Saturday, June 14, 1997

Robertson's "Family Channel" sold to Rupert Murdoch

(RNS) Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson has sold The Family Channel's parent company to a firm half-owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox Network is known for the risque sitcom "Married With Children" and the violent children's program "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers."

Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. - which is half-owned by Murdoch's News Corp. - will pay about $1.9 billion for Robertson's International Family Entertainment, Inc. (IFE), which operates The Family Channel, the companies announced Wednesday (June 11).

Saban Entertainment Inc., the world's largest producer of children's television programming - including "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" - owns the other half of Fox Kids Worldwide Inc.

The Family Channel, the nation's ninth largest cable network with 67 million subscribers, carries Robertson's "The 700 Club" and a host of non-religious reruns. Under the deal, Robertson will continue to host "The 700 Club" for at least five years and will become co-chairman of IFE.

Other than their shared conservative politics, Robertson and Murdoch would seem an odd coupling.

Robertson is a Pentecostal Christian and highly conservative on social issues. He has often complained about what he considers the decline in moral standards eating away at the United States.

Murdoch has a penchant for TV programming that many religious conservatives consider prime manifestations of the sort of moral decline Robertson preaches against.

Media experts predicted inevitable changes for The Family Channel that will make it less appealing to religious and other social conservatives.

"Parents better go and grab their TV ratings guide," said Jeffrey Chester, president of the consumer watchdog group Center for Media Education.

"Murdoch is going to turn what has been an innocuous, family-friendly channel into a frenzied, animated explosion featuring blood and guts," Chester told The New York Times.

However, in press statements, Robertson emphasized the sale's benefits to his Christian Broadcasting Network's WorldReach evangelization effort and to Regent University, the 1,500-student school he founded in Virginia Beach, Va.

CBN's sale of International Family Entertainment stock put into trust for it by Robertson will bring the ministry $136.1 million.

"I am delighted that this transaction will position CBN on firm financial ground for the future," Robertson said. "At the same time, this transaction will permit the ministry to move forward with our desire to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with billions of people around the globe - an enormously expensive undertaking."

Regent University will earn $147.5 million for its endowment fund from the sale of its IFE stock.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for Regent University," said Robertson. "This development places Regent on the same level as some of the most prestigious universities in the nation. The endowment will only enhance and strengthen the school as it moves forward to become one of the most preeminent universities in the nation today."