There is speculation afoot that majority ownership in Black Entertainment Television (BET) could be up for grabs soon; and that prominent Black businessmen could be the ones to bring the television station back under Black ownership.
According to a NYT article, BET sold to Viacom in 2000 and the number of Black-owned media companies continued to fall sharply. This fact was attributed to Jeffrey Blevins, a UC professor of journalism who researches media trends. The decline, Blevins said, was due largely in part to 1990s legislation, when Washington lawmakers repealed a tax policy benefiting minority owners and passed a law that cleared the way for TV station groups to buy out their rivals. Numerous smaller minority-owned groups then sold to companies controlled by white executives.
Blevins researched and wrote about the lack of diversity in media ownership for a 2015 CityBeat article, stating: "Above all else, minority broadcast ownership doesn't just serve minority interests; it serves the public interest by enhancing the diversity of the broadcast spectrum, and all members of the broadcast audience are beneficiaries."
Paramount - as Viacom is now known - may or may not keep BET, but NYT's article states that among the interested are Tyler Perry, the actor and director who created the popular "Madea" franchises, Byron Allen, who owns the Weather Channel, and Group Black, a Miami based media company.
Featured photo of Jeffrey Blevins: UC Marketing + Creative/Andrew Higley.
