SkyAngel Plans Move to IPTV

[Gary Z]

2)buy Glorystar system for$200 (total cost for TV for 1 year $200)

The $200 is a one time cost for the equipment. After that there is no cost involved.

I'm on a fixed income also, and I got a small loan for my setup, payments were about $45.00 a month for 5 months. Its well worth the effort. Glorystar is growing and will get better. Also there are other Channels on the Glorystar Satellites that are not part of the Glorystar package but you can get any way. Like Russia Today an english news channel quite good.

 

[WayneG]

BTW Wayne, Jesus does want your money too! How could He want "all of you" without also hitting the money part? Checkout Crown Financial Ministries for some good information on that area. In fact, if your money is not in the right place, the other stuff won't be either. (Jesus said that your heart would be with your treasure.)

Brad, thanks for your comment. What I was getting at was that many people are taught to believe that if they only give to this ministry or to that ministry then God will bless them. But it's not about the money. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ. If that relationship is right then you will freely give to your church first and then to those ministries where God is at work. James 1:27 says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

I see several well known preachers who have been polluted by the world (with their mansions and expensive cars) while the ones that need help are being overlooked. A greater blessing would be to give our money to the poor and not to the false TV preachers.

Wayne

 

[ShaneLinder]

The problem seems that most Christians seem to hold a stereotype of Christian TV that it is just evangelistic preachers. It is not. Christian TV has cooking programs, healthful living programs, creationist science programs, cartoons and other children's programming, family-friendly movies, news broadcasts, historical documentaries, in-the-field mission reports, music videos, Christian concerts, political analysis, nature and animal programs. Sky Angel did a poor job of marketing and did a poor job of customer service. Look at some of the channels like Guardian, SafeTV, Spirit, TVU and Familyland. Those have a lot of entertaining programs on.

As far as Glorystar is concerned, few are interested in that service as well, including me. It has absolutely no channels that I (or most Christians) want.

They have the TBN suite channels which includes a children's channel and yet another for teens. So where SA had KTV for young children during the day and teens at night (when they should be in bed), Glorystar has two seperate channels for these two groups.

TBN and Daystar are both carried on the Glorystar system. These are among the most popular Christian channels.

They now have the Gospel Music Channel which many Christian enjoy.

One can even pick up a FOX affiliate out of Texas which has sports programs for those pastors that love sports so much. FOX Sports carries the NFL, MLB, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowel, Sugar Bowel, Daytona 500, Formula One races, including the United States Grand Prix and Canadian Grand Prix.

Of course more channels would be better. I think the Christian media landscape changes significantly with SA getting out of the DBS business and we will likely see more channels wanting to partner with Glorystar. I am actually concerned there won't be enough space on those two birds.

 

[ShaneLinder]

Brad, thanks for your comment. What I was getting at was that many people are taught to believe that if they only give to this ministry or to that ministry then God will bless them...

I see several well known preachers who have been polluted by the world (with their mansions and expensive cars) while the ones that need help are being overlooked. A greater blessing would be to give our money to the poor and not to the false TV preachers.

Wayne

I don't see that any preacher, at this point in time, should be drawing a salary of over $100K. However I think only a handful of the tele-evangelists we see on Christian TV are making more than that. And the laborer is certainly worthy of his or her hire.

I do believe it is wrong to entice people to give so that God will bless them. That turns the motive for giving on its head. That is, it gives the believer a selfish reason to give when giving is to be selfless. However in defense, many tele-evangelists use need to entice people to give. They do not promise blessings from God for offerings but rather show a need that exists. I believe that is the proper way to solicit offerings and I think many of us do not honestly believe we give enough to charity anyway.

 

[Mr Tony]

If I am not mistaken, Skyangel does have a mux on one of the Cband sats that currently have Angel 1, Angel 2 and KTV on it according to lyngsat. Cband AMC4 at 101 if I remember right.

not anymore

TVU and Spirit could easly end up on E* if E* is willing to add them.. those two channels have been shopped to catv providers.

sure they could

What I think would be crazy to see is E* get an agreement to offer the channels skyangel currently has, bundle them in a package on 61.5, which current SA customers could sub to after all I know E wants to rid of Mpeg2 but they could keep skyangel's former customers happy (minus the life longers) by offering a package on the bird so equipment is not completely useless.

Dish would find a way to reuse the transponders if they wanted (HD locals hint hint)

 

[Mr Tony]

The $200 is a one time cost for the equipment. After that there is no cost involved.

exactly...and when channels are added Glorystar won't come asking for money

. Glorystar is growing and will get better. Also there are other Channels on the Glorystar Satellites that are not part of the Glorystar package but you can get any way. Like Russia Today an english news channel quite good.

exactly. And you can decide whether to log those channels in or not. Russia Today and dare i Say Al Jazeera English are very good news channels.

 

[lumpkin666]

I don't see that any preacher, at this point in time, should be drawing a salary of over $100K. However I think only a handful of the tele-evangelists we see on Christian TV are making more than that. And the laborer is certainly worthy of his or her hire.

I do believe it is wrong to entice people to give so that God will bless them. That turns the motive for giving on its head. That is, it gives the believer a selfish reason to give when giving is to be selfless. However in defense, many tele-evangelists use need to entice people to give. They do not promise blessings from God for offerings but rather show a need that exists. I believe that is the proper way to solicit offerings and I think many of us do not honestly believe we give enough to charity anyway.

$100k is not all that much anymore I could not see how a large family could live comfortably in a metropolitan area on that income. However, I don't believe that a preacher should draw any salary from the church. I was a bishop for several years and never took a dime from the church - I also worked full-time as a software engineer during my term as bishop in order to earn a living, and donated 10+% to the church.

I can see how difficult it can be to help people understand the blessings that come from giving themselves to God when their attitudes and thoughts are so far from that total concept. No approach or teaching methodology can work for every individual or circumstance. Yet, my experience has been that those who give (fully desirous or somewhat hesitant at first) a full tithe (or more) to God are enticed by their own human nature to do so with a desire to understand the basis for this giving (as human nature would not allow one to simply toss money away without cause).

If you build a framework of teaching and understanding and reinforce this concept in services and group teachings, it will promote a higher spiritual desire/relationship for those who give money to God, thereby causing them to give themselves more fully. God knows human nature, and has provided this mechanism to allow us to bring people closer to him. Much of what I see bringing people closer to God and motivating them to devote their talents to him more fully are, on the surface, selfishly motivated by a desire to obtain blessings from him (for themselves or for others). Actions are motivated by desires, and sometimes you need to motivate the actions in others in order to help them build their own just desires.

With that said, turned on a free Christian station yesterday and watched an infomercial for some wonder-drug. The whole thing was eery, watching these people talk in subdued voices and praising this drug like it was a gift from God. I know that these channels have to make money, but wow! I could just imagine how many unsuspecting individuals were thinking this was a religious person advising them, when in reality it was just very clever marketing (kudos to the marketing department!)

 

[Mr Tony]

The problem seems that most Christians seem to hold a stereotype of Christian TV that it is just evangelistic preachers. It is not. Christian TV has cooking programs, healthful living programs, creationist science programs, cartoons and other children's programming, family-friendly movies, news broadcasts, historical documentaries, in-the-field mission reports, music videos, Christian concerts, political analysis, nature and animal programs.

very well put Shane. I was one of them (in your 1st sentence) until I actually watched some of the channels. Now I really enjoy TLN and a few of the TBN mux channels

Look at some of the channels like Guardian, SafeTV, Spirit, TVU and Familyland. Those have a lot of entertaining programs on.

but remember...they added the secular channels

They now have the Gospel Music Channel which many Christian enjoy.

this was a very good addition to Glorystar. Enjoy a lot of programs on there

One can even pick up a FOX affiliate out of Texas which has sports programs for those pastors that love sports so much. FOX Sports carries the NFL, MLB, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowel, Sugar Bowel, Daytona 500, Formula One races, including the United States Grand Prix and Canadian Grand Prix.

But remember....some people feel that anything secular is wrong

Of course more channels would be better. I think the Christian media landscape changes significantly with SA getting out of the DBS business and we will likely see more channels wanting to partner with Glorystar. I am actually concerned there won't be enough space on those two birds.

I have a feeling there wil stil lbe enough space. there are a couple transponders on G25 (IA5) that are not full yet and could accept a lot more channels. Hopefully they are added soon

 

[JeffH]

Some very good points have been made here, but you don't have to sell me on Christian television, I've been watching it since the 70's and have had Sky Angel for ten years.

The fact remains, most Christians are not interested and I think that the ratings would prove that out. It's not only the programming but the hardware itself; many people don't want a satellite dish on or around the house.

Final comment, I wouldn't recommend "Christian" content providers such as TBN or Daystar to anyone. They (and others) are a hot bed for false teachers. One exception to that is Way of the Master.

A couple of good links:
Christian Research Net
Christian Worldview Network

Jeff

 

[elder]

Glorystar sells systems for a profit, but does that also finance transponders? I am wondering how Glorystar can make it while SA flounders, what am I missing?

I am an elder in a home fellowship of about 15 people, four families of which have SA. Of the four, three are lifetime subscribers. One advantage of a home fellowship is no overhead, we all give to missions and charities of our choice.

 

[lumpkin666]

I believe that GloryStar just acts as an intermediary to get religious channels a reasonably priced transponder space. They basically setup advertising and space on a satellite through another company and the religious channels see this as a desireable outlet (given that there will be a larger install base of clients than there would be if they just picked any old sat/transponder to deliver their message)

These channels probably fund their transponder usage via donations/external funding/advertising. Remember that SA probably moved on because they weren't making any money. That doesn't mean that the channels that they included in their package didnt make money. I'm betting that these channels make money or support their transponder usage on these lower-power lower-demand sats pretty easily.

 

[mattb]

I believe that GloryStar just acts as an intermediary to get religious channels a reasonably priced transponder space. They basically setup advertising and space on a satellite through another company and the religious channels see this as a desireable outlet (given that there will be a larger install base of clients than there would be if they just picked any old sat/transponder to deliver their message)

that's likely true. I know for a fact, a lot of TVU and Spirit's viewer ship support comes from the viewers who watch on skyangel... that keeps their uplink bills paid and keeps them avail to skyangel to rebroadcast to their customers.

Now the thing that bothers me and i am not singling out or saying skyangel is bad..
but..

where they paying for uplink to E*s bird? most of the channels on skyangel are all cband or ku... those channels where downlinked on the big dishes at E*'s uplink and basically muxed thru the processing to uplink on E*'s 61.5 from E*'s uplink center.. so if skyangel did not pay for uplink use in trade for the satellite transponders that E* used (the 6) where did all skyangel's $$$ go?

 

[ShaneLinder]

I am not sure I follow that. From what I understand, the channels broadcasting on SA all did so on C-band. SA would download these channels c-band broadcasts and then turn around and uplink them to E-III so they could be rebroadcast on SA. SA did not change any of these channels for this. So, I believe, SA only source of income was subscriptions.

 

[Mr Tony]

not all the channels were C-Band but a fair amount of them. Some channels I have no clue how SA is getting them since they weren't listed anywhere

But yes..normally those channels on C-Band Dish could pluck from the sky, compress them and reuplink on Echo III

 

[ShaneLinder]

many people don't want a satellite dish on or around the house.

I was listening to Kim Comando on the radio the other day. I don't know where she got her information from but according to her, satellite users are more satisfied with the customer service they receive from their providers than cable customers are from cable companies and once the technology becomes affordable for these satellite companies are likely to take a big piece of the DSL market.

I wouldn't recommend "Christian" content providers such as TBN or Daystar to anyone. They (and others) are a hot bed for false teachers.

I know what I believe and, of course, I believe other religious faiths are "false" or wrong. However since I am a sinner, I am quite subject to being wrong myself. How do I know others aren't right and I am not wrong? Each of us has our own spiritual journey to work out. A very small percentage of religions will harm the individual but for the most part, any religious experience is going to be more helpful than harmful. The harmful religions I speak of are the cults and are among many harmful things in a society that a person can fall into and I am not aware of them getting too much air time on most Christian channels.

Basically each of us has free will. I think it wrong to try and convert others to our beliefs by preventing them from hearing other beliefs. If other beliefs are false, than those that we hold which are true, should stand in stark contrast. As an example. I am a Seventh-day Adventist. I thus believe in some very distinct doctrines that I believe are true like the literal return of Jesus as opposed to the secret rapture and the holiness of Saturday as opposed to Sunday. If I am correct in what I believe, that should become apparent to the earnest seeker of truth when he or she sees both sides presented on different channels and is able to compare and contrast them. The truth need not fear investigation.

 

[jegrant]

Thank you for offering a balanced point of view. This is why I feel Christian broadcasters should feel no threat from Muslim, Hindu, etc. broadcasters - people have free will and should be able to make up their own mind. If the truth is the truth, it will stand up against anything that can be thrown at it.

 

[elder]

In SA's favor I have never seen anything aired that could be construed as pro-abortion, pro-choice or a vote for those who so believe. Also most channels are pro-creation.

 

[rcwilcox]

SA reply

I got this back from SA about my inquiry regarding what will happen to lifers:

Thanks for your email. I apologize for the delay in responding.

The terms of your lifelong subscription state that the subscription is for the life of the satellite delivery system. It is unfortunate that we have been unable to solicit the financial support to continue offering that service. We value your support for our vision and will be communicating with you, as one of our subscribers, in the coming months about how you will be able to continue to receive high-quality Christian and family programming via Sky Angel.

Thank you for writing Sky Angel.

God bless.


In His Service,

Jennifer
Customer Relations Director
Sky Angel

 

[JeffH]

I was listening to Kim Comando on the radio the other day. I don't know where she got her information from but according to her, satellite users are more satisfied with the customer service they receive from their providers than cable customers are from cable companies and once the technology becomes affordable for these satellite companies are likely to take a big piece of the DSL market.



I know what I believe and, of course, I believe other religious faiths are "false" or wrong. However since I am a sinner, I am quite subject to being wrong myself. How do I know others aren't right and I am not wrong? Each of us has our own spiritual journey to work out. A very small percentage of religions will harm the individual but for the most part, any religious experience is going to be more helpful than harmful. The harmful religions I speak of are the cults and are among many harmful things in a society that a person can fall into and I am not aware of them getting too much air time on most Christian channels.

Basically each of us has free will. I think it wrong to try and convert others to our beliefs by preventing them from hearing other beliefs. If other beliefs are false, than those that we hold which are true, should stand in stark contrast. As an example. I am a Seventh-day Adventist. I thus believe in some very distinct doctrines that I believe are true like the literal return of Jesus as opposed to the secret rapture and the holiness of Saturday as opposed to Sunday. If I am correct in what I believe, that should become apparent to the earnest seeker of truth when he or she sees both sides presented on different channels and is able to compare and contrast them. The truth need not fear investigation.

All I said is that I would not "recommend" TBN or Daystar (among others); I do believe they are a hot bed for false teachers. Fair enough? I think all beliefs should be examined and tested against Scripture (practice Hermeneutics) and Sky Angel could be a good platform for that to happen. I am looking forward to their IPTV service. See ACTS 17:11 about the Bereans. This is my last post in this thread.

 

[andrews777]

All I said is that I would not "recommend" TBN or Daystar (among others); I do believe they are a hot bed for false teachers. Fair enough? I think all beliefs should be examined and tested against Scripture (practice Hermeneutics) and Sky Angel could be a good platform for that to happen. I am looking forward to their IPTV service. See ACTS 17:11 about the Bereans. This is my last post in this thread.

That would include the "hyper Calvinists" who usually are the first to cry "heretic".

Brad