The New York Times: Third Black-owned company emerges as suitor for BET

According to a New York Times article, BET sold to Viacom in 2000 and the number of Black-owned media companies continued to fall sharply. Jeffrey Blevins, a UC professor of journalism who researches media trends, says this decline was due largely in part to 1990s legislation, when Washington lawmakers repealed a tax policy benefiting minority owners and passed a law that cleared the way for TV station groups to buy out their rivals.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 previously 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 the Times article states that among the interested are Tyler Perry, the actor and director who created the popular “Madea” franchise; Byron Allen, who owns the Weather Channel; and Group Black, a Miami-based media company.

Read the NYT article.

Featured photo at top: Jeffrey Blevins: Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand