America's 'Most Watched Pastor' Osteen Hits Big on iTunes

|PIC1|America's "Most Watched Pastor" Joel Osteen's audio podcast hit #9 in the podcast charts on iTunes last week, Joel Osteen Ministries announced.

The dynamic pastor's audio podcast has been near the top 10 on iTunes since the month of January. More than 1 million downloads were recorded in the month of February alone.

"We were very pleased to see the numbers spike when we began letting people know about the podcasts on Joel's television broadcast," stated Jeana Lawrence, Director of Marketing and Communications for Lakewood. "Based on the number of subscribers per day, Joel Osteen is one of the most popular podcasts in the world."

Joel Osteen's audio and video podcasts have consistently grown in popularity since they were first launched in early 2006 staying at or near the #1 spot in the iTunes inspirational category for the past six months. The audio podcast has consistently ranked in the top 20 overall and the video podcast in the top 40.

iTunes offers 30-minute podcasts of Joel Osteen's weekly television message in audio or video format, downloadable to iPods, PCs or MP3 players for free.

Osteen is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential, which has sold over 4 million copies and remained on top of the New York Times bestsellers list since its release in October 2004.

Osteen and his wife Victoria are pastors of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, one of the largest and most diverse churches in America. Lakewood Church's weekly services are broadcast on numerous national cable networks, including Discovery, USA Network, ABC Family, and Daystar Television Network.

Osteen can also be seen internationally in over 100 nations through CNBC Europe, Vision Canada, CNBC Australia and Middle East Television. Nielsen Media Research rated Joel Osteen's broadcast as the #1 inspirational programme nationally, based on average television viewers per market.