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When news broke about Paramount Global's plan to sell a majority stake in BET Media Group, the HBCU community held its breath with anticipation.
The prospect of BET Media Group (along with BET+ and VH1) becoming black-owned again ignited excitement and renewed hope for the future. It presented an opportunity for BET to truly represent and serve the black community, both on-screen and behind the scenes. As discussions about potential buyers continued, everyone eagerly awaited news on who would take on the task of restoring BET to its former glory. Prominent figures such as Diddy, Kenya Barris, 50 Cent, and Shaq emerged as contenders for this valuable black-centric media property. Yet, the clear frontrunner is Tyler Perry.
Perry, the billionaire media mogul behind Tyler Perry Studios, formed a streaming partnership with BET in 2019 to launch the BET+ streaming service. Perry acquired a 25 percent ownership stake in BET and produced several successful shows, including “Sistas” and “The Oval.” With his creative imprint already visible on the network, it seems only fitting for Tyler Perry to assume ownership of BET.
Tyler Perry taking over BET would be incredible and make a lot of sense. However, it's hard not to root for Byron Allen to secure the bid for minority ownership over BET. His ownership of BET would be a step forward in ensuring HBCUs receive true value for our sports media rights and provide fans with greater accessibility to HBCU sports.
The prospect of a Byron Allen-led BET operating in the interests of HBCU athletics is not far-fetched. As early as October 2019, Allen expressed his interest in HBCU Football.
“You know the real reason why I went after Comcast and Charter… it didn't even have anything to do with my cable networks. A gentleman wanted to do the Black College Sports Network in partnership with the HBCUs, and Comcast did not accept it, and that would have made a lot of money for these black colleges…that's when I came off the bench and said, ‘Okay, I'm gonna light you up like a Christmas tree.' That was the real reason why I got into it, was when I saw what happened with the black college sports network which I don't own,” He said in an October 2019 interview with The Breakfast Club.
His remarks in that interview always intrigued me. I knew that somehow he would become a player in HBCU media rights, as it seemed he had a genuine desire and affinity for the plight of HBCUs. So, when he acquired HBCU Go in 2021, his strategy was clear. His goal was to provide full-scale broadcasts of HBCU sports, similar to what the Black College Sports Network aspired to do.
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Less than a year after the acquisition, HBCU Go signed a partnership to broadcast SWAC sporting events, and in August 2022, Allen Media Group secured a distribution deal to air HBCU football on CBS Stations in markets such as Atlanta, Dallas, and Miami. Byron Allen recognized the revenue generation potential and high viewership possibilities of broadcasting HBCU sports. Acquiring a majority stake in BET would take this strategy to another level.
Even in a fragmented media market, live sports remains a lucrative business. HBCU football attracts significant viewership on cable. Byron Allen would stand to gain much by utilizing the secondary media rights he holds with the SWAC, MEAC, SIAC, and CIAA to air sporting content on BET's linear cable channel. He could attract advertisers seeking accessibility to the African-American market to sponsor the broadcasts and even segments during the game, such as the halftime show.
This would harken back to the heyday of the Bob Johnson-owned regime, which aired HBCU Football every Saturday during the season. BET stopped airing HBCU Football in 2005, four years after Viacom (now Paramount Global) bought a majority stake in the network from Johnson for $2.3 Billion.
However, an even greater opportunity arises from BET+. The streaming service could become the hub of HBCU Go. Following a strategy akin to ESPN+, BET+ could stream dozens of HBCU games each week and select the best game to showcase on the main BET channel. Content related to HBCU sports culture, such as HBCU Go's original series “Road To Homecoming,” could reside on BET+ and even air on the linear cable channel before or after the game of the week, providing additional exposure and free promotion to a mass audience for BET+.
We witnessed a similar strategy deployed by BET in promoting “College Hill: Celebrity Edition,” which drew 854,000 and 227,000 views for the premieres of seasons 1 and 2, respectively when aired on the BET cable channel.
If Byron Allen were to acquire the majority stake in BET, he would see gains that extend beyond HBCU athletics. Allen has other ventures, such as The Weather Channel and his new service The Grio, which could carve out a unique niche within the BET Media Group's ecosystem. Nevertheless, it's hard not to envision HBCU sports as the centerpiece of a blossoming media empire.
