Web Services Company Links Churches and Radio to Global Audience

101WORLD.COM

Virginia Beach, VA (PRWEB) July 13, 2007 -- At 4,000 members, Rock Church is already mega-size, but it wasn't until the Rev. Anne Gimenez discovered ChristianNetcast.com that she realized how big her audience could be.

Using Internet streaming, the Virginia Beach-based Web services company put video of Rock's latest church services online and available on demand 24/7.

ChristianNetcast.com, which targets a Christian niche market, also streams Gimenez's Sunday sermons live at www.pastoranne.org.

Gimenez was staggered at the results. After a year of streaming, her Web site is getting more than 100,000 hits a month from around the globe.

"Literally, I'm preaching to the world, and the potential is amazing," she said.

Baptizing churches into Web-savviness is both ministry and business for David Palmer and Todd Van Tasel, who founded ChristianNetcast.com eight years ago in Bangor, a small city in northern Maine.

In late 2005, the business moved to South Hampton Roads, which Palmer called part of the heartland of evangelical Christianity and broadcasting.

"Some people joke around saying Tidewater is not the Bible Belt, it's the buckle, because you have some pretty major ministries based out of this area," including the Christian Broadcasting Network, Palmer said.

The business, which has nearly 500 clients, is likely to hit $1 million in revenue this year, Palmer said.

Palmer, who lived in Hampton Roads in the 1980s while serving in the Navy, has a background in Internet sales. Van Tasel owned a computer store in Maine.

The two men launched ChristianNetcast.com after helping their church in Bangor adapt streaming to spread the Christian gospel.

"Nobody was focusing on the Christian market -- that's why we primarily focused there," Palmer said.

The business now has six local employees and one in Maine.

Based on Centerville Turnpike in offices sandwiched between a Chinese restaurant and a thrift store, ChristianNetcast.com offers customers podcasting, Web site hosting, and audio and video streaming. The firm owns and rents servers, or data centers, in Houston and San Francisco.

The firm also provides clients monthly tallies of viewers or listeners as well as where consumers were located in the United States or internationally.

The entrepreneurs said they strive to make streaming available to churches of every size.

Monthly customer fees range from $99 for the most basic audio/video streaming service to $649 for more elaborate packages.

Palmer said churches use streaming to evangelize, widen their audience, and stay connected with members.

"We've got little churches in Podunk who've got shut-ins and elderly people who can't make it to the church service, so they listen to it live" via the Internet, he said.

At the core of Christian

Netcast.com's business are Christian radio stations that stream audio to reach consumers listening on the job.

Clients include KNWJ-FM 104, "Showers of Blessings Radio" in American Samoa, and FM 88.5 The Current, a Christian station in Virginia Beach.

Frank Wright, president of the National Religious Broadcasters association, said nearly all of the NRB's 1,500 members have some kind of Internet presence.

Wright said "if their goal is to help people use an Internet platform more effectively, they have a bright future."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417

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