Smile (shortened from its former name of Smile of a Child) was an American

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owned and operated by the

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN; legally Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN solicits donations on its Web site, a ...

. The network was aimed at children aged 2–12 and offered a mixture of children's religious and family-oriented programming. The network was founded as the television branch of TBN's ''Smile of a Child'' ministry, created by TBN co-founder Jan Crouch. Smile was also available on pay television providers, which usually carried it in a suite with TBN's other networks, in addition to worldwide satellite and streaming availability. In addition, the parent network TBN carried a "Smile" block on Saturday mornings. The channel closed on January 12, 2025.

History

Early history as Smile of a Child

Founded as Smile of a Child TV by TBN co-founder Jan Crouch, the network was developed and named after Smile of a Child, a children's outreach ministry founded by Jan and Paul Crouch in the 1990s to provide services and donations to needy children worldwide. The network launched on December 24, 2005 at 3:00 a.m.

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, with the holiday-themed special ''Martin the Cobbler'' as its inaugural program. Smile of a Child was initially available as a 24-hour-a-day service on all platforms, and debuted on

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s of TBN

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...

in 13 markets. Over the subsequent years, Smile expanded its national coverage to all of TBN's owned-and-operated and affiliated stations in nearly 40 markets, carried usually on the fifth subchannel (for example, if the local TBN station broadcasts on channel 17, then Smile would be carried on digital subchannel 17.5).

Multicasting consolidation with JUCE TV

On June 1, 2015, Smile of a Child was combined into a single subchannel with a sister network JUCE TV (which targeted teenagers and young adults 13 to 30 years of age), under a timeshare arrangement. As a result of the realignment, for over-the-air viewers, Smile was originally reduced to a 9-hour daily programming schedule (from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time) on the third subchannel occupied by JUCE (which continued to air over its existing subchannel slot for the remainder of the broadcast day) on the 38 stations owned directly by TBN and through its subsidiary Community Educational Television. The following week, the timeshare was modified so that Smile would air from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Eastern), with JUCE airing the remainder of the day, giving each network a daily 12-hour window on its O&O stations' DT3 subchannels. The change, which was required due to multiplexing limitations at the time with TBN's over-the-air stations, was required due to the launch of TBN Salsa, a digital subchannel network targeting English-speaking Latino viewers which launched on that date. Though it had a reduced presence on broadcast television, Smile continued to maintain a 24-hour-day schedule via live stream on TBN's website, and mobile and digital media players as well as on select cable and satellite providers that carry the TBN multicast networks, as was the case before the over-the-air consolidation of the two networks. The network rebranded as simply "Smile" on January 1, 2017, with an updated network imaging, including its logo and continuity.

Resumption of 24-hour service

On January 1, 2020, TBN resumed offering a 24-hour feed of Smile on its multicast tier over the DT3 subchannel of its owned-and-operated stations. (Concurrently, JUCE TV was moved to the DT5 feed previously occupied by TBN Salsa, which was discontinued from its broadcast stations in May 2019, when a standard definition feed of the main TBN signal began being offered as a placeholder feed.) In late February 2021, ''Olympusat'', the main provider of TBN's networks to cable providers in the United States (including Verizon FiOS and

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), discontinued carriage of the network, thus affecting carriage of Smile to those systems.

Closure

On December 10, 2024, Smile began notifying viewers that Smile would discontinue its service on this channel January 12, 2025. TBN promoted Yippee TV (and redirected Smile's website upon closure to that service), a separate streaming service, and a live feed on TBN+ to its viewers looking for similar faith-based children's content. The network ceased over-the-air throughout the day on January 12, with the feed terminating at 2:59 a.m. ET/11:59 p.m. PT the same evening. Outside TBN's non-commercial broadcast stations (which removed their former Smile channel entirely), the channel space is currently leased by OnTV4U, an all- paid programming network.

Programming

Awards and honors

2008:

Parents Television Council The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), is an American media advocacy group founded by Conservatism in the United States, conservative political pundit L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which ...

Entertainment Seal of Approval

References

External links

Official website (archived)SOAC & JUCE TV Channels Merged in TBN Australia
{{Programs Christian mass media companies Evangelical television networks Television programming blocks in the United States Religious television stations in the United States English-language television stations in the United States Television channels and stations established in 2005 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2025 Trinity Broadcasting Network Defunct television networks in the United States