Black Entertainment Television

**Black Entertainment Television** (**BET**) is an American cable television channel. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It is based in New York City. The network is targeted toward African-American audiences in the United States. Most of it used to show hip hop and R&B music videos. Now it shows religious shows, movies, award shows and original television series for African-Americans.

BET began as a block on USA Network in 1980, before becoming its own channel in 1983.

## History 
### Early years 
After stepping down as a lobbyist for the cable industry, Freeport, Illinois native Robert L. Johnson decided to launch his own cable television network. Johnson acquired a loan for $15,000 (equivalent to $55,648 in 2023) and a $500,000 (equivalent to $1,854,921 in 2023) investment from media executive John Malone to start the network. The network, which was named Black Entertainment Television (BET), launched on January 25, 1980. Cheryl D. Miller designed the logo that would represent the network, which featured a star to symbolize "Black Star Power".

Initially, broadcasting for two hours a week as a block of programming on the Madison Square Garden Sports Network (which would change their name to USA Network three months after BET launched), the network's lineup was composed of music videos and reruns of popular black sitcoms. In 1996, the talk show *BET Tonight* started with Tavis Smiley as host; in 2001, Ed Gordon replaced Smiley as host of the program.

In 1991, the network became the first black-controlled television company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. BET's president of entertainment Reginald Hudlin resigned from the network on September 11, 2008. He was then replaced by Stephen Hill, who is also executive vice president of music programming and talent. BET announced in March 2010 that Ed Gordon would return to the network to host "a variety of news programs and specials".

In March 2017, president of programming Stephen Hill and executive vice president of original programming Zola Mashariki both stepped down. Connie Orlando, senior vice president of Specials, Music Programming, and News was named the interim president of programming.

In July 2017, Viacom signed new film and television development deals with Tyler Perry following the expiration of his existing pact with Discovery Inc. in 2019. As part of this deal, Perry would produce *The Oval* and *Sistas* for BET and co-own the network's newly launched streaming service, BET+.

## Programming
## Criticism 
A wide range of people have protested elements of BET's programming and actions, including Public Enemy rapper Chuck D, journalist George Curry, writer Keith Boykin, comic book creator Christopher Priest, filmmaker Spike Lee, Syracuse University professor of finance Dr. Boyce Watkins, former NFL player Burgess Owens, and cartoonist Aaron McGruder (who, in addition to numerous critical references throughout his series *The Boondocks*, made two particular episodes, "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show", criticizing the channel). As a result, BET heavily censors suggestive content from the videos that it airs, often with entire verses and scenes removed from certain rap videos.

Many scholars within the black American community maintain that BET perpetuates and justifies racism by affecting the stereotypes held about black Americans, and also by affecting the psyche of its young viewers through its bombardment of negative images of black Americans.

Following the death of civil rights leader Coretta Scott King in 2006, BET broadcast its regularly scheduled music video programming, rather than covering King's funeral live, as was done by TV One and Black Family Channel, and by cable news channels such as CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. The network's website streamed the funeral live, while it periodically broadcast taped, 60-second reports from the funeral by senior news correspondent Andre Showell. Michael Lewellen, BET's senior vice president for corporate communications, defended the decision: "We weighed a number of different options. In the end, we chose to offer a different kind of experience for BET viewers." Lewellen also explained that BET received around "two dozen" phone calls and "a handful" of emails criticizing BET for not showing the King funeral live. On the evening of the funeral, February 7, 2006, BET broadcast the tribute special *Coretta Scott King: Married to the Mission*, and repeated it the following Sunday, February 12. Showell hosted the program featuring highlights of the funeral, *Coretta Scott King: Celebrating Her Spirit*, that broadcast that same day. In its 2007 convention, the National Association of Black Journalists gave BET its "Thumbs Down Award" for not broadcasting King's funeral live.

*The New York Times* reported that the Reverend Delman L. Coates and his organization Enough is Enough led protests every weekend outside the residences of BET executives against what they claim are negative stereotypes of black people perpetuated by BET music videos. Enough is Enough backed an April 2008 report titled *The Rap on Rap* by the Parents Television Council that criticized BET's rap programming, suggesting that the gratuitous sexual, violent and profane content was targeting children and teens.

In a 2010 interview, BET co-founder Sheila Johnson explained that she herself is "ashamed" of what the network has become. "I don't watch it. I suggest to my kids that they don't watch it," she said. "When we started BET, it was going to be the *Ebony* magazine on television. We had public affairs programming. We had news... I had a show called *Teen Summit*, we had a large variety of programming, but the problem is that then the video revolution started up... And then something started happening, and I didn't like it at all. And I remember during those days we would sit up and watch these videos and decide which ones were going on and which ones were not. We got a lot of backlash from recording artists...and we had to start showing them. I didn't like the way women were being portrayed in these videos."

## Sister networks 
### Spin-off channels 
BET has launched several spin-off cable networks over the years, including BET Her (formerly known as "BET on Jazz", then "BET J" and later "Centric"), BET Hip-Hop, and BET Gospel. Over time, spin-offs from sibling channels would be realigned under the BET branding; such as BET Jams (formerly known as "MTV Jams"), BET Soul (formerly known as "VH1 Soul"), SHO×BET, a premium Showtime multiplex network, and VH1 (an older-skewing spin-off of MTV that drifted into reality shows and, later, Black American-centric programming).

In May 2019, a BET-branded channel was launched on Pluto TV (which was acquired by its parent company two months earlier). In June 2019, the launch of BET+ was announced, a premium streaming service targeting Black Americans. The service launched in the United States in Fall 2019 with *First Wives Club* (which was originally planned to launch on Paramount Network before being shifted to BET) announced as one of the service's original series.

#### BET Gospel 
**BET Gospel** is a television network in the United States that launched on July 1, 2002. The network provides gospel and religious-related programming, with a mix new and classic shows.

BET Gospel previously ran on an automated loop schedule. In 2016, the channel was updated with its programming now composing of music videos, series and specials.

##### Current programming 
* *Lifted* (2016–present) (music videos)
* *Being* (2016–present)
* *Bobby Jones Gospel* (2002–present)
* *Lift Every Voice* (2002–present)
* *Celebration of Gospel* 
* ''It's a Mann's World* (2016–present)
* *Let the Church Say Amen* (2016–present)
* *The Sheards* (2016–present)
* *T.D. Jakes Presents: Mind, Body, & Soul* (2016–present)
* *Sunday Best'' (2016–present)

#### BET Jams 
**BET Jams** is an American pay television network airing hip-hop and urban contemporary music videos on a thrice-daily automated wheel schedule of eight hours outside of temporary "roadblock" closures during Paramount Global's awards events, with all of its programming currently denoted in hour blocks as *BET Jams – Music Videos* within electronic program guide listings.

The channel launched on May 1, 2002, as MTV Jams, and carried that name until October 5, 2015, and was placed under BET's purview as MTV drifted away from music programming along with *106 & Park*. The network space itself launched on August 1, 1998, as MTVX, carrying modern rock videos, and was re-focused around hip-hop music on that date, to some controversy from MTVX's former viewers.

### International networks 
#### BET International 
BET UK first transmitted on Videotron (now known as Virgin Media) and several other subscription providers from 1993 until 1996.

In May 2007 by Ofcom, BET International Inc. was given a license to rebroadcast in the United Kingdom. BET International is the first international version of the channel and is available in Europe, Africa and the Middle East through satellite providers. BET launched on February 27, 2008, on Sky channel 191 and began to be carried by Freesat channel 140 on August 8, 2008. BET+1 is also available on Sky channel 198 and Freesat channel 141, and is free-to-air. BET International shows with a mix of content from the main BET channel and locally produced shows. An exclusive, but temporary, HD version of the channel was made to show the 2009 BET Awards on Freesat EPG 142.

BET is additionally an associate member of the Caribbean Cable Cooperative.

BET launched an app called BET Play allowing international access to BET content in over 100 countries in June 2016.

The channel was shut down on April 8, 2021, with its content moved to My5 and Pluto TV.

#### Canada 
BET became available through most Canadian pay television providers on October 17, 1997. Several acquired shows on the Canadian feed are blacked out due to domestic broadcast groups owning the rights to them. Shaw and Rogers discontinued carriage of the network in the Fall of 2022 due to broader issues involving carriage of Paramount's networks.

#### France 
Introduced on November 17, 2015. BET France launched across a linear television channel alongside non-linear services including Bouygues Telecom, Canalsat, Numericable/SFR, and Free.

#### Asia 
MTV East, MTV West, MTV Live, BET and BET Her also officially aired on Singapore, Johor Bahru/Johor Bahru District and Batam/Batam Islands via Channel 5 and 8 from 1 September 2022 (after farewell from MTV Southeast Asia as very final and last time the end (as of 31 August 2022) and expect Vietnam until 31 December 2022) until now.

MTV East, MTV West, MTV Live, BET and BET Her also officially aired on Indonesia via national commercial free-to-air terrestrial NET. from 10 April 2024 until now.

## References 
## Other websites 
*Official Site
*BETJ
*BET's Corporate Home (includes historical timeline)