Despite the overall encouraging moves being made around the world to reopen physical locations, lots, studios, and cinemas, it seems like 2020’s streaming revolution is here to stay. Just this week we see BET announce that they will move online-only for the UK. BLAKE & WANG P.A, one of the top entertainment law firms Los Angeles as always, has the news you need.
ViacomCBS move BET to the net
The shift is to be a fast one, too, with the channel launching online-only from April 8th. Its official new home will be My5, the Channel 5 streamer. Plus, of course, ViacomCBS’s own Pluto. The ad-supported Pluto will receive the channel from April 5, 3 days ahead of the official launch. Will it mean a slowdown in channel output? Not at all, at least according to sources in the know. In fact, we have Monde Twala, SVP of BET International, on record with the following:
“We are committed to growing the BET brand in the UK, and to continuing to elevate Black love, joy, power, and pride worldwide,”
Exciting programming news
Alongside the migration to fully digital, we’ve seen a host of interesting titles announced for the channel. Expect to see:
- Black to the Future: While this is a working title only, the program will bring a comedy archive to life
- Celebrity Comfort Food: A cooking series focused on celeb-favorite dishes
- We Do That: 3 famous hosts will meet talented Black workers and try out their career paths, with hilarious results.
A welcome reinvention?
While the move is powered by the overall online-only trend we’ve seen across a variety of content, it could be an interesting one for BET specifically. We’ve seen a form of cultural revolution through 2020, and the demand for diverse, representative content that explores a myriad of cultures and world views is at a peak. Even just this week we’ve seen the UK’s Sky partner up with Creative Access to help bring greater diversity to their sportscasters, editorial assistants, and assistant producers, in an attempt to get more voices heard and featured.
BET, of course, vastly predates this push, having launched to UK fans in 2008. In fact, it’s the first primarily African-American-focused channel of its kind. It’s also seen its share of launches, reinventions, and format changes in the years since. As such, it could be uniquely positioned for greater global prominence in its specific messaging, and may even find itself in demand to a range of global audiences in a way it hasn’t been before. While the thought is purely speculative at this point, a strong and content-focused online push could well allow the BET brand to achieve a wider audience and greater prominence overall. In turn, this will help bring even more needed diversity to the industry.
Will the move to online-only bring BET to greater prominence? We can’t know for now, but one thing is certain- this is even more confirmation that the industry views streaming and the online space as the next frontier for film and TV to conquer.
