One billion people. That's the estimated worldwide reach of Trinity Broadcasting Network today. Not bad for a fledging network birthed out of a single UHF outlet in Southern California in 1973 on a wing and a prayer. From that modest beginning, TBN has emerged as the nation's favorite faith channel and the seventh largest broadcast group owner in the United States.
Thirty-three years later, TBN's founders, Dr. Paul Crouch and his wife Jan, are still at the helm. Ironically, Paul Crouch's initial goal was to become a missionary. While his dream of ministering personally overseas didn't work out, the network he has built station by station--adding cable, satellite and internet access along the way--now literally reaches all the way around the world; ranging from millions of viewers in powerhouse nations such as Russia and China to natives on obscure Pacific Islands.
Along the way, TBN has built a niche audience that rivals many secular networks in both size and loyalty. In a 2002 survey by Beta Research, cable subscribers were asked what networks they valued most. Amazingly, TBN ranked fourth among mid-sized networks, putting it on a par with such networks as A&E, Comedy Central and TBS. And those numbers stay consistent in areas such as viewership, where TBN is America's most watched faith channel (Nielsen's Net Weekly Cume Ratings, Feb. 2005); and demand, with TBN far and away the nation's most requested faith channel (Barna Research, Jan. 2005).
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