Burgeoning music programming service Southern Entertainment Television has
announced its boldest venture to date, the unprecedented simultaneous launch
of three music video channels for the cable and satellite markets. Southern
Entertainment Television has collected a large and unique music performance
archive in the Bluegrass, Southern Gospel and classic Black Gospel genres, which
will be featured on its three new channels. Each of The SET's channels is commercial
free and excludes teaching, preaching, or solicitations for money. Each channel
brings a distinct musical genre, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
- The SET channel focuses on Southern Gospel Music, a genre with an estimated
61 million fans in the U.S.
- The SET2 brings Bluegrass devotees the "Bluegrass Greats" as
well as local backyard pickers and singers. The movie and sound track "Oh
Brother Where Art Though" brought bluegrass into the mainstream and the
SET is delivering it full time, commercial free to an underserved audience.
- The SET3 will feature classic Black Gospel music from around the world,
highlighting a tradition that has had a far-reaching influence on other forms
of Gospel and most of today's popular music.
Harold Brown, President of Southern Entertainment Television (who in 1995
successfully launched Gospel Music Television [GMT]), is "tickled as a
pig in slop" to be going on the air. He expressed appreciation for Leo
Hindery and Peter Kern for their wholehearted encouragement.
Satellite Receivers, Ltd is enthusiastically awaiting the launch. GM George
Bell enthused, "We fully expect The SET channels to rapidly grow our customer
base." Southern Entertainment Television currently has long-term cable
affiliation agreements with Comcast Cable and NCTC. Frank Hughes, Senior VP
programming for the National Cable Television Coalition, says "We feel
confident that The SET networks will offer a unique type of programming to our
members' customers that has been lacking previously."
Traditional music forms are being forgotten, ignored and homogenized, as media
outlets tend to promote and thrive on the newest developments in the music industry.
The SET listens to their audience . . . "Makin' Television Jus' Feel Better!(TM)"
The SET channels will be carried on Telstar 7, Transponder 12 beginning in
June of 2004 through the uplink facilities of Genesis Networks' Miami facility.
Source: Southern Entertainment Television
