One of my passions is Christian television - I've made a far amount of it in my life, some of it I'm quite proud of although budget was always an issue (not enough). (I worked on Turn 'Round Australia for 20 years for the Nine Network for Wesley Mission; the 'Discovering' series with Gordon Moyes [That's me on the left with DoP Rob Draper in the Judean Hills]; 'Face to Face for TEN and now the Australian Christian Channel)
Last month we saw the last commercial TV network drop their weekly half-hour Christian television spot provided to churches through the various Christian agencies. This was announced as they shared their plans for 2009. I asked the programmer if she realised she was announcing the end of what had been a forty year tradition? She didn't.
As I sat there with a colleague, I thought there should have been more I could have done to 'save the timeslot', but when there is no longer an obligation by the networks to air Christian programs and when some Christian agencies have not kept up the relationship between themselves and the network, the outcome is a foregone conclusion.
All Australian commercial networks say they'll 'consider' Christian programming at the appropriate time of the year, Easter and Christmas mainly - but weekly programs seem to have gone all together.
What do you think? Should commercial television networks in Australia provide this time at no cost or should they treat Christian programs on merit?
Be keen to have your comments ...
No comments:
Post a Comment