All Articles Tagged "african american television"
After 8 Years, TV One Embraces A Makeover
It’s been eight years since TV One’s initial launch, and now the channel is reinventing its style and programming to line up with its new tagline “Where Black Life Unfolds.” ”There’s no time better than now to really state our claim and to give the brand a true identity,” Kenetta Bailey, the executive VP and chief marketing officer of TV One said to Hollywood Reporter.
“The marketplace has changed very dramatically,” Bailey said. “There are a lot of shows that are now reaching out to our audience. We have seen increasing competition from networks that specifically target African-Americans.”
The change can be seen in TV One’s new logo composed of four colors: warm ice, tangerine, sunflower and paprika, which they hope will communicate the new look and feel from color’s stand point.
TV One caters to a majority female audience (60 percent) ranging from ages 25-54. The network, which is owned 51 percent by Radio One and 46.5 percent by Comcast, will now double its original programming and begin a new line up on Aug. 20, with the premiere of R&B Divas. Bailey claims that storytelling is the center of black life and experience and this new show, as well as its top rated “Life After” and “Unsung” are all about storytelling.
“TV One enjoys high brand awareness among our target audience, and we want to make sure our viewers understand exactly what the network is all about: great storytelling through a variety of genres that reflect and celebrate the rich diversity of black life in America,” Bailey said to Hollywood Reporter. “TV One will show how black life unfolds in our nonfiction entertainment series, our celebrity bio-docs, our original sitcoms, in our investigation/mystery series and in the movies we choose to acquire.”
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Behind the Scenes with TV One's CEO
(Washington Post) — I loved television growing up. It was the first place I saw a great representation of African Americans in environments different from mine. I watched TV, and it made me feel something. How many products can make people think, feel, cry and take action? That was so powerful to me. So when I would hear people say that I should follow my passion, I knew I was passionate about being in a medium that can do all of that. After business school, I decided to go into brand management with Clorox and Coca-Cola to understand marketing and, more importantly, to understand how to influence a consumer’s behavior to drive business results.
HBCU Channel Working to Generate Buzz
(HBCU) — The fledgling HBCU Network and members of the Congressional Black Caucus will meet in Washington later this month to generate interest in what will be the first television network dedicated solely to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The brainchild of HBCU alum and former BET executive Curtis Symonds, the Atlanta-based HBCU Network will be a “full-fledged 24/7, 365 days a year sports, edutainment and lifestyle network.” “The time has more than come for something like this,” said Symonds. “Right now, Hampton has the largest NASA program in the country, and North Carolina A&T has one of the best engineering departments in the country. How many of our children know things like that? That’s what this channel will be all about — putting all our varying shades on display, while casting us in our best lights.”
Carolina Black TV Network Takes Shape
(Carolina Peacemaker) — Developing a network can be hard work and it may be even harder when there are few of its kind on the market, but either way it doesn’t mean it is not achievable. Back in January the first African American television network in the North Carolina Region made a home in a quaint building off of South Eugene Street. Both Michael and Ramona Woods constructed their ideas into reality and thus formed Black Network Television (BNT). The newly developed station’s purpose is to be the voice of the community and the station’s destiny is “to serve as a catalyst of change and project a positive image within the community,” shared marketing representative Kathy Boone.
Bounce TV Debuts in September
(TheWrap) – Bounce TV, a new broadcast network geared toward African-American viewers, will debut on September 26, the network announced Tuesday. The network, founded by Martin Luther King III and others, will debut at noon with a with a 24-hour, daily programing mix of movies, sports, documentaries and original programing.
Regi Allen: Televising the Revolution With FunkTV
By Andrea Williams
The media is full of reports depicting the dire state of urban television, and black programming in particular. Critics claim that we are portrayed in a one-dimensional light — as angry, loud-mouthed “housewives” or uber-rich athletes and recording artists with swagger and bling to spare.
Now Regi Allen, senior editor at the Discovery Channel and 20-plus year veteran of the television industry, is ready to do something about it. With his FunkTV – currently broadcast via the internet, but coming soon to a cable provider near you – Allen seeks to provide some much needed diversity in Black television.
Here, he talks to The Atlanta Post about his struggles, his motivations and how he wants you to help him program the network.
How was the seed for FunkTV first planted?
When I see every urban-based network that happens on a broadcast level, it is always the same incarnation of what BET is. TVOne and Centric both claim that they are not BET, but they pretty much are. It just breaks my heart that no one says, “Let’s do the alternative,” in the sense of covering the skateboard culture, or Afropunk, or the underground hip hop scene, or global cinema or independent Black, Latino and Asian cinema. Each of these subcultures is HUGE and they can be branded and molded into a very palatable, attractive television narrative. And I just can’t believe that no one has tried to put that together.
So how will FunkTV be different from all of the other urban networks?
I think that now, young people that watch urban TV only see one small part of what it means to really be expressive and black and to be creative. But with FunkTV we want to use technology to make this whole experience interactive. The TV experience as we know it now is very one-dimensional. They decide what to broadcast to you. But with FunkTV we’re very interested in having a two-way conversation. We want the viewer to help us program the network. You send us your videos, or produce a promo for us or come on one of the shows and play a role. We’re really putting the ‘U’ in Funk.
A full-fledged television network is a pretty big undertaking. Did you ever consider starting smaller?
My partners are constantly asking me, “Why don’t we just build this on the internet?” Or they’ll say, “Let’s just do a show called FunkTV and someone can pick it up.” First of all, we can’t compete with internet television entities. There are tons of cool, Black internet channels out there like Karmaloop and Creative Control, and they’re funded. Second, the reason that I am so excited about a TV network – a television broadcast entity – is because one doesn’t exist. Its really weird, but you would think that if you turn on the TV you would find another black network that’s showing something different. So I’m thinking, “What if I do such an extreme departure from BET and provide that niche for an underserved market?”
TV One Expands Reach
(Radio & Television Business Report) — The joint venture owned by Radio One and Comcast which showcases and celebrates African American culture has added these new households across the south. Carriage additions this spring include Time Warner Cable, Knology, Charter and OneSource Communications systems.
I Want My HBCU…TV
by Glenn Minnis
Spewing from the entrepreneurial well that is the mind of Curtis Symonds has long been the rather simplistic notion that necessity serves as the mother of all invention and innovation. And since his days as a student athlete and returning lettermen at Ohio’s Central State University, he’s always been resolute in his belief that there is both a niche and clamor for increased exposure among History Black Colleges and Universities athletic programs.
“HBCU students and alums are some of the most loyal and passionate fans you’ll ever cross,” said Symonds, still an ardent follower of their programs more than three decades since he, himself, was taking center court to such unwavering applause. “They bleed the colors of their teams and it’s time all of us got more of what we’ve all been craving for what seems an eternity.”
The networks will be able to showcase the near century-and-a-half history of HBCUs as well as provide advertisers with a clear cut platform for reaching their multicultural high school and college-aged demographic. That magical, almost mythical, opportunity comes in the form of the new Atlanta-based HBCU Network, set to soft launch later this year and become a “stand alone, full-time, 24-7, 365 day a year sports, edutainment and lifestyle network” by February 2012.
“Our heritage; our legacy; our channel, not only is that our mantra and motto, it’s our heartfelt belief,” said Symonds, who will serve as network CEO and as a National Cable Television Association award winner brings more than 25-years of expertise to the venture. Fellow industry veterans Clint Evans, Executive Vice President Distribution & Marketing, and Candace Walker, Executive Vice President Programming, will join him at the controls. Comcast Cable has confirmed ongoing talks with execs about potentially being a carrier.“We expect to be in about 10,000 homes and around 20 footprint states by the time we launch but we’re still encouraging everyone to call their cable operators to make their interest known,” said Symonds, who as a former BET senior level executive once aided the network in growing its subscriber base from 18 to 65 million homes in roughly less than a decade.
Black Heritage Network in the Works
(Broadcasting and Cable) — A group of investors including former FCC Commissioner Tyrone Brown, TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson, syndicated columnist Clarence Page and former GE and NBC exec Paul Besson, are backing the launch of a new nonfiction programming based African American-targeted cable and satellite net, the Black Heritage Network. According to former WUSA-TV GM Richard Reingold, who will be CEO of the new net, BHN is in “serious” talks with the major distributors and expects to have about seven million subs at launch, which is targeted for December of this year.
Dancer Goes Behind the Curtain
(New York Times) — Nneka Onuorah began taking tap-dancing lessons when she was 4, and by her teenage years, she was proficient in jazz, contemporary and hip-hop moves. She assumed she was destined to be a professional dancer. Instead, after attending LaGuardia Community College, she wound up in a different corner of the entertainment business, as the music specials coordinator at Black Entertainment Television. Ms. Onuorah, 23, lives in Corona, Queens.
In a name: My father came here from Nigeria, where he was a chief in his village, when he was about 23. My first name means “my mother is prominent.” My mother, Kim Onuorah, used to work as an accountant at the Park Lane Hotel. My parents separated in 1998. From the time I was about 10 until I was 15, I lived with my maternal grandmother in Atlanta. She supported my dreams of becoming a dancer.
