BBN discontinues on Sky Angel
July 14, 2004
Re: Sky Angel's statement regarding BBN's discontinuation on Sky Angel
After more than two years of asking the Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN) to honor its agreement with Dominion Sky Angel, BBN has refused, resulting in a breach of its agreement and its discontinuation on the Dominion Sky Angel satellite system. Sky Angel provides free airtime to our programmers and only asks that they promote the entire 36-channel Sky Angel service in the manner that both the channel, in this case BBN, and Sky Angel agree to at the time the agreement is signed. Sky Angel and BBN signed such an agreement in 1999.
BBN committed itself to doing a number of specific promotions during the past five years it has been receiving free airtime on Sky Angel, but despite numerous discussions pleading with BBN to honor its commitments, it not only refused to promote Sky Angel in the manner that it originally agreed upon but also made misrepresentations to Sky Angel regarding the promotion it claimed it was doing.
BBN was given numerous opportunities to correct this breach and remain on Sky Angel, free of charge, but chose to come off Sky Angel instead. We are disappointed that in addition to not honoring its agreement with Sky Angel, BBN has chosen to make false, misleading, inflammatory and defamatory statements, on and off the air, concerning this issue, including that Sky Angel did not inform them as to why BBN was being discontinued, that the discontinuation was sudden, and implying that Sky Angel is going in a different direction spiritually, rejecting conservative Christian music and traditional Bible teaching. These statements are completely false.
As our subscribers know from Sky Angel's program offerings, Sky Angel offers a wide variety of programming featuring traditional Bible teaching and conservative Christian music, including our recent addition of Bott Radio and long-time carriage of Moody Radio, Sacred Favorites, American Family Radio, and others. Additionally, BBN’s statements to the effect that BBN’s discontinuation is sudden and that Sky Angel did not tell them why it’s being discontinued on Sky Angel are not only false but puzzling. For one, BBN’s discontinuation follows numerous opportunities Sky Angel provided BBN to fulfill the commitments it made to Sky Angel in exchange for the no-cost airtime that Sky Angel has been providing the network for several years now. And a detailed letter on March 18, 2004, to BBN President Lowell Davey (click on underlined text to read letter) from Sky Angel’s VP, Programming outlined the issues in detail in a final attempt to rectify the problem. While it was confirmed that Mr. Davey received this correspondence, he never replied. Second, in a letter dated June 3, 2004, Sky Angel Chairman Robert Johnson formally notified Mr. Davey of Sky Angel’s intention to discontinue carriage of BBN specifically due to BBN’s refusal to honor its agreement. Mr. Davey acknowledged receipt of this letter personally to Mr. Johnson and chose to accept BBN’s discontinuation on Sky Angel rather than offer to have BBN fulfill the commitment it made to Sky Angel.
In fact, any promotion that BBN has done has been to primarily focus on promoting itself on Sky Angel and not the 35 other Sky Angel television and radio channels that BBN agreed to promote when it signed the agreement in 1999 to receive free Sky Angel airtime.
Because Sky Angel does not charge its programmers for the valuable airtime and means of national distribution that it affords them, promotional efforts by each channel in lieu of monetary payment is a vital means of enlisting support for this valuable multi-channel satellite delivery system—the only one of its kind in the world—dedicated to discipling the Church and reaching the most unreachable areas of the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are disappointed that BBN is making these false and misleading statements in an apparent attempt to cover up its own wrong-doing in this matter, and Dominion has formally informed BBN to retract the statements and refrain from making any similar statements in the future. Sky Angel is a Christian entity that believes that Christian ministries should honor their word per basic biblical precepts
July 14, 2004
Re: Sky Angel's statement regarding BBN's discontinuation on Sky Angel
After more than two years of asking the Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN) to honor its agreement with Dominion Sky Angel, BBN has refused, resulting in a breach of its agreement and its discontinuation on the Dominion Sky Angel satellite system. Sky Angel provides free airtime to our programmers and only asks that they promote the entire 36-channel Sky Angel service in the manner that both the channel, in this case BBN, and Sky Angel agree to at the time the agreement is signed. Sky Angel and BBN signed such an agreement in 1999.
BBN committed itself to doing a number of specific promotions during the past five years it has been receiving free airtime on Sky Angel, but despite numerous discussions pleading with BBN to honor its commitments, it not only refused to promote Sky Angel in the manner that it originally agreed upon but also made misrepresentations to Sky Angel regarding the promotion it claimed it was doing.
BBN was given numerous opportunities to correct this breach and remain on Sky Angel, free of charge, but chose to come off Sky Angel instead. We are disappointed that in addition to not honoring its agreement with Sky Angel, BBN has chosen to make false, misleading, inflammatory and defamatory statements, on and off the air, concerning this issue, including that Sky Angel did not inform them as to why BBN was being discontinued, that the discontinuation was sudden, and implying that Sky Angel is going in a different direction spiritually, rejecting conservative Christian music and traditional Bible teaching. These statements are completely false.
As our subscribers know from Sky Angel's program offerings, Sky Angel offers a wide variety of programming featuring traditional Bible teaching and conservative Christian music, including our recent addition of Bott Radio and long-time carriage of Moody Radio, Sacred Favorites, American Family Radio, and others. Additionally, BBN’s statements to the effect that BBN’s discontinuation is sudden and that Sky Angel did not tell them why it’s being discontinued on Sky Angel are not only false but puzzling. For one, BBN’s discontinuation follows numerous opportunities Sky Angel provided BBN to fulfill the commitments it made to Sky Angel in exchange for the no-cost airtime that Sky Angel has been providing the network for several years now. And a detailed letter on March 18, 2004, to BBN President Lowell Davey (click on underlined text to read letter) from Sky Angel’s VP, Programming outlined the issues in detail in a final attempt to rectify the problem. While it was confirmed that Mr. Davey received this correspondence, he never replied. Second, in a letter dated June 3, 2004, Sky Angel Chairman Robert Johnson formally notified Mr. Davey of Sky Angel’s intention to discontinue carriage of BBN specifically due to BBN’s refusal to honor its agreement. Mr. Davey acknowledged receipt of this letter personally to Mr. Johnson and chose to accept BBN’s discontinuation on Sky Angel rather than offer to have BBN fulfill the commitment it made to Sky Angel.
In fact, any promotion that BBN has done has been to primarily focus on promoting itself on Sky Angel and not the 35 other Sky Angel television and radio channels that BBN agreed to promote when it signed the agreement in 1999 to receive free Sky Angel airtime.
Because Sky Angel does not charge its programmers for the valuable airtime and means of national distribution that it affords them, promotional efforts by each channel in lieu of monetary payment is a vital means of enlisting support for this valuable multi-channel satellite delivery system—the only one of its kind in the world—dedicated to discipling the Church and reaching the most unreachable areas of the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are disappointed that BBN is making these false and misleading statements in an apparent attempt to cover up its own wrong-doing in this matter, and Dominion has formally informed BBN to retract the statements and refrain from making any similar statements in the future. Sky Angel is a Christian entity that believes that Christian ministries should honor their word per basic biblical precepts
