Daystar droppped -- Hallmark coming in its place!

[mattb]

Slide on Channel 9713 now with KSBJ Audio

Daystar is gone, Hallmark channel coming soon in its place according to slide.

[jegrant]

I must admit I am not that disappointed to see Daystar go, as I felt that their programming mostly duplicated the ministries already available on many other SA channels.
I also think that the Hallmark channels are a good choice that fit well with Sky Angel.

I am wondering, however, if two more of the existing services will be dropped as they introduce the rumored "five" new channels. I really don't see any "easy" choices there.

[TNGTony]

Hallmark Channel is now on 9713 It clicked over at noon.

Channel 9730 will be Hallmark Movie Channel

See ya
Tony

[James Long]

Wow. At least they are channels that I'm not paying for twice. :D

Looks like Daystar really did lose in the SkyAngel/Echostar case.
I've watched Gospel Music TV a few times too ...

What will be the next Christian network pulled for a secular offering?

JL

[jegrant]

The way I read Sky Angel's explanation, it was Daystar's choice to not renew their contract to remain on Sky Angel. Surely, if Daystar had evidence to the contrary they would post it on their website or otherwise make it known.

I have mixed feelings about GMT - I never really watched it, but I know another SA subscriber who likes it quite well. I would hope that eventually SA might add the Gospel Music Channel (different from GMT) who recently signed a contract to carry all the repeat showings of the GMA (Dove) Awards shows - I think that GMC sounds like they are making more of an investment in programming than GMT has.

I do find it encouraging though, that GMT and SA will still work together to produce special events. I am wondering which "other SA channel" has agreed to carry a block of southern gospel - the one that came to my mind was Spirit.

[James Long]

I do find it encouraging though, that GMT and SA will still work together to produce special events. I am wondering which "other SA channel" has agreed to carry a block of southern gospel - the one that came to my mind was Spirit.Angel 2 comes to mind. Guardian could fill some of their PAX time with gospel.

JL

[jegrant]

GMT is running a ticker at the bottom of the screen at the top of each hour stating the following: SPECIAL ALERT - As of June 1, 2005, GMT will cease broadcasting on Sky Angel 9730 only. We will continue our partnership with SkyAngel to bring you special events on Sky Angel 1 and Sky Angel 2. Information will be posted soon on our website, http://www.gmtn.com/ .

I guess Angel 2 wins, then, and to some extent Angel 1. (I would guess SA wouldn't mind interrupting A2 as much as A1 for special events. Plus of course putting them on A2 makes them subscriber-only.)

I wonder if this means Hallmark Movie Channel will be activated very, very soon?

[mattb]

GMT is running a ticker at the bottom of the screen at the top of each hour stating the following:

I guess Angel 2 wins, then, and to some extent Angel 1. (I would guess SA wouldn't mind interrupting A2 as much as A1 for special events. Plus of course putting them on A2 makes them subscriber-only.)

I wonder if this means Hallmark Movie Channel will be activated very, very soon?


I would say Hallmark Movie Channel will appear around June 1st give or take then :-) It didnt take them long to replace Daystar with Hallmark, it was less than a day or maybe around a day if I remeber correctly.

And for those that say that E* does not know about any of this (fox news, hallmark etc) all of Skyangel's programming is uplinked at the Dish Uplink for 61.5, so the equipment reciving all the skyangel programming from the C-Band etc is all sitting in racks at Dish's HQ (most know that anyways since E* is providing uplink for SA.)

BTW, Angel 2 has plenty of room for Southern Gospel stuff, Angel 2 mostly rehashes stuff from Angel 1 ... So I am sure there is plenty of room :-)

[jegrant]

It occurs to me that it might be nice if one of the many stations on Sky Angel that carries Worship overnight could replace it (for their satellite feed at least) with GMT, and then interested viewers could record GMT's programming with a VCR or DVR to view at their leisure.
I agree, though, that Angel 2 has plenty of room.

I am somewhat surprised to see Hallmark Movie Channel taking this long to come on - perhaps GMT was only guaranteed a slot until June 1st, and now it's only on a "fill in" basis. I will agree that Hallmark was one of the faster additions in recent memory.

[James Long]

Hallmark Movie is there now.

JL