Giving Opportunities

Program Production Sponsorship

One of the most direct and effective ways you can minister to the people of the Middle East and North Africa is by underwriting the production costs of a program. Since the most popular and effective programs are often the most costly to produce, budget limitations often dictate the number of the best quality programs that can be produced.

For example Middle Easterners love dramas. But since they are also among the most expensive programs to produce, the SAT-7 budget only allows for a very limited number to be produced.

Another example is sitcoms. Kids, especially, love sitcoms. But they are also expensive. Other examples are documentaries and music videos. All are popular but pricey to produce. By underwriting one of these popular programs you can have a direct part of increasing the popularity of the channel and in this way help to reach thousands–perhaps millions–who otherwise would not be reached.

Longevity

While a few programs (such as live news or public affairs programming) can only be broadcast once, many programs have a long shelf life. Like a good book, a good television series is a valuable asset for years to come. Typically a program will be broadcast several times when it is new to reach people in different time zones, then the series will be rerun from time to time for years. How many times have you seen, and still enjoyed, some of the old "I Love Lucy" episodes?

Audience

We cannot report with precision the audience size for a particular program. There are no Nielson ratings in the Middle East. Yet we can make some reasonable estimates based on scientifically conducted independent research. We know that there are about 250 million Arabic-speaking adults in the Middle East and North Africa. Of these, about half (and increasing) have access to satellite television. There are, of course, other channels they can watch – at least 300 of them in Arabic! So, how many actually watch SAT-7?

Research done in several Arabic-speaking countries by InterMedia (www.InterMedia.org), an international research company, found that a total of 8 million adults said they had watched SAT-7 ARABIC within the past year. This did not count children or viewers of SAT-7 KIDS or SAT-7 PARS.

About half of this number of adults – about 4 million – said they had watched SAT-7 ARABIC within the past week. From this it seems safe to infer that an episode run several times for different time zones would reach an audience of a million adults or more, not counting children. By the same logic, it seems reasonable that over time a series could reach an audience of several million, several times!

There is also good reason to suspect that the research under-reports actual SAT-7 viewing. In some of the countries surveyed it is a capital offense to convert to Christianity. It seems likely that some who watch SAT-7 would not be willing to admit it to someone conducting a survey.

The Christian Audience

While we don't know what percentage of the audience is Christian (it varies from country to country), we know it is substantial from the responses that we get. SAT-7's motto is, "Christian Satellite Television by and for the People of the Middle East and North Africa." Christianity is not a new thing here. In fact, the Middle East was the cradle of Christianity. Egypt was evangelized by John Mark, who wrote the gospel of Mark. In spite of early persecution by the Roman government, Christianity grew rapidly in the area. Alexandria, Egypt, became a major center of Christian thought. Augustine, regarded as the greatest theologian of the early church, lived in North Africa. At one point the Middle East was predominantly Christian.

Christianity Under Islam

Even after the area was conquered by followers of Mohammed beginning in the seventh century, Christian worship was generally tolerated. Christians were considered second class citizens, had to pay higher taxes and were denied some privileges, but the churches continued to exist in most countries.

Many Middle Eastern churches are tiny, such as this small church in a poor area of Cairo.

In recent years, things have become harder for Christians in several countries. Many have fled. Among the causes is deep resentment of the "Christian" West (especially England and the US) over the creation of the nation of Israel, and most recently the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Local Christians are often associated with what many see as the "evil" perpetrated by the "great Satan," the "Christian" United States.

As a result of their difficult history, most of the churches of the Middle East are small and isolated. Many of the denominations are regional, and are not well connected across political or denominational boundaries. In fact, too often there is suspicion and even hostility between the various groups. SAT-7 addresses this issue by including representatives of various denominations in their programming. This reduces suspicion and encourages cross-denominational dialog and cooperation.

"If it's not in the media, it doesn't exist."

Just having their own television channel is a huge encouragement to Middle Eastern Christians. It's been said that in our media saturated world, "If it's not in the media, it doesn't exist." Being on television is evidence to themselves and others that Middle Eastern Christians exist! They are very encouraged as they learn about other Christians in their own country and other countries of the Middle East. They are thrilled to learn that the Christian community is not as tiny and powerless as they once thought.

American Culture and "Christianity"

Another troubling problem for Middle Eastern Christians is the recent influx of western culture. Some of the most violent and sexually explicit movies, the most disgusting of popular music, violent video games, degrading television shows and even pornography are available to the people of the Middle East by satellite television and the internet, as well as in some of their theaters. And these are all considered to be the product of decadent "Christian" nations.

One person said, "If the American President doesn't approve of pornography, why does he permit it?" Those living in totalitarian states can't understand the freedom that exists in the United States. For these reasons, it's essential that SAT-7 not seem to be coming from the United States. And it's not.

SAT-7 is Middle Eastern

Christians in the Middle East are often isolated. They are encouraged by having their own television channel – SAT-7.

SAT-7 was born in the Middle East. It wasn't the result of American missionary activity. The majority of its governing board are Middle Eastern. Some American-financed Christian television seen in the Middle East is primarily American evangelists dubbed into Arabic. We think this is precisely the wrong approach. It ties Christianity to American culture in the minds of viewers. Do we really want to do that? Though we may be justly proud of many aspects of our culture, we need to be honest. American popular culture, especially as seen in the Middle East through our media, is not a good representation of Christianity. We believe it is a much better strategy to enable and assist Middle Eastern Christians in their own television network rather than extending American Christian television, with all of its baggage, into the Middle East.

SAT-7 KIDS Audience

Since children are not included in the SAT-7 ARABIC survey, we have less hard data about the KIDS channel. Here's what we know: about 100 million Arabic-speaking children live in the region. If the same percentage of children watch SAT-7 KIDS as adults watch SAT-7 ARABIC, that would give a total audience of about 3 million kids. Since there are fewer competing channels for children, the audience could be much larger.

SAT-7 PARS Audience

SAT-7 PARS, which broadcasts primarily in Farsi (Persian), is the newest channel and we do not yet have reliable data. The potential audience is the 70 million in Iran, plus the Farsi speaking populations in parts of other countries, especially Afghanistan. A four hour per day block of time is also broadcast in Turkish with a potential audience of 73 million in Turkey.

Choosing a Program to Sponsor

The programs listed in the following section all need sponsors. Most of them have a proven track record and can be produced for years to come if sponsors can be found. A few are new and untried, but seem to offer unusual potential. SAT-7 frequently tries new ideas, always looking for "breakthrough" programs – ones that will get people talking about them "around their water coolers." You can help to make a breakthrough possible.

If you would like to make a contribution to SAT-7, please click here for more information.