But it just doesn’t seem to make commercial sense when you look at what other channels are scheduling against

But it just doesn’t seem to make commercial sense when you look at what other channels are scheduling against us at the same time.” Rubbish, responds Peter Meadows, chief executive of Premier Radio: “It does have an audience. Most religious programmes on ITV have generated higher ratings than many specialist programmes. The people who make the scheduling decisions assume most people are like them – not interested.”The faithful insist that there is a market. “NOP research shows that 71 per cent of the British believe in God, but only 15 per cent practise some kind of religion regularly,” says Alan Rogers, director of programming for Ark2.

“That means more than half the population think there’s something in it but do nothing about it.” Ark2 plans a broad-based schedule, underpinned by Christian values, containing sport, a soap, women’s interests, on-air advice and, eventually, drama and light entertainment.Advertisers are seeing the light. “Now they’ve moved religious output out of peak time, it’s left for people to find, should they choose to do so.”An ITV programming source concedes: “We have to do it. We are not here to proselytise.” He adds that the BBC no longer sees ITV as direct competition. He says that Songs of Praise has a hard-core, older following, but since the start of the year efforts have been made to make it more accessible to younger viewers. Recent editions have featured the comedy duo Cannon and Ball’s gospel show and a programme with Harry Secombe achieved the series’ highest rating all year: 7.1 million.Other BBC initiatives include Heart and Soul, a Sunday morning religious magazine for young people that, Mr Rea says, generates audiences of around 500,000: “Our role is to make religious programming people want to watch. Even acclaimed Channel 4 series such as Witness have fallen foul of the ITC for adopting too broad a brief The broadcasters’ defence is simple They fear their core audience is, literally, dying out.

“To retain audience share, we must extend appeal,” explains Ernest Rea, the BBC’s head of religious broadcasting. And when ITV axed Highway in 1993 it received 1,400 letters of complaint. Earlier this year, BBC Radio provoked an outcry when it tested a humanist discussion programme, Were You There?, in place of Radio 4’s Sunday morning church service. A spokesman for Ahmadiyya Muslim TV explains: “Only extremist ideas are newsworthy to mainstream media. Our response was to do something practical to broadcast true perceptions of Islam.”The Rev John Kennedy, secretary of the Methodist Church Division of Social Responsibility, agrees “Established broadcasters are biased.

There is a demand that’s not being catered for.” He believes this is because the media world is more secular than society as a whole.Although religious output is enshrined in the ITV and Channel 4 licences and under the BBC charter, all have been criticised, either for popularising or trivialising religious affairs or for being too neutral. Then there’s the Ethical Word UK, the European Family Christian Network, Christian Communications, and Capital Network. All have been licensed by the Independent Television Commission.The reason for this outbreak? There is no mainstream media alternative. This summer saw the launch of the London commercial station Premier, the UK’s first religious radio service. Then came Christian Channel Europe, which began broadcasting last month.