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Since terrestrial broadcasts were prohibitively
expensive to cover all of South Africa, it was
decided to rather pursue broadcast via satellite.
So it was that RBN started broadcasting on a
shared, free-to-air space on an educational
channel operated by the University of Pretoria.
At that time the entire system was manually
operated with two BetaCam machines being
fed tapes by an operator!
Around 2001 God birthed a desire in the hearts
of Drs André & Jenny Roebert to start a television
ministry; in their own words, "The reason we
exist is to fulfil the Great Commission, and that
is simply to spread the message of the good
news of Jesus Christ wherever we go. Our own
journey in fulfilling this commission started as
travelling missionaries, driving to the small
towns in South Africa and sharing the hope
and love that is contained in the message of
Christ. While many souls were added to the
Kingdom in this manner, there was always
a nagging feeling that we were not 'doing
enough' or that we could be more effective in
getting the gospel out to more people, more
quickly. "Hence the expansion into the world of
television, where their effectiveness in reaching
more people with the gospel and expanding
the Kingdom of God could be realized.
In 2002 River Broadcasting Network (part
of River Ministries) was established, which
broadcast Christian programs on the DStv
Commercial Platform in South Africa. The
purpose for the network was to establish a 24/7
channel with exclusively Christian content.
FAMILY OF NETWORKS
Soon after the launch of the channel, RBN
was contacted by one of the largest Christian
television networks in the USA and offered
free content. The approach of the president of
this international network was always that the
Gospel of Christ was free; he was, therefore,
happy to provide content to further the
spreading of this Gospel over Africa. At a later
stage the branding of the USA network was
offered to the channel in South Africa and until
the time of the president’s death this remained
in place.
With a new line-up of quality Christian
programming, RBN was in a position to apply
for, and obtain a channel on the national
satellite bouquet of Multichoice Africa. Through
the years the premium Christian channel on
DStv341 was complimented by the addition of
two other satellite channels – FlowTV (Sky UK
595) and FaithUSA (Dish269).
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