GLU Network, a free, ad-supported streaming platform built around faith and family programming, has grown to more than 150 channels and 26,000 titles in under three years.
“Families should not have to search endlessly for programming they can trust, and creators should not have to fight for a place to be discovered,” said Julie Stagner, founder of GLU Network. The Houston-based platform launched its first app in August 2023 and now reaches viewers on 12 major operating systems worldwide, including connected TVs, mobile devices, tablets, game consoles and the web.
There’s no subscription fee, no membership tier and no pay-per-view charge standing between viewers and the library. GLU makes its money the old-fashioned broadcast way, through advertising, which means families can hand a remote to their kids without pulling out a credit card first. That model has let the platform stack up channels fast, from Bible-teaching series to sports commentary to kids’ entertainment.
The lineup reads like a who’s-who of values-driven media. Bible Project sits alongside Dina Deleasa’s Dish It Girl, FOX Sports analyst Chris Broussard’s K.I.N.G. TV, Holy Culture TV, Sports Spectrum Media, Creation Today and In Touch, the ministry founded by the late Dr. Charles Stanley, longtime pastor of First Baptist Atlanta. Toss in gaming, music, podcasts and international ministry programming, and GLU looks less like a single channel and more like a curated cable package for households that want their entertainment vetted without paying for it.
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“GLU was built to help values-based creators, ministry partners and media organizations reach people globally with trusted content without friction,” Stagner said. That word, friction, is doing a lot of work. Plenty of faith-based creators have compelling content and nowhere to put it, stuck between paywalled niche apps and algorithm-driven platforms that bury anything overtly religious.
GLU isn’t the first outfit to try solving that problem. Movieguide® has tracked similar efforts for years, from Redeem TV, the donation-supported service Vision Video launched in 2020, to cable’s own pivot toward faith content through outlets like Great American Family. What sets GLU apart is scale and speed: 26,000 titles and 150-plus channels in three years is a growth curve most legacy networks would envy, faith-based or not.
None of that guarantees quality control, of course. A platform built to give creators a friction-free home still needs discerning parents doing the actual vetting, channel by channel, show by show, the same way any family should approach a new streaming service regardless of its branding. But the instinct behind GLU, that families deserve programming they can trust without having to dig for it, is one Movieguide® readers will recognize instantly. It’s the same instinct that drives this publication’s reviews every week, and it’s worth remembering that “faith-based” is a starting point for discernment, not a substitute for it.
For a media landscape still dominated by algorithms that reward outrage and shock value, a free platform betting on trust and curation is worth watching. Three years of steady growth suggests there’s real appetite for it, and 26,000 titles is enough to keep most families busy for a good long while. Whether GLU can keep adding channels without diluting what made it useful in the first place remains the open question worth revisiting down the road.
For now, families looking for one more reliable place to land can find GLU Network at glu.love, on the App Store, or on Google Play.
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