More than a century after the beginnings of Christian broadcasting in the UK, the platforms may have changed beyond recognition, but the opportunity to share the Gospel through media remains as significant as ever. Speaking at CBC Revive 2026, Premier Christian Communications CEO Kevin Bennett and Chief Digital Officer Marcus Jones took delegates on a journey from the Christian beginnings of British broadcasting to a future shaped by podcasts, apps, YouTube, streaming and AI.
Their session, recorded at the Premier Christian Media Centre in London, also offered a challenge to today’s Christian broadcasters and content creators. With audiences consuming hours of media every day, what are Christians going to do with what Kevin called the “extraordinary pulpit” we have been given?
Christian broadcasting and the scattering of seed
Kevin began in 1922, when John Reith arrived in London looking for work and heard a sermon based on Ezekiel 22:30. Within days, Reith saw an advertisement for the general manager of the newly formed British Broadcasting Company. Christian broadcasting was present almost from the beginning, with religious programming forming part of Reith’s vision for the new medium.
Playing an archival recording from those pioneering years, Kevin picked up on one particularly striking description of broadcasting as an “extraordinary pulpit”. He then connected it with another word we still use every day. Long before broadcasting meant transmitting radio or television programmes, it described the scattering of seed across the ground.
For Christians, the parallel with Jesus’ parable of the sower in Matthew 13 is difficult to miss. Kevin described early broadcasting as “an industrial scale application of the parable of the sower”, with a new technology suddenly making it possible for one voice to reach an unseen audience of thousands.
More than 100 years later, that extraordinary pulpit has multiplied. Radio remains part of it, but the seed can now be scattered through a podcast listened to on the school run, a YouTube video discovered late at night, a worship song, an app notification or a conversation heard through a smart speaker.
From Christian radio to digital ministry
Marcus brought the story into the present, explaining how Premier has moved far beyond its beginnings as a London based Christian radio station in 1995. Alongside its radio stations, Premier now reaches people through podcasts, websites, YouTube and apps, with newer projects including its Journey devotional app and programming created specifically for children.
Yet one of the most memorable moments in the session had little to do with technology. Delegates heard from a listener who discovered Premier Praise after her DAB radio fell onto the floor and landed on the station.
“You wake up in the morning and you put on the radio, and it’s like opening a door and inviting a friend in for coffee,” she said. She described laughing at comments made by presenters, crying and finding herself on her knees during worship songs before adding: “I thank Jesus for Premier Praise.”
Her story brought the discussion back to the reason Christian broadcasting exists in the first place. Marcus explained that while Premier can talk about reaching large audiences, its focus remains on the individual and helping “that one person” encounter God. Behind every audience figure is somebody listening in a kitchen, driving a car, scrolling through a phone or searching online for something they may not yet be able to name.
What comes next for Christian broadcasting in the UK?
The final part of the session looked towards another period of rapid change. Visualised radio, streaming, changing audience behaviour and AI are creating fresh questions about how people will consume media and where Christian voices will be heard. Premier’s new London facilities reflect some of that change, with video, radio and podcast studios designed for a media world where the boundaries between traditional broadcasting and digital content are increasingly blurred.
Significantly, Marcus said Premier Christian Communications wants those facilities to serve more than its own output. The vision is for the studios to be available to the wider Christian community through partnerships and other arrangements, creating opportunities for ministries and content creators to amplify what they are doing.
That spirit of partnership sits naturally with the purpose of CBC Revive. Christian broadcasting in the UK is now much bigger than traditional radio and television, encompassing podcasts, online video, digital platforms and independent creators. The opportunities before us are also bigger than anything one organisation can tackle alone.
The technology will keep changing. Some of the platforms Christians rely on today may eventually look as historic as those first radio microphones of the 1920s. Yet the image Kevin returned to during his presentation remains remarkably relevant: the broadcaster scattering seed without necessarily knowing where it will land.
For Christian broadcasters, journalists, musicians, podcasters, church communications teams and digital creators, that should be an encouragement as well as a responsibility. We have an extraordinary opportunity to carry the good news of Jesus into homes and headphones, cars and workplaces, reaching people who may never think of walking into a church.
Kevin summed up that purpose simply towards the end of the session. Premier, he said, is not ultimately there merely to gain listeners or build studios: “We are here to change lives.”
And perhaps that is the thread connecting those first Christian broadcasters with everything happening today. The pulpit has changed beyond anything they could have imagined. The calling to scatter good seed has not.
Watch Kevin Bennett and Marcus Jones’s full CBC Revive 2026 session above. Of course, the conversation at Revive went wider than radio or any one medium. In our conference overview, UK Christian media must respond to call as people open up towards God, we look at the challenge that ran through the day: as signs emerge of a new openness to faith, how can Christian broadcasters, creators and ministries respond with confidence, creativity and a clear Gospel message?
You can discover more about Premier Christian Communications through its listing in our CBC UK Directory. The Directory is helping to make Christian broadcasting in the UK and the wider Christian media landscape easier to discover, connecting Christians with broadcasters, programmes, podcasts, YouTube channels, ministries and media professionals sharing the Gospel. If you are involved in Christian media, you can submit a free listing and help more people discover your ministry, network, programme or series.
