One of the best ways ministries reach large audiences is via television. Many of the largest megachurches have a complimentary Television Ministry that usually puts their pastor in front of millions every week via television channels like TBN, BET, The Church Channel, ABC Family and The Word Network. These channels as well as others had high entry fees and the production costs to create professional television show were also barriers to numerous churches establishing a television presence.
Fast forward to today and there are numerous online video options for ministries such as youtube.com, facebook.com, vimeo.com, ustream.tv and even creating your own online campus for archived video viewing. While these options are great and can create a great online viewing experience for users via their laptops, desktops and mobile devices, they still don’t tap the builtin television audience that traditional channels reach.
Well the future is coming! I was reading an article at Zdnet on Apple TV, Google TV, Roku boxes and the entire Internet TV emerging market. These new devices are setting up the framework for people to integrate the living room TV, which is prime real estate, with the internet. The majority of people haven’t integrated the internet into their main viewing televisions but these devices are helping make the process a seamless transition. Now, the question is, how can ministries take advantage of these emerging opportunities? I’m glad you asked...
Internet TV is mainly ran by apps and the open web, thus instead of ministries having to spend thousands of dollars weekly to keep their television show on the air in your local area, they can create apps for these Internet TV devices one time and update them with new shows for a fraction of the costs. Google TV uses apps that are similar to the apps you can create for their android phones and tablets. Likewise, Apple TV will open their device up to apps that are similar to what’s created for their iPhone, iPod and iPad devices. Lastly, Roku devices uses apps that are able to be created in a timely manner and not complex or overwhelming for a programmer. Overall, the costs of making a ministry app for these devices that people can view from their televisions is vastly less than the cost of running a nationwide television campaign. Of course, the technology has not reached maturity yet and the majority of people do not have Internet TV devices, but their audiences are growing and the future generations that churches are trying to reach are already familiar with this technology.
If your ministry or church is interested in learning more about Internet TV solutions and how they can take advantage of this upcoming opportunity, please contact us.