Most media ministries have never had to listen, and they struggle with change. With that in mind, here’s what I predict: As donors stop giving to the same old traditional Christian TV appeals, here’s
what will happen:
1. Many of those ministries will panic and start doing “emergency appeals.” We’re seeing some already. There’s enough of the older donors left who respond to these appeals, but the income will be short lived. The ministries will discover the long term PR damage won’t be worth the short term financial fix. It will leave a distaste – particularly with a younger audience – who will turn elsewhere with their support.
2. They’ll bring in the fundraising “A Team.” You know the guys – the same few that always appear during telethons. In fact, they’re appearing on so many different Christian TV networks these days, it’s hard to tell the networks apart anymore. Telethons will increase as panic increases.3. Some will close their doors. The really hard core ministries will refuse to acknowledge that the lights at the end of the tunnel are the lights of an oncoming train and just keep driving into oblivion.
4. A fortunate few will see the shift coming and respond accordingly. They will realize that with a handful of exceptions, the day of the big media ministries is over, and re-tool to reach a new generation in a new way. They’ll control spending and streamline strategically to get through the transition, while working on a longer range media strategy that connects to a new generation of donors.
Brace yourself. Whatever you like or dislike about religious media, it’s about to get worse. Most of the media ministries you see today are already struggling, but too many refuse to see the reality of the change they need to make.
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I think we’re seeing the logical conclusion of the old, “you can fool some of the people all of the time…”. The “all” who’ve been fooled some are are coming to their senses and realize the story doesn’t have a happy ending. The “some” who’ve been fooled all of the time are finally either broke or giving up to take care of other debts. The demographic base is finally getting old enough that they can’t keep pumping money into these things that never pay back.
But there will always be a few who are willing to pay for a while in the hope that they’ll be the ones who invested in the “next great move of God”.
I’m also unconvinced that as a medium “Christian” t.v. CAN get better.
I want to buy his book The Last TV Evangelist. It looks quite good…
I found the comments under Dr. Cooke’s posts interesting.
Many are industry people and genuinely believe they are (or did) what they did for a living as evangelists. They believe completely they actually brought the gospel through their medium.
One of the things which struck me recently with Crossroads (100 Huntley Street) was a clip of a founders family banquet held at the behemoth in Burlington.
The crowd was older, I wondered if those scammed in the Driver/Axcess ponzi scheme showed up.
Crossroads is attempting cross-platforming for 100 Huntley Street with a Facebook fan page, a twitter feed which is currently show promos and with a You Tube channel.
They tried to ease in a new CEO by not saying anything for weeks.
I assume that was to not upset the built up donor and viewer base left.
The internet attempts are a build it and they will come approach, but I don’t see that happening. The ‘new’ TV programming so is shorter re-edited already aired material.
The best hope so far the Friday womans talk show, but it isn’t going to sustain the infrastructure.
The kids programming is re-runs, and the financial appeals are being directed to grandparents.
The Miracle Channel isn’t even attempting social networking yet, I haven’t broken down the shows to see what’s they are attempting, most of them are US based anyway.
I’ve not even glanced at Vision yet. Joy TV and Grace TV aren’t on my radar either.
People are complaining about the copious fundraisers at The Miracle Channel, Crossroads has doubled theirs.
At Crossroads and CTS emails aren’t being answered, or are taking the time a letter takes for an answer. Out of all the queries I made this summer, I received two replies. One reader waited 2 weeks for an answer to a simple question.
When the PTL scandal broke in the 80′s giving dropped 60% across the board; TV ministries entrenched, dug in and decided not to respond to observers, media, critics.
Some of Cookes commenters don’t distinguish between church broadcasts and the networks that carry them.
A Canadian wire service called 100 Huntley Street a ‘church’ this summer in the ponzi scheme coverage and there was no effort on the part of Crossroads to correct the error.
Another element to add to the 100 Huntley-Crossroads
situation is the absence of “names” making an appearance
on the program. In the first weeks of January, Dr. Don
Colbert appears as a daily guest for a week on 100 Huntley
Street. I wouldn’t expect him this year. He was on
Hagee’s nightly program all last week.
Colbert and others like him were regulars on 100 Huntley
and now they’re not there. Any names shown on the
program have–by and large–been taped repeats.
It could be that these types of programs are feeling their
age and are getting out of fashion. Newspapers and
magazines are also feeling the same with closures
in every quarter. Perhaps the internet and other social
networking sites are the upcoming answer. That would
explain the shift at Crossroads.
No matter how greatly David Mainse promoted the
new electronic form, the result is anaemic and doesn’t
live up to its billing.
It’s like the Chernenko or Franco death watch
all over again. Just waiting for the final gasp.
I don’t see CTS or Crossroads acknowledging they are in their final gasps at all.
The donor base is a key to this operation continuing.
I’ll lay you 10:1 odds Crossroads will look outside the donor base for funding this year.
Seeking dollars elsewhere makes sense given the background of the new CEO and probably now amalgamated Crossroads/CTS board. Makes sense given the move The Miracle Channel did with the appointment of Fontaine as their new CEO.
I like Dr. Cooke’s piece, he’s clear and concise and I want his book.
I found some of his other posts interesting as well. He is saying what other me;dia observers have been saying for years he is addressing the subset of evangelicals in the US who would find him credible and accept his observations.
Rick Hiebert wants to read this book, I want to read this book. I think we should find a way to get it and circulate it to any BDBO readers interested.
In an ideal universe, Canadian religious broadcasting would be delivered on speciality channels and not chewing up tax payer dollars. I’d be less inclined to be so frustrated with the aggregious behavior we’re seeing if we weren’t required to pay for it.
The CRTC religious programming policy was due to be reviewed, and no one is holding their breath they’ll get around to it anytime soon.
Torontonian, for quite awhile 100 Huntley has been pulling guests from the US. While some cross over is appreciated, the balance has tipped to a circular religious tv talk show circuit. Easy enough to check my hypothesis.
It would be interesting to do some sample guest comparisons pre- Axcess finder acknowledgement, after Axcess.
There are wealthy PAOC (Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada) donors who are not prepared to see Crossroads Christian Communications Inc or CTS succumb to the market.
This week alone 100 Huntley has a guy named Brandon Pope (financial guru from the US), an outfit out of Alabama, a musician out of Florida. The two Canadian guests are women, one of whom is a former Crossroads employee. I doubt they’d get time on a US religious broadcast or network.
I don’t blame Crossroads bookers, being on 100 Huntley Street is a choice.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if many Canadians former and potential guests are wisely and quietly backing away.
What’s the up side to appearing on 100 Huntley Street?
ah. Here’s some free money…
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/p090514.htm
CTS is the 7th largest broadcaster in Canada?
And they have their hand out publicly asking for more at Our Cause?
“No matter how greatly David Mainse promoted the new electronic form, the result is anaemic and doesn’t live up to its billing.”
I had a look at Huntley Street’s youtube channel and so far it has
1,198,338 total upload views. I’m not sure that qualifies as anaemic.
Hi to-Torontonian:
You are correct. The YouTube stats say over 1 million view uploads, over 900 subscribers and 406 friends.
100 Huntley Street has had it’s YouTube channel operational since December 2008 – 12/1/2 months.
Let’s define the terms using the YouTube glossary.
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?topic=13660
Subscriber:
“When you subscribe to a user’s videos or favorites, you will receive email notifications whenever they’ve posted new content on their channel.”
Upload:
“An upload is content which is posted to a server. When you upload videos to YouTube you are loading your video file onto our server which will then host it for you to share with other users.”
Channel:
“A channel is the page which is viewable by the general public and contains a user’s profile information, videos, favorites, etc.”
Friend:
“Names of the contact list.”
Views:
“A view occurs when a person watches your video. In order to preserve accuracy in view counts, we identify irregular playbacks such as spam and remove these from viewcount.”
Playlist:
“A Playlist is a collection of videos that can be watched on YouTube, shared with other people, or embedded into websites or blogs.”
I applaud Crossroads for attempting 2.0, if they don’t they are done. The average age of a 100 Huntley Street TV viewer is 54.
A new demographic and donor base isn’t optional if this charity wants a future. The same holds true for CTS.
A YouTube channel is a start, as is Facebook, Twitter, podcasts etc.
A couple of CTS on air personnel are attempting blogs and I see 100 Huntley Street is trying a topic blog. (book)
The bottom line for any media business and 100 Huntley Street as a charity, is whether or not cross platforming brings donor dollars to maintain content production.
If I am understanding the terminology correctly 100 Huntley Street has uploaded 1,581 videos to their YouTube channel.
I counted 440 available as of today.
The videos are diverse, music – social issues – politics – faith – celebrites – authors – missions – children.
Comments range from 1 year ago to 4 months ago.
We’ll hold YouTube to it’s word and say uploads numbers are sans spam.
The average 100 Huntley TV viewer is about 54.
We haven’t a clue what viewer numbers are.
We don`t have a clue if cross-platforming is going to translate into tomorrow`s donors.
I enjoy the fact YouTube provides some numbers openly since Crossroads isn’t going to.
We’ll assume YouTube viewers are a younger demographic than TV viewers.
How does Crossroads YouTube channel usage stack up with other religious media organizations also using YouTube?
As to anaemic, I agree with Torontonian. He was speaking about content.
To quote Bene,
” As to anaemic, I agree with Torontonian. He was speaking about content.”
——
Actually, I wasn’t talking about just the content; I was referring
to the overall efforts by the collective that are 100 Huntley Street
and CTSTV.
Together, they’re an anaemic operation and it shows–day by day.
Sorry for speaking for you Torontonian.
I don’t know how bad things are structurally and economically at 100 Huntley Street and CTS.
I think as an organization it is crippled, and I don’t know if it will or should bounce back.
Re-runs and bad content are indicatators there is a lot more to deal with than poor content.