The National Christian Network was a religious television network in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

which formed in 1979. The channel was founded by Ray A. Kassis and located in

Cocoa, Florida Cocoa is a city in Brevard County, Florida. The population was 19,041 at the 2020 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne– Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Etymology Several stories circulate amon ...

, where it owned studios. The programming was originated from

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, and

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

groups; at the time of launch 54 separate groups had shown interest. The network was the fourth satellite-fed Christian network to be launched, and was a competitor to the

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...

, the

PTL Satellite Network The PTL Television Network, often referred to as simply PTL, is an American evangelical Christian television network originally located in Fort Mill, South Carolina, founded by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in 1974 and dedicated in April 1977. During ...

, and the

Christian Broadcasting Network 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'' ...

. NCN shared the same

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

with the

Playboy channel Playboy TV (originally The Playboy Channel) is a pay television channel based in the United States. History The channel first launched on December 9, 1980, as Escapade by AMC Networks, Rainbow Programing Services (a joint-venture of four cab ...

. This caused a great deal of trouble for NCN, not because they shared the same

at different times of the day, but rather because NCN attempted to

broker A broker is a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be confu ...

time on its channel to Christian programmers who were led to believe (falsely) that every cable company that was carrying

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

was also carrying NCN. In fact most cable operators carried the

feed only during the hours that Playboy was transmitting programming, and they blacked out the NCN portion. Jerry Falwell acquired NCN in 1986, renaming it to the Liberty Broadcasting Network and moving its headquarters to Chesapeake, Virginia. At that time the network had an estimated 3 million viewers. LBN billed itself as the first "for profit inspirational network". The Liberty Broadcasting Network was renamed to FamilyNet in June 1988, and at the same time became a for-profit entity. The network had lost about $3.2 million each year, and Falwell associate / former PTL manager Dr. Jerry Nims was brought in to head the new network. FamilyNet was acquired by the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission in 1991. The SBC ran the network alongside its separately programmed

American Christian Television System The American Christian Television System (ACTS) was an American religious television network that was founded by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Plans for the network involved a distribution reach through a combination of low-power and fu ...

. In 1995 FamilyNet was available to 35 million homes through broadcast stations. The church sold FamilyNet to InTouch Ministries in 2007. In 2013, Rural Media Group purchased the network, converting the channel into the Western sports service

The Cowboy Channel The Cowboy Channel (formerly FamilyNet) is an American cable television network in over 42 million cable and satellite homes, which carries Western and rodeo sports. The network was founded in 1979 as the National Christian Network, and took th ...

at the start of 2018.

References

Christian television networks Television channels and stations established in 1979 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1986 Jerry Falwell {{US-tv-station-stub

See also

References