Holy Week for Gospel Music Channel, DirecTV
Cable Network to Launch on Satellite-TV Service Wednesday
By B&C Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/17/2008 10:13:00 AM MT
Gospel Music Channel will crack the DirecTV lineup Wednesday, which, for a 24/7 all-gospel/Christian-music channel, is heavenly timing -- smack dab in the middle of Holy Week.
By cracking DirecTV, the channel has now received carriage on cable or satellite-TV operations that reach into 40 million homes, which it claimed is the fastest growth spurt in cable history.
DirecTV will carry the network on channel 338.
On Sunday, Gospel will dub itself America’s Easter Channel and present a commercial-free marathon from 7 a.m.-7 a.m. (EST) Monday featuring artists of several Christian genres, including The Clark Sisters, The Isaacs, Austins Bridge, KJ52 and Tammy Trent.
“It’s not all women in robes,” vice chairman Brad Siegel said, refuting the idea that the channel is filled with gospel singers wall-to-wall.
Reaching the 40 million plateau, he added, “is like night and day with advertisers,” which generally don’t pay much attention to small channels.
