History
BET was founded by
Robert L. Johnson, a former cable industry lobbyist, on
January 25,
1980 after getting a
$500,000 investment from then-
TCI president
John Malone. The network was initially a weekly, two-hour Friday night block airing on the
USA Network from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. (EST). The programming was mostly older movies and music videos, creating an outlet for an untapped market in the then-young cable industry, African-Americans. In May of that year, BET invested $1 million for the production of Black collegiate sporting events and expanded an hour. In
November 1980, BET added two half-hour shows,
Black Showcase and
The Bobby Jones Gospel Show (the latter is still on the air today). On
June 26,
1983, BET premiered
Video Soul, a music video series hosted by popular D.C.
DJ Donnie Simpson, one of the first marquee series on the network.
On
October 1,
1983, after finding additional funding courtesy of
Home Box Office, BET launched a 24-hour schedule with a viewership of 7.6 million cable subscribers.
Throughout the decades, BET has grown in viewership and expanded beyond television. In
October 1989, BET entered the publishing business by launching their first magazine
Emerge, aimed toward African-American news consumers. A little under a year later, BET launched
YSB (Young Sisters and Brothers), a lifestyle magazine aimed toward African-American teenagers followed by the purchase of Arabesque Books, a publisher of African-American-oriented romance novels, and
Heart and Soul magazine. BET also launched spinoff networks in the 1990s, including BET on Jazz: The Jazz Channel (now named
BET J), a pay-per-view network called BET Action, and, along with John Malone's
Liberty Media, BET STARZ!, which became Black
STARZ! after the
Viacom takeover and renamed Starz InBlack in 2005. BET also offers two other music channels, BET Hip-Hop, and BET Gospel, both of which are offered on digital cable platforms across the nation.
BET also airs African-American interest specials and introduced public service campaigns. The
Rap It Up campaign is dedicated to preventing the spread of
HIV/
AIDS in the African-American community. In the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, BET aired
SOS: Saving Our Selves, a hurricane relief telethon concert on
September 9,
2005, to raise funds for those affected by Katrina. More than $11 million was raised for Katrina victims.
. But if you look at 98% of television it is mostly white. Name one primetime television show with a black lead. And most of the blacks that do make it on television are the lighter ones. What do you guys think?
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