Church in North America rethinking approach to media
A digital video hub—à la YouTube—has introduced professional Seventh-day Adventist-produced videos to a vast and largely untapped Internet audience.
In August, a partnership between BiggyTV and the Adventist Church in North America launched the first religious content on the Hollywood, California-based video distributor’s Web site. The Adventist Channel, fully functional as of this month, fits well within BiggyTV’s “inspirational target market,” according to its Chief Executive Kyle Borg.
As a BiggyTV affiliate, the church will turn millions of “eyes” every week on the video distributor, which will syndicate The Adventist Channel free of charge.
“As Internet users seek videos online that are more than just ‘funny clips,’ BiggyTV will be the destination site for these viewers due in part to The Adventist Channel,” Borg says.
Content on The Adventist Channel—ranging from health and wellness programs to music and mission videos—can be added directly to North America’s more than 5,500 individual church Web sites, says Fred Kinsey, the region’s church communication director.
The Adventist Channel is also available to anyone with an Internet connection and is accessible on cell phones and other mobile devices.
“We’re offering incredible content a church in, say, Omaha, Nebraska, can’t get by itself,” says Kinsey. “Digital video of this quality would be too expensive to create and distribute. It’s free for us, so it’s free for them.”
Current selections on The Adventist Channel include new and “recycled” videos—those previously used by other Adventist media. Kinsey says The Adventist Channel will add a dozen new videos each week.
Because BiggyTV operates by syndicating professional content to some 3,500 media affiliates rather than distributing amateur video submissions, Kinsey says viewers won’t have to sift through video clips to find what they want.
Adapting to an online audience will require the church to “rethink” its approach to media, Kinsey says. “We’re so used to putting together 30-to-60-minute spots,” he says. Research indicates most people watch online videos during work hours, which explains the average 9-minute video length, he says.
All BiggyTV content can be translated and made culture-specific, something Kinsey says will become valuable as the distributor draws an increasingly international audience.
The Adventist Channel, he adds, is not meant to replace or meddle with other church media, such as Hope Television. We want to figure out how to ‘cross-pollinate’ between HopeTV and The Adventist Channel.”
Plans are also drawn up to one day distribute the church’s quarterly Adventist Mission DVDs on The Adventist Channel. Thousands of dollars could be saved through online distribution of the DVDs, which are currently mailed to each church, Kinsey says.
To view The Adventist Channel, visit theadventistchannel.org. To suggest or submit a video, email Fred Kinsey.
