ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992                   TAG: 9203060170
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROBERTSONS TO SELL FAMILY CHANNEL STOCK

Virginia Beach television evangelist Pat Robertson and his son, Timothy B. Robertson, plan to sell stock in their cable television network, The Family Channel, creating a potential gain of more than $50 million for the company.

The Family Channel filed plans with federal regulators Wednesday to sell 10 million shares. The stock will be offered at about $15 a share but could fetch much more depending on how it's received by investors, stock analysts say.

It will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FAM and could trade by mid-April.

The Family Channel is among the 10 largest basic cable television networks in the country. It reached more children last year than MTV and billed $103.5 million in advertising.

The network features a menu of family entertainment and carries "The 700 Club," the religious program of which Pat Robertson is host.

It is carried by nearly every major cable system in the country, including those in the Roanoke and New River valleys. It reaches almost 55 million households.

The Christian Broadcasting Network, which is Pat Robertson's television ministry, sold The Family Channel to the Robertsons in January 1990 for $250 million. CBN gave them 15 years to pay.

The stock offering will enable The Family Channel to reduce its debt to CBN significantly. In all, about $150 million will be raised. Of that, about $100 million would go to CBN and the rest to The Family Channel and the Robertsons. 


 by CNB