Church services broadcast on mainstream TV- who pays?

[BMR]

I notice this church in Raleigh in Carolina has its Sunday morning service broadcast live on Fox 50, the local Fox affiliate.

http://www.hbbc.org/worship-at-hbbc/hbbc-online-streaming-baptist-church-service/ (a quick check of the schedule at http://www.fox50.com/shows/schedule confirms this)

So who pays for this? It seems the church covers the cost of the cameras etc. What about the actual broadcast though?

Does the church simply buy airtime just as for an infomercial? Does Fox50 do this as a public service? Or do they show adverts during the service and find it a profitable part of the schedule?

 

[vchimpanzee]

WSOC-TV in Charlotte NC airs the First Presbyterian 11:00 service. The last time I saw it, there was some announcement beforehand that it was like an infomercial. Toward the end, they stopped the service and aired what looked like a commercial explaining what the church offers.

 

[b-turner]

Yes, such programming is paid for. In other words they approach the station and sign a contract to purchase that hour at a specific fee.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I should also mention that I believe the man who ran WSOC-TV was a member of that church.

 

[BMR]

Yes, such programming is paid for. In other words they approach the station and sign a contract to purchase that hour at a specific fee.

I wonder if anyone on here knows how much this sort of thing costs? Obviously specific deals would be confidential but a ball park figure would be interesting.

Even just an educated guess at the number of zeroes. ....

 

[ShawnHill1]

I wonder if anyone on here knows how much this sort of thing costs? Obviously specific deals would be confidential but a ball park figure would be interesting.

Even just an educated guess at the number of zeroes. ....

It all depends on the church/ministry, and its reach, whether it be locally, nationally, or internationally. Big-time teleevangelists like Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, and the like will pay nice sums of change to put their shows on any TV station/network willing to carve-out the time. Often times, a few of these preachers will buy time on more than one TV station in any given market. As far as actual dollar figure, it's probably the same rates that an infomercial company would a pay an individual station to air their products.

 

[BMR]

It all depends on the church/ministry, and its reach, whether it be locally, nationally, or internationally. Big-time teleevangelists like Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, and the like will pay nice sums of change to put their shows on any TV station/network willing to carve-out the time. .

Sure, but this didn't strike me as a big time televanglism operation. I watched one of the services via Vimeo, and it just struck me as a straight up local church service, fairly mainstream Christianity, not especially evanlanglistic at all. Indeed with the organ, the flowers, the traditional hymns and the Thee and Thou-ing in prayer I could have been watching ITV's Morning Worship from some Church of England church- had that particular show not finished nearly 20 years ago.

 

[formeraa]

Whether it's a large ministry or a local church, they pay for the airtime. Actually, these slots have become quite a bit more expensive over the years, as infomercials have competed with churches for airtime.

 

[umfan]

Some stations offer the 'Mass For Shut Ins' as a public service. The Detroit Fox affiliate does this. I don't think the Archdiocese pays for the airtime.

 

[Oscar Madison]

At the local level, church shows pay premium rate (much higher than anybody else would pay for Sunday morning), and it's a very easy sales thanks to preachers' egos. Some marginal operations stay in the Black thanks to church shows.

The mass for shut in shows have been on for a long time, since stations paid attention to public service obligations. In the ones I've seen, there's little or no preaching, they don't offer premiums or ask for money. If they did, it's likely stations would want them to pay up.

The spiritual benefit of the Eucharist comes in receiving it, not in watching it. And parishes generally have deacons or priests visit shut ins and give them the host (and administer the sacraments of healing), so a TV mass seems largely pointless.

 

[vchimpanzee]

The spiritual benefit of the Eucharist comes in receiving it, not in watching it. And parishes generally have deacons or priests visit shut ins and give them the host (and administer the sacraments of healing), so a TV mass seems largely pointless.

I'm not Catholic, so Communion, as we call it, is not all that important. However, shut-ins would surely want the music, the scripture reading and the preaching.

 

[frankberry]

From a purely business standpoint, I really can't imagine that a TV station would donate blocks of airtime to a particular church.
It would set a bad precedent for the station.

 

[davideduardo]

At the local level, church shows pay premium rate (much higher than anybody else would pay for Sunday morning), and it's a very easy sales thanks to preachers' egos. Some marginal operations stay in the Black thanks to church shows.

That may be the case at some stations, but in my experience over the last 20 years in larger markets church broadcasts don't produce good revenue and generally "trickle down" to the markets' smaller stations. The big money in early Sunday hours is in infomercials... anything from gardening based to personal injury lawyers. They pay much more than any church will or can.

As you say, marginal stations can feed off the church broadcasts. But larger stations that want to sell something early on Sundays will not find any big money with preachers.

 

[ixnay]

Some stations offer the 'Mass For Shut Ins' as a public service. The Detroit Fox affiliate does this. I don't think the Archdiocese pays for the airtime.

When I lived in the Philadelphia market in the '70s, WPVI did this. A "guitar Mass" (acoustic guitar accompanying hymns [one of the Vatican II reformation products IIRC]) from the Ch. 6 studio. Don't know if the slot was donated or sold. The broadcast even had a name: The Mass.

ixnay

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Whether it's a large ministry or a local church, they pay for the airtime. Actually, these slots have become quite a bit more expensive over the years, as infomercials have competed with churches for airtime.

also many stations now air news in the slots when the preachers used to buy airtime, forcing them onto CW/MYNet stations

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Some stations offer the 'Mass For Shut Ins' as a public service. The Detroit Fox affiliate does this. I don't think the Archdiocese pays for the airtime.

do they get a tax deduction?

 

[nomadcowatbk]

From a purely business standpoint, I really can't imagine that a TV station would donate blocks of airtime to a particular church.
It would set a bad precedent for the station.

do/did any stations in the bible belt do that?

 

[b-turner]

I can't say stations in the Bible Belt give away airtime but I'd bet the thought never crossed their mind. If anything the Bible Belt means more ministries and churches are around and interested in airtime.

In fact, from my experience you don't cut any church or ministry any slack or you might not get paid after they put you through the ringer on why they deserve a lower rate. Some (and I'm in radio) stations require advance payment. Some pay just fine and eagerly pay the rate. I had one tell me I should pray about the rates I charged. I said my rates were fair and they should pray about it because all things are possible with God. I got my rate which was maybe 5% below the going rate in town. So in essence, they are not much different than any business that would buy commercials.

 

[davideduardo]

do they get a tax deduction?

No. The expenses in doing a broadcast are already deductible as are all operating expenses. If done as a public service it is simply to both serve the community and to build an identity with the particular faith group being broadcast.