Dove Channel Grows at Record-Breaking Pace, Is Faith-Based Content Next Growth Market?
Cinedigm announced today that its family-friendly streaming service, The Dove Channel, continues to break milestones, surpassing approximately 663,000 paid subscribers in February 2022, up over 1,133% year-over-year. The free on-demand and linear versions of The Dove Channel prove to be strong as well with total monthly viewers growing to 5.4 million in February, up 47% year-over-year.
“Given the challenges of these trying times over the last few years, the appetite for uplifting, wholesome movies and shows that families can watch together has dramatically expanded,” Cinedigm Networks Chief Strategy Officer and President Erick Opeka said. “The Dove Channel has rapidly risen to become our most successful subscription service and is among the top three of all ad-supported services in our portfolio. The enthusiastic responses from platforms, advertisers, and consumers reiterate the important position our service fills in America’s households.”
This growth has been driven by strong demand for the service on distributed and wholesale platforms, including Amazon Prime Channels, YouTube TV, Roku Channel, Comcast Xfinity, and Dish Network, among others. Plus, ad-based viewership continues to soar, with monthly minutes streamed in the fourth quarter of the 2022 fiscal year rising by 32% over the previous quarter.
Cinedigm also has plans to ramp up investment in exclusive programming and new television series. Last week, the company acquired Digital Media Rights, a source of kids and family programming, bringing the Dove Channel 7,500 new titles including “Forever Strong,” “The Ultimate Gift,” and “Catching Faith.”
Such impressive numbers bring into question if faith-based audiences will be the next big growth area for streaming services?
Since the family-friendly Disney+ has recently added a number of mature titles such as “Daredevil,” “The Punisher,” and even the rated R “Kiss of the Dragon,” some parents might be looking to limit the time that their young children have in front of the platform, regardless of the upgrade in parental controls. They perhaps may even turn over to faith-focused services such as Pureflix, Women Evolve TV, Chai Flicks, and others that have stricter content guidelines.
In 2020, after Sony acquired Pureflix, the network experienced a 40% increase in membership during the pandemic.
“We are in an unprecedented time that has left so many with doubts, concerns and questions. Pureflix believes the family is of critical importance during such uncertainty. So we’re working to inspire audiences through faith and family-friendly TV shows, movies, original series and educational programs,” Michael Scott, foundering partner of Pure Flix Entertainment told Christian Post.
“With a massive 40% membership increase during this time, we continue to draw more and more people closer to God and to each other by offering content that strengthens the faith and values of you and your family,” he added. “We have also given away tens of thousands of memberships to individuals and families in need.”
Now that the world is in the middle of a war with disturbing content regularly popping up on news channels, it would not be a surprise if more people turned to religious content in search of comfort and safe programming for their families.