Church TV Programs – Counting the Costs

Written by Anthony D. Coppedge, CTS

Being sick has very few advantages. One of them is quality time in the recliner. As I sat in my recliner and watched TV, I decided to make a concerted effort to find as many church TV programs to watch as possible. If you decide to do that, as I did this past Sunday, you may also find yourself feeling sick after a few hours.

 Sure, there were a few of the nationally syndicated programs that didn't bring me to tears with things such as horrendous camera work, terrible directing, video quality worse than a third-generation copy of a VHS tape or audio that seemed to be run through a tin can prior to airing. Of these select few programs, only one or two had the ability to hold my attention for an extended period of time.

So it's not the amount of money, per se, that makes for a quality TV program, but rather compelling content.

Don't misunderstand me: I'm not saying that good quality equipment is optional. Far from it. Good quality video equipment, proper lighting, good technique and intelligible audio set up a TV program so that at least the major distractions of technology are not ruining the potential content. But content is still king.

However, during my extended church-TV-program experience, I found that most churches simply "push play" on the Sunday morning sermons. 30-minute church shows typically looked like this:
• Mediocre opening music/graphic/animation/voice-over
• Sermon opener - video or graphic
• Sermon (was it even edited for TV?)
• Either too many shots (no motivation for changing camera shots) or too few (boring talking head)
• Product pitch (buy the tape/disc)
• Closer music/graphic/animation/voice-over

Repeat this over and over again, and you start to experience death-by-church-service.

Where's the innovation? Where's the effort? What's the point?

A few services included a song or two, so I'm assuming they either paid the very expensive rates for rebroadcasting the music (not just a CCLI/CVLI license) or, more likely, they're ignoring U.S. copyright law and putting music in the show as filler.

I have bad news for the vast majority of churches on TV: most of your preachers aren't as good as they think they are. These may be very fine people who are more than capable of leading a local body. Heck, in your local context, your pastor may fit perfectly into the culture. But there's just not that many preachers who are top-drawer, gifted communicators.

So, I ask again: why have a TV show?

Look, even if the airtime is free, like it might be for your local cable channel, the show still costs a lot of money. Cameras, switchers, recorders, routers, monitors, tape stock, duplication equipment, test/measurement equipment, maintenance, staff salaries...the list goes on - that all takes a good chunk of money. Plus, there's the time for editing a TV show instead of creating/editing content for use in church services or in the church ministries. For many churches, the airtime isn't free, so add that expense in there as well.

At the end of the day, how much is your church spending on a TV program? I bet it's enough to fund at least two full-time people for in-house Media!

Here's a short list of questions you can use to help define the total cost and effectiveness of your church TV program:
• Have you counted the costs (as described above) to produce one year's worth of TV programs?
• Do you know the total amount of time and personnel it takes to make one TV program?
• How many people respond - physically - via mail, email, phone or in-person to each TV program?

Take the total cost per week and divide that into the total number of unique people (not the same dear lady who calls/writes every week) the program is generating a response from per week and you'll have the cost per person for your TV program.

If it costs you $5,000 per week in total monies (airtime, equipment, salaries, etc.) to create one TV show and you average five unique responses per week, that's costing you $1,000 per person, per week.

Now go ask your Children's minister what kind of local impact they could have with $5,000 per week. Or the Youth Minister. Or the Education Minister. Or the Soup Kitchen. Or...

Then go ask a media professional how much in-church content and local community marketing they could accomplish with that same $5,000 per week. Chances are your church could be a whole lot more effectively locally if you re-invested that money away from what is quite typically a mediocre broadcast.

Even if you don't spend all that much per week, what I witnessed on TV (again) makes me think that a bunch of churches are doing more harm than good with the completely amateurish video that passes for "broadcast quality".

For 95% of the religious programs I watched on TV, the church would give itself an image boost if the TV show was cancelled.

The time for new, fresh and innovative content from churches on TV is long overdue. Pay attention churches: You need to count the costs, or change the channel.

Anthony Coppedge provides consulting to Churches for developing and growing a Media Ministry,building teams, casting vision and even choosing the right equipment. He lives in Bedford, Texas with his wife and two daughters and can be reached at anthony@anthonycoppedge.com

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