Udupi Diocese Launches Divyavani TV programme in Big J Channel

Udupi Diocese Launches Divyavani TV programme in Big J Channel

Udupi: The launching ceremony of ‘Divyavani’, the word of God TV programme of Udupi Diocese in association with Big J Cable TV Channel, was held on Sunday, May 15 at the Conference Room in the Bishop’s House Udupi.

The formal programme began with an invocation by the Choir group of Udupi Church. Fr Valerian Mendonca, Director of Udupi Diocese Communication Center, welcomed the gathering and explained the objectives of the programme.

Dr Gerald Isaac Lobo, the Bishop of Udupi Diocese, launched the ‘Divyavani’ programme and lauded the efforts and selfless service of Prashanth Jathanna, the director of Big J Channel, in spreading God’s message through the his channel. “In today’s world, the television media has a special role to play. It not only spreads news but also acts as a means of transforming people’s lives. This Divyavani programme aims at spreading the word of God to the people,” he added.

Prashanth Jathanna shared his views and urged the support of the people. The Bishop then honoured Jathanna and Vinod Gangolli (Director of Divyavani) on the occasion.

Fr Chethan Lobo (Editor of Uzvaad Fortnightly), Fr Lawrence D’Souza (Secretary of CESU), Fr Royson Fernandes (Assistant Parish Priest of Udupi Church), Alphonse D’Costa (Secretary of Diocese Pastoral Council), Leslie Aroza (Director of Family Commission) and others were present.

The ‘Divyavani’ programme is scheduled to telecast every week Tuesday and Saturday evening from 7 pm to 7:30 pm in Big J Channel. The programme is aimed at listening to the word of God and fostering universal brotherhood. The first programme will be telecast on Tuesday May 17.

About BiG-J Media Network

BiG-J Media Network is a non-profit and non-commercial Christian Television Channel dedicated to take the message of the Messiah to the masses through multimedia. It is also an independent and inter-depended Christian organization registered as a Trust with the Government of India. It started when a few friends came together with an idea to launch a Kannada Christian Channel, but due to insufficient funds, lack of support and encouragement the idea of starting the channel was dropped. It was then that Prashanth Jathanna took the challenge with faith, trusting in the Almighty God, and with the support of a few friends the BiG-J Media Network was started in the year 2008.

The main motive of this media ministry is to spread the Love of God, to reach the millions through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring awareness and impact lives, spiritually and socially in coastal Karnataka, throughout Karnataka, all over India and to the ends of the world. It began in a modest way with just a few thousand viewers in Udupi, but today by the grace and strength of God BiG-J TV has grown to mammoth proportions reaching millions of viewers across Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada, Hubli, Sirsi, Sagar, Gadag, Hassan, Pune and Mumbai. Jathanna has also planned to extend it across Rajasthan.

The programs are telecast in Kannada, English, Konkani, Tulu, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam. Big J Media Network has been accepted by the people of coastal Karnataka, Karnataka and Maharashtra cutting across denominations and doctrines. It is the only Christian Channel which airs 24×7, satisfying the souls of human beings, and meeting the spiritual needs of the viewers of all ages.

Prashanth Jathanna

According to Prasanth, “In the year 2000, my childhood friend shared the gospel with me and I accepted Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and understood the power of the gospel and the Love of God. I had a burden to share this love of God with my own people and so I approached a local channel to produce Gospel Messages but they discouraged me. So I was disappointed and then forgot the idea of getting into a channel, after many years few of my friends came with an idea of starting a Christian Television Channel, I was just giving them my moral support and then later on when they were planning to drop the idea of starting the channel. It was then that I took this as a challenge, trusting in the grace and strength of God and with the support of a few faithful friends of mine, I was able to start BiG-J Media Network in the year 2008. My only desire is to reach people with the message of the coming Messiah.”