Inter-American Division

Hope Channel Inter-America Continues Expanding Six Years Later

October 18, 2022

United States

Libna Stevens

Hope Channel Inter-America Continues Expanding Six Years Later

As Hope Channel Inter-America (HCIA) began its sixth year since its three channels were officially launched, regional channel coordinators and media center personnel recently gathered to strengthen its administrative, productive, and distributive strategies in the pursuit of reaching more people with the gospel.

The more than two dozen leaders also reviewed current practices, reinforced the television brand, networked together, and studied upcoming collaborative production projects during two days of advisory meetings on September 14–15, 2022. Media center managers also shared their experiences and current projects during the meetings at the Inter-American Division office in Miami, Florida, United States.

Hope Channel Inter-America Executive Director Abel Márquez speaks to the two dozen union coordinators and media staff during the network’s advisory meetings in Miami, Florida, United States, Sep. 14-15, 2022. The event was part of administrative, production, and distribution strategies training in the pursuit of reaching more people with the gospel. [Photo: IAD Media]

Continue Growing the Network

“We are very thankful and blessed to continue offering more programming for the millions of people living throughout the Inter-American Division (IAD) territory with our official Hope Channel Inter-America network,” said Abel Márquez, executive director of HCIA. “We are not like other Hope Channel networks that have a main production center, but we are blessed to have 19 production centers that focus on feeding the channels from their respective regions.”

HCIA runs three television channels, one for each of the official languages in the territory: English, Spanish, and French.

German Rodríguez (left) director of Hope Media in Southeast Mexico speaks to Misael González director of Hope Media in Panama during a networking segment during the two day advisory meetings. [Photo: IAD Media]

The meetings were not just about producing more and more television programs but more about collaborations to grow together and expand HCIA moving forward after six years. Márquez discussed the expansion of the HCIA offices in the IAD headquarters this year, which provided more studio, podcast, designing, filming, and editing opportunities for television programs. In addition, Márquez shared plans to complete redesigning the main auditorium’s stage to be used for television programs and events for the channel by the end of the year

HCIA regional coordinators and media staff were briefed on programming analysis, including featured series, shorts, and programs in the three languages.

Lizbeth Elejalde, programming director of HCIA leads during one of several presentations on current series and feature of the channel and more.[Photo: IAD Media]

Currently, HCIA features 62 on-demand programs, with most produced for the channel including Hope Media Centers in Montemorelos University in Mexico, as well as North Colombia, North Mexico, French Antilles, French Guiana, Haiti, and the IAD office in Miami.

“Hope Channel Inter-America is ahead with the most on-demand varied exclusive program produced by our very own media centers,” reported Lizbeth Elejalde, production assistant and programming for HCIA. The growth has seen one or two series premieres every month on demand.

Media staff were also briefed on production standards and requirements, cinematographic projects and collaborations, and the need for documentary, reality, tutorial, and adventure-type productions.

Jorge Diaz Rincon, production assistant of Hope Channel Inter-America and director of UMedia in Montemorelos University, in Mexico, shares upcoming collaboration project with the media group. [Photo: IAD Media]

Cinematography Projects Ahead

“Today, cinematography is one of the best tools to share with people because everyone loves to be told stories,” said Jorge Diaz Rincon, assistant producer for HCIA and director of UM media center at Montemorelos University. The center is a model Hope Media center and has the most productions, with 28 currently running on HCIA. He encouraged the media center teams to start planning on tapping into producing documentaries, shorts, films, and more. “This is a great opportunity we have now because there is so much talent out there.”

Diaz said production project collaborations are planned in the coming months, and a short film festival is in the works for next year, pending approval by the HCIA Board.

Hope Media leaders from the Dutch Caribbean, French Antilles Guiana, and Jamaica listen in during advisory meetings, Sep. 14-15, 2022.[Photo: IAD Media]

Hope Media Centers

Uriel Castellanos, who directs the Hope Media in Chiapas, Mexico, is looking forward to honing the talents of young people across the Chiapas Mexican Union. During a recent training session, media experts and church leaders reached out to more than 800 young people to become part of the Hope Channel Inter-America network by promoting the channel and becoming content generators and digital evangelists. Plans are underway to establish a media studio in each of the eight conferences and missions overseen by Hope Media in Chiapas.

Esaie Auguste, HCIA coordinator for the French Antilles-Guiana Union and overseer of Espérance TV Interamérique, which provides programming in French, said the growing online channel should see more programming produced outside of Martinique, where the media center is based. “We want to produce more and work on collaborative projects among the different media centers,” said Auguste. Plans are underway to establish a media center in Guadeloupe and French Guiana to increase more local productions for the channel.

Misael González director of Hope Media in Panama shares how the channel is being transmitted through the major television stations in the country. [Photo: IAD Media]

Misael González, director of Hope Media in Panama, said HCIA is running one of the most important television stations and cable companies across Panama. Plans are to continue creating local programming across the country and expand into feature programs by utilizing the young people.

The advisory meetings also featured sale and distribution strategies for HCIA, Hope Radio network projects, and an overview of recent regional evangelistic productions and social media community management, among others.

Sharing the Hope of the Gospel

Pastor Elie Henry, president of the IAD, praised the work of the HCIA coordinators and media center staff. “The world is looking for a word that can help them in their personal lives. We need to continue to fill the emptiness people feel with the Word of God, communicating the present truth in such a time as we are living today.”

Pastor Elie Henry, president of the Inter-American Division greets the group while away on a trip and encourages them to continue filling the channel with the messages of hope to a troubled world.[Photo: IAD Media]

As the meetings concluded, Márquez challenged HCIA coordinators and media production staff to continue elevating their productions and programming and also learn from each other.

“We need to continue working together, learning more, collaborating more, expanding to stronger media centers, and reaching out to more people with the message of hope that they need today,” said Márquez.

Hope Channel Inter-America is the official television network and, as such, is funded by the IAD, which includes the costs of operation, while media centers across the unions distribute the channel through local cable companies. HCIA also oversees more than 90 radio stations, which are part of Hope Radio Inter-America, in affiliation with the Adventist World Radio network.