PROVO -- Families concerned about being soaked with disturbing images while channel surfing won't have to worry about Channel 9043 on the Dish Network.
Shows here are for an LDS mind in an MTV world.Brigham Young University, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, last month launched BYUTV, which will broadcast "family programming" to more than 3.4 million subscribers nationwide.
As part of the Dish Network's basic 40-channel package, the non-commercial public-service channel is available in 50 U.S. states and some parts of southern Canada.
The channel, however, is only available on the Dish 500 system. Subscribers with older dishes will need to upgrade to receive the channel.
"People from all across the U.S. can now join us for live broadcasts of our campus devotionals and firesides -- they can be a part of the live audience," said Merrill J. Bateman, university president.
John Reim, chief executive officer for BYUTV and the school's public-television station, KBYU, said the new network will have its own 24-hour programming schedule, separate from KBYU, its parent station, which is a PBS affiliate.
Currently, about six hours of programming is repeated four times a day. Eventually, as kinks are worked out, more shows and distance-learning lectures will be inserted into the line-up.
The major difference between the two university channels may be the number of people who can tune into LDS general conferences, "Music and the Spoken Word" and other family-oriented shows.
Station Manager Duane Roberts has received about 300 e-mails from people nationwide who were surprised to find LDS-oriented shows on the network. Letters are coming from as far away as Texas and Florida, he said.
That surprises Roberts, considering the school did not actively promote the new channel before its debut.
"The general tenor is, 'Thank you, thank you,' " Roberts said. "Anybody can watch it, but the LDS market is one that's most interested in it. I know Dish Network feels there is an audience out there, otherwise they wouldn't have let us put it out there."
BYU must pay to broadcast on the channel.
Some athletic events will be shown on BYUTV, although it will not have access to men's football and basketball games. ESPN holds the contract to show the Mountain West contests.
Also, BYUTV will not have access to any programming that is owned or distributed by PBS.
The creation of BYUTV is one way the university's Utah-based station is preparing for the imminent conversion to digital television. The conversion will likely result in greater capability to broadcast more stations, resulting in more viewing choices.
More information about the station can be found at www.byutv.org or by calling 801-378-8450.