursuit of Adventist programs being available in homes.
ATN officials say that the anticipated program menu will aim to fulfill the church’s mission by harnessing the potential and expectations of home television, religious values and lifestyle interests of many viewers. It is in this arena that Adventist television has an incredible challenge not to be “one among many,” but to make “good news break through the currently televised vanity, confusion and fear,” as one producer said.
Banks concurred by saying that “the church owns its stories and must share these stories far and wide. And we must do it right, attractively, and be responsive to the expectations of a television viewer,” he explained.
When talking to Adventist producers representing both the church media centers and the private sector, one can sense the eagerness to be involved and give Adventist TV programs the look and feel that will make a viewer say, “Have you seen this Adventist program? It’s so different from what you get on TV these days.”
Such expectations represent a creative challenge for ATN programmers. According to Thorp, the ATN Programming Committee will meet in the coming weeks and is expected to unveil its first programming option to the ATN Executive Committee by early June.
Thorp said that until now ATN was a full-time broadcaster in Portuguese and Spanish only in South America and Inter-America. “With this new plan we will provide full worldwide coverage. Of course, we are thrilled to take this step in providing Adventist programming to homes around the world,” he added.