“Better Content Wins”

Submitted by Terry on Mon, 05/04/2009 - 11:10.
As I travel the world raising funds for SAT-7, I am sometimes asked, “Do you really feel that all this expenditure on television is worth it?” It’s true that satellite television is an expensive endeavour. It takes millions of dollars to acquire and translate, or to write, record, edit, produce and broadcast television programs. But no other medium can reach such a mass audience. In the Middle East and North Africa around 50 percent of the population is functionally illiterate. Therefore even if you could hand someone on the street a Bible or other Christian literature, only half of the people could read it. And only about 13% of people in the region have Internet access.

But satellite television is phenomenally popular here. A recent independent survey of Iraq found that 97% Iraqis have access to satellite TV. That high figure is also true in most Gulf nations. But even in the poorest of areas you will find rooftops in the Arab, Persian and Turkish worlds teeming with satellite dishes. Some Bedouins even use car batteries to watch satellite TV in their tents!

While the technology is important, the content is even more vital. A reporter who monitors American television for Newsweek Magazine recently described how a video-website showing programs from two major television networks was receiving much more advertising revenue than YouTube. His headline stated, “The moral of the story: better content wins.”

At SAT-7 we believe that better content does win more viewers, but it takes significant funding to make high-quality programs to for our more than ten million known viewers. We feel it’s an investment worth making. SAT-7 seeks to make great content, with Christian stories, on the highly-accessible medium of satellite television, in order that, as our Lord Christ said of teaching in parables, many “might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn...” so Christ can heal them (Matt 13:13).

Thank you for your support of SAT-7!