Onward Christian Prodcos

With more than 40% of all US citizens calling themselves Evangelical Christians, it's no wonder the market for faith-based entertainment is experiencing a bit of a boom these days. And disciples such as Big Idea Productions and PorchLight Entertainment know that the Christian broadcast landscape is a great brand-building platform that can set a property up to make waves in the US$5-billion retail market for religious books, gifts, music and videos.

Interim GM Leslie Ferrel says 2007 was Big Idea's most lucrative year yet. Its VeggieTales franchise, widely regarded as the holy grail of Christian market crossover, has sold 52 million videos, 13 million books and seven million CDs since it was created in 1993. Last year's theatrical release, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, and 2002's Jonas and the Pirates brought in combined box office revenue of US$40 million. And this fall, Big Idea is making hay on VeggieTales' 15th anniversary with new merchandise, a 50-city stage show, and a re-mastered release of inaugural video, Where's God When I'm S-Scared?

At Christian retail, Ferrel says the brand represents 50% of total kids market share. And it drives a lot of traffic into specialty Christian shops with its signature four- to 12-foot sections devoted to the whole VeggieTales' line of product. In terms of mainstream broadcast strength, the VeggieTales series also consistently ranks number-one on NBC's qubo Saturday morning kids block, giving up the honor only occasionally to another Big Idea faith-based series, 3-2-1 Penguins!

Taking note of the obvious appetite for faith-based fare, a few mainstream kids prodcos are launching new projects into the religious kids market this year. L.A.'s PorchLight Home Entertainment recently rolled out a specialty vid label called PorchLight Inspire, which encompasses a DVD range for PBS series Adventures from the Book of Virtues, based on Simon & Schuster's The Book of Virtues. Three individual DVDs and a box set will roll out on shelves in August, and Inspire is also planning to release faith-based versions of Jay Jay the Jet Plane episodes on DVD for the first time in Q1 2009.

Also jumping on the opportunity is L.A.-based distributor MarVista Entertainment, which recently added two Christian properties to its library of kids programming: a 13 x half-hour series for preschoolers called BJ's Teddy Bear Club and Bible Stories, and one-hour CGI movie The Hidden Treasure of Wompkee Wood.

Broadcasting faith

BJ's pre-existing broadcast home is Santa Ana, California-based Trinity Broadcasting Network, which airs a Saturday morning kids block from 2 a.m. to 12 p.m., as well as operating a 24-hour US digital channel called Smile of a Child that reaches into 2.3 million cable households and three million digital households.

Smile of a Child's director of programming Brenda Rossman says starting up the channel two years ago pushed the network to significantly beef up its portfolio of kids content. An open call for pilots and a focused scouting mission at the National Religious Broadcasters' annual conference in February 2006 yielded a mix of half-hour preschool and kids shows as well as specials and movies that run on Friday and Saturday nights.

Viewer favorites that run multiple times a week include: Gina D's Kids Club, a hosted live-action sing-a-long preschool show by Raven Moon Entertainment; Bible-centric adventure-comedy Pahappahooey Island (Guiding Light Video); and The Giddy Gander Company's The Wumblers, a 2-D animated preschool series that promotes diversity. Rossman says the main criteria she looks for in pitches are the virtues of the Bible and compliance with the FCC's educational mandate for broadcasting to kids.

TBN is just one of a handful of well-established religious broadcasters based in the US that has taken advantage of the emergence of expanded channel capacity and broadband to target kids specifically with dedicated nets. Headquartered in Naples, Florida, Sky Angel is a multi-channel TV operator with an IPTV kids channel called KTV that recently launched on Dish Network, a DBS service based in Colorado that plays to 14 million viewers. Through its subscription packages, Sky Angel is also the first Christian service to offer a lineup of mainstream, family-friendly channels such as Discovery Kids and Animal Planet.

One of KTV's top performers is an original production called Halo Baby, a Baby Einstein-like program that combines scriptures with basic curriculum such as colors and numbers. In terms of acquisitions, Sky Angel Productions VP Hope Daley says La Rana Productions' Swamp Critters, whose life-size singing puppets play to four- to eight-year-olds, and musical preschool series My Bedbugs (by Greenestuff Incorporated) are also viewer faves on the VOD service. Daley would love to diversify her lineup with a Christian tween program with the same flavor as Hannah Montana and some kids gameshows.

The broadcast day on KTV is broken up into age-defined blocks that are designed to accommodate half-hour shows. The preschool block airs from 5 a.m. to noon, followed by a strand for elementary school kids until 4:30 p.m. and teen programming until 1 a.m. In the four remaining overnight hours, the channel picks up a lot of college-aged viewers with Christian music videos.

Based in Virginia Beach, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is another big player, having built up a broad library of animated series and specials over 30 years serving the audience. Working with a non-profit budget, director of animation and creative services Angela Costello is able to produce about six episodes a year working with in-house pre- and post-production resources and freelance animators. As for acquisitions and co-productions, Costello says a lot depends on the benevolence and messaging priorities of partners. The American Bible Society, for example, co-produced a special with CBN to help kids deal with post-9/11 grief. It aired on the network and was also distributed as a DVD to counseling centers and fire departments. In terms of what kinds of kids content the net is interested in, Costello says, "I have no flexibility when it comes to the morality or integrity of programs. We can't be funny just to be funny - not if it's in detriment to the message of hope, kindness, peace and 'God loves you.'"