Three New Adventist Television Channels to be Launched in the Caribbean Basin
From ANN, March 9, 2015: In an ambitious move, three new satellite television channels will be started during 2015 to operate in Spanish, French and English across the Caribbean and parts of Latin America. These are initiatives of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination’s Inter-American Division (IAD) and will join the worldwide Hope Channel sponsored by the denomination.
“Our main objective with the new channels is to present the gospel to our region in a culturally relevant context, provide opportunities for all language groups to minister to their constituencies, develop and expose nascent talents, and assist viewers who are seeking spiritual answer to their daily challenges,” stated Pastor Leon Wellington, communication director of the IAD.
The three operations will be named Hope Channel Américas, Hope Channel Caribbean, and Hope Channel Français. At a meeting last week communication professionals and denominational administrators from throughout the region worked to determine where to base each channel and discussed technical issues and needs.
Hope Channel’s president, Pastor Brad Thorp, congratulated IAD leaders for establishing the new channels. As communicators who influence the Adventist movement, who project the image of the Adventist faith, “Hope Channel is the window to the world as to who we are … carrying the compassion of Christ through our programs,” said Thorp.
Building a series of programs to fill three channels will be the first step before launching the actual transmission, said Thorp. Normally for a channel to launch, there must be at least 1,000 programs available and potential for additional productions, he explained. “We need good sermons, technical expertise in every story, in every report, and we need that element of compassion to come out to be up close and personal” he added.
Out of the 18 or so production centers throughout the region, Montemorelos media center and Inter-Oceanic Mexican media center are the two that have been consistently providing programming for Hope Channel’s Esperanza TV, said Abel Marquez, associate communication director for the IAD, who will oversee management of the three new channels. He said most of the rest of the production centers will provide programming for their regions and will create programs for the new channels.
More information on the three new channels is available at www.interamerica.org.
The Adventist News Network (ANN) is the official news agency of the Adventist denomination. Libna Stevens was the primary reporter for this news bulletin.
