Editing Christian Broadcasting Network (section)

=== The 1980s ===
CBN relocated its main headquarters from Portsmouth to [[Virginia Beach]] in 1980. About this time, CBN co-commissioned the first [[Superbook (1981 TV series)|Superbook]] series of anime. This series was subsequently dubbed in many languages and distributed broadly across the world.

In June 1981,''The 700 Club'' changed from being a religious talk show to having a news magazine format.<ref name=":3" />

The CBN Satellite Service became the '''CBN Cable Network''' on September 1, 1981, and adopted a more secular programming format featuring a mix of family-oriented series and films while retaining some religious programs from various [[Televangelism|televangelists]] (mirroring the format used by CBN's broadcast stations). Its carriage grew to 10.9 million homes with a cable television subscription. The channel was notable for being one of the first cable channels to distribute its signal across the United States through [[Communications satellite|satellite]] transmission (the third overall, after HBO and TBS). CBN Cable Network began airing a late night block of classic family oriented shows like ''[[You Bet Your Life]]'' with [[Groucho Marx]], ''[[I Married Joan]]'', and ''[[The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis]]''.

The upstate New York radio stations were sold in 1982.

On April 10, 1982, a Christian-based television station in [[South Governorate|South Lebanon]], Hope TV, was donated to CBN, and became '''[[Middle East Television]]''' (METV). At this time METV broadcast from [[Marjayoun]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 2019 |title=Middle East Pullouts: CBN News Perspective on a Tragic History |url=https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2019/january/middle-east-pullouts-news-perspective-on-a-tragic-history}}</ref> In Israel, METV was known for broadcasting [[WWE|WWF]] wrestling that was not available on Israeli TV. The station broadcast news, sports, family entertainment, and religious programming.

In August 1988, the CBN Cable Network became '''The CBN Family Channel'''.

Three of the over-the-air TV stations were sold between 1984 and 1989. WXRI radio in Portsmouth was also sold in 1989.