Smile TV, Former StarSat Channel Is Shutting Down In The US

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 Smile Of A Child (also known as Smile) was a Christian based children's network operated by Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) with a mixture of animated and live-action content. The channel offered shows like Superbook, Quigley's Village and Veggie Tales.

Through their website, it was announced that Smile would cease to exist from January 12th with content being integrated to Yippee TV and TBN+ both of which are streaming services. In other countries, TBN's 24 hour channel of the same name offers an educational block for most shows.

Prior to Smile's demise, StarTimes served as one of the various broadcasters to distribute the channel before TBN made the decision to close its offering internationally. It had been alleged that Smile was struggling to garner traction in most of these markets which is the reason all of the content reverted to TBN.

If Smile TV's demise has taught us anything is to preserve life while you still got it. This is further indication that cable networks aren't the latest fashion trend right now as Comcast looks to discard most of its cable networks while the remaining networks offer very little to new content.

2025 could shape up to be one of the most historic years for cable networks aside from Comcast you have Warner Bros. Discovery spinning off its cable networks from Max and Warner Bros. Pictures followed by Skydance's aggressive takeover of Paramount Global.

What Happened To TBN's Smile Channel On Starsat And StarTimes?

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Back in 2019, Starsat and StarTimes subscribers awoke only to discover Smile TV was no longer available on the platform. Both operators haven't informed the media beforehand instead they only inform viewers through an enquiry that the channel went offline while TBN Africa remained quiet about the whole removal.

To start off the year, Smile got scrapped worldwide according to the admin of Smile TV media account and viewers can only find it online worldwide or through DVB2 in the United States.

It's possible that both Starsat and StarTimes found out around the time the channel left as viewers were asking about the channel and they were silent for a couple of hours.

Do I believe these companies will replace it?
No
Is it worth replacing?
Not really, there's plenty of religious channels so they'll more likely recommend subscribers to those channels or maybe source out "another" kids channel that won't be added as a replacement channel

Positiv.tv is a Christian-Based Movie Channel launched in 2020 offering family-friendly films that you might have seen on TBN. It was adapted from a programming block that aired on Smile TV.

This channel is said to be Smile TV's successor along with the youth based channel Juce TV. It's funny how broadcasters label replacements in linear TV. First minute you're watching a classic drama such as Bones on Universal TV next minute you wake up only to see a sports tournament such as Tokyo 2020 on the Olympics Channel. To me it seems more of a turnover than a replacement.

TBN should have informed the media and it's distributors that these kids channels will be scrapped so these operators can prepare themselves better and possibly seek out other alternatives instead of them having a run around and viewers pointing fingers at their them since they package the channel. Either way the damage has already been done and these operators lost several channels throughout 2019 as 2020 moves they're still sourcing out replacements.