Quick Look: The first thing that struck me about this channel was the mismatch between the official Roku description and reality. The channel description promises "hundreds of leading Christian church services", but the channel actually offers only ten churches. And one of those is Congregation Beth Sar Shalom, a Jewish congregation, not a Christian one.
StreamingChurch.tv is actually a pay-for-use service marketing itself to churches who want to stream their services to the masses. According to their website "SteamingChurch.tv provides everything you will need to begin broadcasting your services live over the internet. You only need a camera, a free video encoder, and a computer with a broadband connection to the internet." And there's nothing wrong with that. I say that only to give you warning that production and video quality are dependent on the individual churches and are, therefore, variable. Some churches present highly-polished HDTV productions with professional titles, lighting, and graphics, while others were recorded with nothing more than a low-definition tripod-mounted camcorder being run by a volunteer.
StreamingChurch.tv seems to provide a valuable service, making services available to the members of their congregations who can't attend services in person. I think many of these churches are using this service, and Roku, to reach out to their own members, not to establish their own national ministry. In any case, if you're looking for religious programming, be sure to sample the offerings on this channel, even if the number of churches are an order of magnitude lower than what's advertised.
Developer's Channel Description: This channel makes available the live and on-demand library of hundreds of leading Christian church services using the Streaming Church.tv system to broadcast their services live on the Internet.
CHANNEL STORE CATEGORY: Religious
DEVELOPER: JSL SOLUTIONS
FEES: None
RELATED LINKS:
StreamingChurch.tv Website
