StarCross TV doesn’t allow guests to attack other religious personalities or doctrines

Owned by Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, StarCross has a booster studio in South Africa. Its General Manager, Pastor Mike Ntuk explains how it has consolidated its operations and attracted steady audiences in many African countries. Excerpts:   Do you think that specialised cable TV channels such as yours could heighten religious intolerance?Yes, I […]

Owned by Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, StarCross has a booster studio in South Africa. Its General Manager, Pastor Mike Ntuk explains how it has consolidated its operations and attracted steady audiences in many African countries. Excerpts:  

Do you think that specialised cable TV channels such as yours could heighten religious intolerance?
Yes, I know that, if not checked, many religious channels could heighten religious intolerance. This is because if such channels are used to attack other religions it is bound to create tension in the religious circle. At StarCross TV we do not allow guests to attack other religions, personalities or doctrines. In fact, it is a pre-condition for our guests. Our guests may only have to explain why they think their own doctrine is correct.

Federal Government seems to grant broadcast licence to as many as submit applications, do you frown at it, why?
I have nothing against the issuance of licence to many potential broadcasters but government must control the licence so issued. Avalanche of TV stations allows you to make choices. They must control the proliferation of media houses so that they do not heat up the system. Some of the broadcast houses could be hijacked by politicians and use them against their colleagues. This could lead to tension and violence. The process to regulate the conduct of these outlets should be ensured.

As General Manager of one of the cable TV stations operational from Calabar, what are the challenges you are coping with?
The major challenges I am presently grappling with are those of power supply and manpower development. There is acute inavailability of energy supply in the state due to frequent power outages. And this has made us to spent so much to run our power plant and other overheads. As you know, when running a cable TV there should not be poor power supply. Some of our departments require trained manpower to ensure we produce at optimum and surpass present standard. We cannot claim that we do not have financial challenges. However, we are doing much to address these challenges to have better production capacity.  

What is your programme profile like?
We have array of programmes, including entertainment, gospel music and activities of the organisation.  Many others are on Brotherhood living and practices as well as topical national and global issues.  These must however have relevance to Brotherhood of man generally.  There are many areas we still want to explore to further enrich our programme contents. Due to paucity of funds yet we have limited ourselves to producing programmes within available resources. We have an array of captivating programmes, including Testimonies segment.   

Do you run only Christian programmes?
Like Brotherhood of the Cross and Star which is God’s new Kingdom on earth, our channel, too, is non-denominational. This means that we can accommodate those that express other religious faiths and beliefs. Their views will however be moderated because we do not allow anybody to use our station to attack anybody.

Do you have the required equipment to sustain your broadcast?
Yes, we do! We have modern and very good equipment available in the industry. We have sophisticated and high resolution cameras. Our other studio equipment also meet modern specifications.

How is your station different from other religious channels?
I have watched other religious channels. Most seem to focus on miracles, healings and gospel of prosperity. However, LoveWorld channel owned by Christ Embassy, for instance, does other good programmes. At StarCross TV we don’t focus on healing or miracle. We feature the Everlasting and redemptive Gospel of love, peace, forgiveness as expatiated by Leader Olumba Olumba Obu, the founder of Brotherhood of the Cross and Star and sponsor of the channel. The difference therefore is that we focus on gospel of salvation.

What is the extent of your broadcast reach?
We have now covered entire Africa and parts of Europe. We will soon reach the Americas. Our broadcast is ‘free to air’.  There are certain live video streaming that will take our broadcast to the larger world which we are working on but will not be on same StarCross channel.

What kind of patronage do you require from your audience?
we want our audience to hook up to our channel and receive the gospel. This is the primary reason why the station was floated. It is a change agent because Father wants to get to every human being wherever on his phones, in his parlor, everywhere to receive the message directly from him.