Smile (TV network)
Smile was an American Christian free-to-air television network owned and operated by the Trinity Broadcasting Network. 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-TV providers, which usually carried it in a company 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, with all of its programming being moved to the TBN-operated streaming platform Yippee TV.
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. Eastern Time, with the holiday-themed special Martin the Cobbler as its inaugural program.Smile of a Child was initially available as a 24/7 service on all platforms, and introduced on digital subchannels of TBN owned-and-operated station 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.
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, 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 on the third subchannel occupied by JUCE 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., with JUCE airing the remainder of the day, giving each network a daily 12-hour window on its owned-and-operated 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.
Although 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 February 2021, Olympusat, the main provider of TBN's networks to cable providers in the United States, discontinued carriage of the network, thus affecting carriage of Smile to those systems.
Closure
Smile closed on January 12, 2025; promos announcing the channel's closure began airing in December 2024; TBN moved all of its programming to its Christian children's streaming service Yippee TV. Outside of TBN's non-commercial broadcast stations that carried Smile, the channel space is currently leased by OnTV4U, an all-paid programming network.Following the closure of Smile TV, the 24/7 PBS Kids Channel would remain as the only full-time over-the-air children's network in the United States.