The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

When Robert Johnson was partners with the white media mogul whose name escapes me, they, essentially, blocked other cable companies from picking up MBC, now the Black Family Channel, now?????

It was a classic power move. TV One works because Radio One partnered with COMCAST.

The only parties responsible for BFC’s difficulties in securing cable/DBS carriage were the cable & dish operators themselves. While it’s true BET benefitted greatly from John Malone’s involvement, there is no financial upside for most cable system operators to carry multiple Af-Am niche channels minus control over said channels’ content and/or revenues, a la Comcast and TVOne.

IMO, BFC’s business model was never sound. Neither is TVOne’s, FWIW. However, its financing by Comcast enables the latter to leverage the boutique channel against BET (and its owner, Viacom). There are at least 2-3 other Af-Am themed TV networks I know of in existence, but the economics of the cable TV industry makes their prospects for carriage similarly dim. Perhaps BFC and the others will use this setback as an opportunity recruit and/or cultivate some talented and energetic executives from within their target demographic who’ll establish a viable plan. Good intentions alone aren’t enough to ensure success in business.

You know, I had several thoughts on this one:

–While it is true that TV One has backing by Comcast, BET did not have such luxury in the early days, yet it did pretty well on its own (you can probably attribute that to the fact that they were the first national Black network).

–The “family” genre for television can be very tough

Remember PAX TV (now known as ION TV)? PAX was also billed as a family channel, but it basically fell flat. For them, family programing meant old reruns of The Waltons, Dr. Quinn–Medicine woman??? and other similar shows.

–The reason why I think that the family genre can be difficult is because each family defines “family” programing very differently. While I can appreciate the wholesomeness of a Walton’s-type show, it will get no play in our household. Our “family” programing is made up of a collage of programs from different networks.

–Compared to BET back in the day, I wonder if there was a significant amount of cable/sat subscribers who requested the Black Family Channel.

–A valiant effort.

it’s sad this is the first time i’ve heard of this channel and it’s on its way out…

but yeah, “family” programming is tough. i just ran across ION the other day, and i couldn’t even figure out what it had replaced (thanks, Duane). AND i couldn’t figure out what kind of network it was between the religious programming, the “paid” programming, and the re-runs of Amen.

it’s sad this is the first time i’ve heard of this channel and it’s on its way out…

but yeah, “family†programming is tough.

this is my first time hearing about this channel as well, but like TV one it’s not offered where I live. I do LOVE Lincoln Heights. My family and I watched it every week. I have to set my DVR to record it so I watch it again when there is nothing else on TV. I’m glad that it got renewed for a 2nd season!

A company called Liberty Media (nee TCI) — a major media conglomerate headed by John Malone — staked the original investment in BET and at one time was its majority owner. HBO was also one of BET’s original backers. In many ways, TVOne’s deal with Comcast is identical with the exception BET had more programming and operational autonomy. I suspect those relationships were products of the cable industry’s economics during the early 80s.

ION is PAX renamed and reformatted from ‘Christian lite’ (my description) and informercial programming to a more ‘secular’ format featuring sports (mixed martial arts), drama, and science fiction. IMO, it was the heavy amount of informercials aired under the old format that alienated viewers. ION’s new boss (Bud Paxson left the company as part of an agreement with NBC Universal) has announced ION will be a format for indie TV producers seeking a national platform.

–While it is true that TV One has backing by Comcast, BET did not have such luxury in the early days, yet it did pretty well on its own (you can probably attribute that to the fact that they were the first national Black network).

At the start, correct. And Johnson was mad that he had to get BET on some cable systems at the cost of $0.01 or $0.02 / cable customer. For YEARS BET was the cheapest out there.

When Johnson got the backing of Malone and TCI, things started going well. Johnson, at the urging of Malone, took BET public. But to take it public, Johnson had to state in his filings that BET transmission facilities and programming would be upgraded with the money raised. They did the upgrading and then Johnson screwed share holders (ME!), when he took it private again, under valued. BTW, I think at one point he owned 51% and Malone owned 49%. At this time I’ll say that while BET was public, Johnson b&m’ed that the stock was under valued and was under valued for racist reasons. I agree that it was under valued. When he took it private, he then said the price offered was fair and was based on the market, which he previously said under valued the stock.

Malone made a LOT of money, Johnson made more. Johnson’s wife got PAID after they divorced. Her estimated net worth is probably second to only Oprah.

In many ways, TVOne’s deal with Comcast is identical with the exception BET had more programming and operational autonomy.

I’m not sure about that one. TVOne has more programming. BET survived because videos are cheap (free) *AND* they ran info-mercials out the waazoo. TV One doesn’t have as much operational autonomy, that’s true. Johnson ran BET on the cheap.

Sidenote: BET had the cable franchise for D.C. He ran that on the cheap as well. During his ownership, the cable company infrastructure went to hell and the channels offered were the weakest in the region. D.C. actually made Johnson sell the franchise or else D.C. would have declared a breach of contract and take the franchise from Johnson.