VISN was founded in late 1987 by the National Interfaith Cable Coalition (NICC). The NICC was an interfaith foundation created to provide programming and guidance to VISN. Many of the initial members of the NICC were also members of the
National Council of Churches, whose membership had experienced trouble keeping airtime for local religious programming following media deregulation in the 1980s. Startup costs for VISN were covered by several cable providers; spearheaded by
Tele-Communications Inc., early financial backers of the channel included
American Television & Communications,
United Cable,
Jones Intercable,
Post-Newsweek Cable and Heritage Communications. Another goal of the network was to help ease the crowding of local cable networks by combining their programming onto one channel. This goal was enumerated by Robert Thomson of founding company Tele-Communications Inc., who stated that "no operator has the capacity for a separate channel for each denomination." VISN reached 6.4 million cable television subscribers by 1990. By that year, VISN represented 54 faith groups including a full range of
Christian denominations from
Episcopalians to
Latter Day Saints, to non-Christian groups such as
Buddhists and
Muslims. In late 1992, VISN merged with the
American Christian Television System, a network owned by the
Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission. Both networks would share the same satellite transponder (and effectively, channel space), but the two networks would remain independently owned, run their own programming and maintain separate on-air identities. In 1995, originating founding sponsor
Tele-Communications Inc purchased a 49% ownership stake in the channel, and began to rebuild its programming with a focus on family-oriented entertainment, eliminating all preaching programs. VISN had long been pressured by the competition created by other religious networks in cable markets. Longtime rivals included the
Trinity Broadcasting Network, the
Eternal Word Television Network and
FamilyNet. In 1995, the Trinity Broadcasting Network called the Faith and Values Channel "a failed experiment in religious programming", By 1996, the channel's programming was such that it was said to eschew its own religious label. At the time of the relaunch, the channel's subscriber reach potential had increased to 25.6 million households, and the NICC espoused representatives from 65 faith groups. The network continued to have problems throughout the late 1990s. External competition from
Pax TV and
CBS, the need for internal harmony, and general funding issues kept the channel from acquiring the rights to high quality programs such as
Touched by an Angel and
Nothing Sacred. The channel sought new partners to rectify the situation, striking deals with
The Jim Henson Company and
Hallmark Entertainment in 1998. Odyssey's 1999 relaunch refocused the network's programming to include more family and values-oriented entertainment programming and even less direct religious content. featuring substantially reduced religious content. By this point, the channel was available to 30 million cable and satellite subscribers throughout the United States. Faith & Values Media, a production company owned by the NICC, continues to produce content both for television and the internet. The corporation retains about 5% of the Hallmark Channel and has a long-term contract with the network. In 2007, a subsidiary of Faith & Values Media acquired the ecumenical internet discussion forum Ecunet. ==Notes==