IAN McCORMACK was stung repeatedly by a box jellyfish and was so badly injured that he thought he saw heaven.

This near-death experience is now a highlight of the Easter schedule of the two-week-old Faithglobe.tv — a new type of broadcaster that intends to use the internet to reach a global audience.

“We can transmit 24 hours a day for under £10,000 a month, and through broadband we can reach the whole globe,” said Hugh Jackman, the founder and chief executive of Faithglobe.

Christian television has struggled to be viable commercially because of the sheer cost of transmitting via satellite.

“A Christian television station faces costs of around £75,000 to £80,000 a month,” Mr Jackman said, adding that Faithglobe had cost only £80,000 to start.

The emergence of internet-delivered television and channels like Faithglobe is expected to change the economics of television dramatically. Special interests, which struggled to find a viable model in paytelevision, are hoping that the internet will provide a commercially viable platform.

Narrowstep, Faithglobe’s technology provider, already supplies 70 channels, including Glasgow.tv, which provides information about the Scottish city, and the yachting industry broadcaster sail.TV.

“We are providing a marketplace to niche channels who want to provide a direct route to customers,” a spokeswoman for the London-based Narrowstep said.

“Most of the people we are working with are hoping to create global properties.”

So far Faithglobe’s audience has been tiny — the website had 7,000 hits in its first week, though viewers watched for an an average of one hour and 15 minutes. Faithglobe is hoping that it will be able to take advertising “of an ethical nature” once a measurable audience develops.

The religious broadcaster, based in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, hopes its lower costs will allow it to concentrate on producing what it considers better-quality output.

Conventional Christian TV stations are forced to sell parts of their airtime to other Christian organisations and have limited control of their output.

Faithglobe aims to be inter-denominational and to avoid broadcasting programmes by tele-evangelists, whose appeals for money, Mr Jackman says, “have been described as excessive”.

The company is building its own studio in Wellingborough, taking advantage of falling equipment costs.

An Online TV revolution

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