BNN???
May 27, 2008 — FORMER congressman J.C. Watts is behind a major push to launch an all-news channel for black people.
The network, tentatively called Black Television News Channel and slated to launch in early 2009, already has an agreement with Comcast cable to be carried in several cities with large black populations including Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., Atlanta and Baltimore.
As yet, there is no deal to carry the channel in New York.
“I’m not so sure that you see anything on CNN or Fox News that specifically targets the African American community,” Watts told The Post.
According to recent U.S. census figures, nearly 81 percent of Detroit’s population is black, while Baltimore is 64 percent, Atlanta is 61 percent, D.C. is 57 percent, Philly is 46 percent and Chicago is 37 percent. That means each city is a major potential market for the new channel and advertisers.
At least one news report on the new channel called Watts the “black Ted Turner,” after the founder of CNN.
There has been a gap in black-targeted news on TV since Black Entertainment Television cancelled its “BET Nightly News” in 2005
Watts says his goal is to push the news coverage beyond the usual crime stories.
“Our community features millions of people with all kinds of backgrounds. There’s a much broader segment of the population than what we see in mainstream news,” he says.
Watts is, so far, not giving any details about who is backing the channel, how much the initial financing will be or who will run it.
“Certainly [this channel] could cover issues from a different perspective,” says Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and one of the authors of its respected annual report, State of the Media.
There has been no shortage of major news stories directly related to the black community, he says, including the public falling out between Presidential hopeful Barack Obama and his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the recent civil rights flash point, the Jena Six case.
“The question is, could it work on a regular basis?” asks Jurkowitz.
Tom Dolan, a news industry staffing expert, believes it will take Watts at least six months to staff a new channel, under the best circumstances.
“And that doesn’t include anchors and reporters who you may target,” he says. “Many times, they are still under contract with someone else.”
Cable news is a big money proposition. The rule of thumb is that each hour of original programming costs about $7 million annually, once everything else is in place.
Industry sources believe starting a cable news network would cost at least $100 million.
Watts said only that he and “two cable industry vets” whom he declined to identify are bankrolling most of the start up. A list of private equity partners will be “released at a later time,” he says.
Watts, the lone African American Republican in Congress until 2003 when he quit to start his own business, is a frequent commentator on both Fox News Channel and CNN. He is also on the board of radio giant Clear Channel.
The thing about these all black channels is, Black people would be offended if a Caucasion public spoke about creating an “All White News Network”. Yet it’s supposed to be alright for minorities? As a Black woman, the world is not ALL BLACK. Yes, it’d be nice for things such as nationwide amber alerts to show more love to our community, but I watch CNN and Bloomberg not to see whats going on in the White community but to keep up with whats going on around the WORLD. Also, I’d be highly disappointed to view an “all black” station that is supposedly the voice of the Black community and then hear something I don’t agree with. Even watching BET news it reminds me (at times) of just how far back we are as a people. We want all Black everythings, but will be pissed off if there were an “All White” something else. I happen to find CNN informative. I guess I’ll take the devil’s advocate position on this.
I guess this is a plausible idea… how they execute it (and if) will determine if I’m rolling or not.
You know it’s sad that we have to create our own news channel just to see whats going on in our community. Time after Time CNN will but up stories such as a missing girl that is white but we hardly get that national attention if she was black. What about all are successful business people that are not in the entertainment business but are making big moves? We need an informative news channel that will tell us what’s going on in the world but is not limit to just our world.
if they need Chicago correspondents tell them to hit me up. but my only thing is don’t call it black news. just do like white people and call it world news but let the majority of the workers be black. you feel what im saying. they do know we don’t have to put the word black in front of everything no more right. it just have to be about black things ya dig. somebody need to hire me because they just don’t be thinking right at the top level this is a new century people anything is fucking possible.