Bibel TV is a German christian TV channel. The station is on air on 1 October 2002 with a 24 hour program of christian services and magazines. The station is rued by an ecomenic conglomerat of christian organisations.
Bibel TV is owned and operated by a charitable non-profit foundation (Stiftung) based in Hamburg, Germany. Today, the station says it finances itself primarily from donations from its viewers.
According to their own history, Bible TV goes back to Bonn publisher Norman Rentrop. He claims to have found a Bible in a hotel room in Baden-Baden in 1990, which inspired him so much that he read it every day in the future. While watching a Hollywood film adaptation of the Gospel of Luke, he finally came up with the idea of founding a TV station that would spread the biblical message.[1]
In 2001 he launched the Bible TV channel and provided almost seven million euros in start-up funding. The channel went on air on October 1, 2002 under the direction of former MDR program director Henning Röhl.
Bible TV's content is predominantly in the conservative Christian spectrum. In addition to talk shows, documentaries and church services, the program consists of Christian films and series, most of them third-party productions.[1]
Critics complain that Bibel TV conveys a backwards image of women and families.[1]
In 2020, the church union filed a criminal complaint against the Bible TV managing director for preventing a works council election. Two employees who had campaigned for the establishment of a works council had previously been dismissed. Lawsuits filed by the two affected employees against their dismissals ended in settlements.[1][3]
Bibel TV is distributed via digital satellite (Astra satellites), most digital cable providers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, a number of analogue cable systems and on terrestrial DVB-T2 throughout Germany[4] as well as on the web by continuous streaming on Bibel TV's website.
