An urban religious TV station in the US, The Word Network, has announced that it plans to make its live programming available to mobile phones 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The announcement was made by Lewis Gibbs, station manager of The Word Network, during its recent official UK launch. Gibbs was in the UK to meet with church leaders to discuss plans for the station's operation in the UK.

He stated, "We are excited to announce that the Word Network is to take advantage of the technological developments that have taken place in the past few years. We will be working closely with JH2 Media, to become one of the first religious TV stations in the world to enable our viewers to watch The Word Network programmes on their mobile phones, wherever they may be in the world. We aim for this service to be available by August 2007."

The Word Network describes itself as a source for urban ministries and gospel music, and as being sensitive to and touching the fabric of the urban African American community.

Gibbs also made it clear that The Word Network is unique among the range of Christian stations currently broadcasting in the UK.

He stated, "Unlike other Christian stations, all programmes that are featured on the Word Network, are seen by all our viewers in the 130+ countries where the Word Network is broadcast.

"This means that UK based urban ministries have a real opportunity to impact other countries with the gospel should they decide to utilise the media platform provided by The Word Network."

The Word Network is keen that its broadcasts also reflects the experience of black British Christians here in the UK, and it will be working closely with JH2 Media in the coming months to make programmes that do this.