Христианская телевещательная сеть CBN: История и программы

Religious television station

The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is an American Christian media production and distribution organization. Founded in 1960 by Pat Robertson, it produces the long running TV series The 700 Club, co produces the ongoing Superbook anime, and has operated a number of TV channels and radio stations. Its headquarters are in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States. CBN has been described as having been "at the forefront of the culture wars since the network's inception in the early 1960s".

One of the company's mainstays is The 700 Club, which uses a religious variety program that mixes sermons, interviews, and religious music (such as hymns and gospel). Initially focused on devotional content, The 700 Club became increasingly political in the late 1970s, adding news segments. The company also produces a version of The 700 Club aimed at Spanish speaking Americans (Club 700 Hoy). CBN Asia manages Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation (OBI), an international relief and missionary effort, and has international programming, producing local programs including Solusi in Indonesia and From Heart to Heart in Thailand. CBN India produces three shows, a daily Hindi program Ek Nayee Zindagi, a bi weekly Telugu program Nireekshana and an award winning weekly Bengali program Samadhan. CBN has broadcast programs in over 70 languages. CBN now serves mainly as a production company for The 700 Club, and four other syndicated shows: CBN NewsWatch, Christian World News, 700 Club Interactive and The Brody File, a news analysis program hosted by one time political journalist David Brody. Some of CBN's programs also air on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Cornerstone Television, FamilyNet, LeSEA Broadcasting Corporation, TCT and Middle East Television, all of which are Evangelical Christian networks. The secular commercial stations that continue to air The 700 Club in syndication (along with Freeform) air CBN's annual telethon during the last week of January. The Charity Navigator gave CBN a 3 star overall rating, a 3 star financial rating and a 2 star accountability and transparency rating.

CBN was founded in 1960 in Portsmouth, Virginia by Pat Robertson, who had recently become a born again Christian. Its programming was funded by small donations from individuals and local churches. which broadcast a format of Christian music and teaching programs. In 1966, a daily talk program began on WYAH, which eventually became known as The 700 Club. The International 700 Club was first broadcast on November 7, 1976, in the Philippines. Its first classes began in September 1978. In Israel, METV was known for broadcasting WWF wrestling that was not available on Israeli TV. The station broadcast news, sports, family entertainment, and religious programming. In August 1988, the CBN Cable Network became The CBN Family Channel. Three of the over the air TV stations were sold between 1984 and 1989. WXRI radio in Portsmouth was also sold in 1989.

On January 8, 1990, the national TV network was sold to related entity International Family Entertainment (IFE). IFE was majority owned by the Robertson family, with a minority interest held by John C. Malone. The sale was said to have been done because the channel had become too profitable for CBN to maintain its non profit status. On September 15 that year, the newly sold channel rebranded as The Family Channel. It remained the most watched outlet for CBN programs. IFE went on to launch other TV channels in the US and UK, and planned to extend itself further. 1990 also saw CBN University become known as Regent University. The year 1990 was also when CBN programs began to be broadcast in the Soviet Union, and then in its successor states after they declared independence. It started with primetime specials, and later The 700 Club and Superbook. These broadcasts were followed by 190 rallies throughout the region that resulted in the establishment of 190 churches. Similar special projects were implemented in the Philippines and Romania in 1994. CBN Africa was established. In 1997, Turning Point International (TPi), an English language magazine program for people of African descent around the world, began. On June 5, 1997, METV launched its 24 hour programming broadcast on the Israeli satellite Amos 2. This allowed it to reach a potential audience of 200 million people in 15 nations including Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Cyprus. At this time, The Family Channel was the US's ninth largest cable network, reaching 67 million homes. Pat Robertson said that "We expect to continue to benefit from The Family Channel's growing family entertainment franchise." (The Family Channel was renamed Fox Family Channel in August 1998. The channel was then sold to The Walt Disney Company in 2001, which renamed it as ABC Family, later renaming it again to Freeform.) On March 24, 1999, the inaugural live broadcast of The 700 Club Asia aired. It has gone on to produce a number of TV shows in Hindi, Tamil and Bengali. CBN's Dallas TV station was sold in 2000. METV was sold to LeSEA Broadcasting in July 2001. On September 18, 2003, a US version of One Cubed launched, featuring extreme sports, music videos, and celebrity interviews. In 2004, Club 400 Hoy began as a daily program for Spanish speakers throughout the Americas. CBN Europe was established in the UK. In October 2004, The 700 Club With Paul and Fiona began airing for UK audiences. It was hosted by Paul Jones and Fiona Hendley Jones. It was later dubbed in Dutch. In 2005, kids program, A. S. T. I. G. (All Set to Imitate God), was launched by CBN Asia. Club 700 for German speakers, began on January 9, 2007. a weekdaily program, was launched in November 2011. began in about 2013. New program Oyayi began to be made by CBN Asia in 2016. During the Trump administration (2017–2021), CBN hosted events at Trump properties, paying at least $170,000. Subsequently, CBN obtained access to the White House that far larger news outlets typically received, and were given frequent exclusive interviews with senior administration staff, including Trump himself.

In the following tables, former CBN owned stations are arranged alphabetically by state and community of license. Note: Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station which was built and signed on by CBN.