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Merit Street (Dr. Phil Cable Network) to launch in February


mrschimpf

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No, that's not a mistype. Dr. Phil plans to launch a new cable network by February which will feature him in primetime from a new base in the DFW Metroplex and former staffers with the talk show have also moved out there. And yes, he plans a news operation of some kind led by Joel Cheatwood, so make of that what you will.

 

All I can say is it would probably be easier to lease time on OWN or another existing cable channel than launching a new one during the decline of the format, but apparently I'm not mainlining Dr. Phil's out-of-date gut here.

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Did some digging, their website Whois info points to Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and their press release and trademark applications also mentions "Ft. Worth, TX" as building a new "state of the art" facility there, well guess what TBN has been doing since 2021, building a state of the art facility in Ft. Worth that's scheduled for completion by Jan 2024, exactly one month before the new Dr. Phil Primetime show is announced to premiere.

It's 100% replacing TBN.

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1 hour ago, bgiesing said:

Did some digging, their website Whois info points to Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and their press release and trademark applications also mentions "Ft. Worth, TX" as building a new "state of the art" facility there, well guess what TBN has been doing since 2021, building a state of the art facility in Ft. Worth that's scheduled for completion by Jan 2024, exactly one month before the new Dr. Phil Primetime show is announced to premiere.

It's 100% replacing TBN.

“I absolutely love talking to real people about real problems. People who aren’t just complaining but are actively looking for real solutions to better their lives,” McGraw said. “American families and our core values are under attack. I love this country, and I believe family is the backbone of our society. Together we are going to stand strong and fight for the very soul and sanity of America and get things that matter back on track.”

 

This Dr. Phil quote from the announcement feels kinda TBN-ish in tone, now that I think about it 

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It feels like a TBN Inspire replacement because of all the damage that occurred from the Hillsong deal; they put all this money into a new studio, intending it to be their new main programming base, and their partner just implodes...and now you've got someone who is looking for their next act to partner with in the Christan equivalent of Los Angeles production-wise.

 

I would be shocked, but not surprised, if it does replace TBN proper though. Despite their stations mainly being non-com licenses they haven't seemed to have an issue with promoting things at all, and eventually they'll be rid of their stations and able to get more commercial plugs in. Having a name to take over the concept will also help them comply with carriage agreements.

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44 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

It feels like a TBN Inspire replacement because of all the damage that occurred from the Hillsong deal; they put all this money into a new studio, intending it to be their new main programming base, and their partner just implodes...and now you've got someone who is looking for their next act to partner with in the Christan equivalent of Los Angeles production-wise.

 

I would be shocked, but not surprised, if it does replace TBN proper though. Despite their stations mainly being non-com licenses they haven't seemed to have an issue with promoting things at all, and eventually they'll be rid of their stations and able to get more commercial plugs in. Having a name to take over the concept will also help them comply with carriage agreements.

I’d buy that it could be a TBN Inspire replacement over the idea of Merit being a replacement for the main network. In the past decade, TBN has:

* launched TBN Salsa (a bilingual network aimed at Latinos, otherwise redundant in target audience with the Spanish-language Enlace USA), only to drop it three years later;

* combined the OTA schedules of JUCE TV and Smile (a la Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite and Cartoon Network/Adult Swim) into one subchannel to make room for Salsa, only to restore their separate 24-hour feeds after Salsa disappeared;

* turned JUCE into an online-only channel, and launched Positiv (which carries both faith-based and secular family movies, including some mainstream theatrical films) to fill JUCE’s former linear channel space;

* and relaunched The Church Channel as Hillsong Channel and then Inspire (after the Hillsong scandals came to light).

 

But the fact that it’s being advertised as a cable network (in the cord-cutting era), suggests otherwise. We’d need more details to confirm, especially as Merit being a replacement for a TBN network would require a channel-lease deal. (TBN has owned all of its networks, including Inspire during its existence as Hillsong Channel, which was at that time a co-venture with Hillsong Church.)

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I kind of wonder if it'd be a good idea to rebrand the main TBN? The TBN branding has been big in Christian media for years now. It seems like Phil's channel would be better for TBN Inspire.

 

I personally don't see Phil's channel being a big success being on cable, although I believe both TBN channels are on Pluto TV.

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On 11/8/2023 at 6:34 PM, Newsjunkie24 said:

I kind of wonder if it'd be a good idea to rebrand the main TBN? The TBN branding has been big in Christian media for years now. It seems like Phil's channel would be better for TBN Inspire.

 

I personally don't see Phil's channel being a big success being on cable, although I believe both TBN channels are on Pluto TV.

I mean if the idea is "make the channel appeal to the average consumer including non-Christians, dropping the name would be the correct move. This sounds like it will still have some more faith-based views but otherwise a more general-purpose network that would be wider appealing, could be a way for TBN to essentially push their views onto people in a less obvious manner.

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