You’ve heard of iPhones, iPods and iPads. Now, get ready for iTBN.
Trinity Broadcasting Network, or TBN, has launched a new online service that aims to deliver its best programing—both past and present—to web audiences all over the world.
“Online broadcast is the future of TV,” says TBN’s Chief of Staff Paul Crouch Jr. “Whether through laptops, smartphones and mobile devices, or even TVs connected to the Internet at home, more people are watching their favorite shows from online sources.”
Indeed, streaming services like Hulu and Netflix have opened up a new horizon in television, one upon which TBN is hoping to capitalize with the launch of its iTBN.
“Through iTBN we’ve pulled together all the best from TBN’s vast broadcast archives, so our viewers can access many of the classic shows that have impacted them and their families through the years,” Crouch says. “Plus, they can pull up recent shows as well as watch TBN’s most popular networks in real time.”
Crouch explained that the launch of iTBN, along with the introduction of a TBN app for smartphones and mobile devices, is part of the network’s strategy to make Christian programming accessible to the increasing numbers of viewers spending less time watching traditional TV and more time online.
“Nearly 40 years ago, my parents helped introduce Christian television to America and the world,” he recalled of TBN’s founders Paul and Jan Crouch. “And today there’s a new generation of viewers who are poised to take Christian television’s popularity and extend it to the digital age, where they’re not tied down to broadcast schedules and big-box TV sets. They can watch what they want, when and where they want to watch it.”
The free service will give viewers access to TBN Classics, exclusive TBN programs viewers have enjoyed over the years, popular documentaries, educational and children’s programs, and movies. There are also on-demand viewing categories for Christian music, shows for teens, among others, as well as access to TBN networks like the Church Channel, JCTV, Smile of a Child, Enlace USA, Nejat TV in Farsi, and the Arabic-language Healing Channel.
“We designed iTBN to give viewers the most choices for the types of inspirational and family programming they want to watch, when they want to watch it,” Crouch says. “We think iTBN is a model service for a new generation of viewers.”
