Black News Channel is finding its audience
Network advocates but isn’t partisan, says chief executive
Like the other cable news networks, Black
News Channel reported on Gabby Petito, the 22-yearold woman who went missing in September and was found dead later that month.
But the reporting was supplemented with discussions about the obsessive coverage that surrounded the white blond Petito’s story and how missing women of color are largely ignored by the media.
BNC regularly reports on missing Black women and devotes a lengthy segment to their plight each week on its legal program “Making the Case,” hosted by attorney and former judge Yodit Tewolde.
The nascent Tallahassee, Florida-based channel is the only full-time national TV news channel dedicated to serving Black viewers. BNC is available in more than 50 million pay TV homes, up from 2.5 million when it launched in February 2020, and is on most major carriers including DirecTV, Spectrum and Cox. Next year BNC also will offer its programming as a direct-to-consumer online subscription service.
BNC is attempting to make inroads as cable TV news audiences are shrinking and technology has lowered the barrier of entry for video news startups, such as the Black Star Network, a streaming channel recently launched by journalist and commentator Roland Martin.
Launching a 24/7 news channel is daunting. The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera tried a U.S. version of its channel but pulled the plug after three years. Nexstar Media Group launched NewsNation in September 2020 and has struggled to find an audience.
BNC sees an opening, however, as a recent study by Nielsen shows 58% of Black audiences say they do not see enough representation of themselves on TV, despite their value to advertisers. Black audiences had buying power of $1.57 trillion in 2020, according to the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth.
BNC was co-founded by former Oklahoma Republican congressman J.C. Watts and broadcast executive Bob Brillante and launched with the backing of Shad Khan, owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.
Over the past year, BNC has undergone a makeover led by Princell Hair, who was the first Black executive to lead CNN’s U.S. operations. He joined in July 2020, replacing Brillante as chief executive.
The channel started with 55 employees. Hair built the staff up to 350 people and developed more personality-driven programs, which tend to draw the largest audiences for cable news networks.
While BNC advocates for Black people and causes, Hair said he is not out to create a partisan political channel.
“The mainstream networks have always looked at the Black audience as a monolithic audience,” Hair said. “A majority of Black Americans go to church every
Sunday. Many of them have very conservative values. Our goal is to present as many voices as we can and allow the audience to make up their minds.”
BNC has confronted some challenges. The company is facing a gender discrimination suit filed in August from a group of female employees who say they were being paid less than their male counterparts and operated in a “hostile work environment” where they were told they were “insufficiently feminine.”
A BNC representative said the claims were investigated by an outside law firm, and the company
believes they are baseless.
Hair has bolstered BNC’s talent roster, signing veteran hosts such as Sharon Reed, an outspoken local news anchor in Atlanta, and the Los Angeles-based Mike Hill, who joined from Fox Sports to helm “Start Your Day,” a breezy yet substantive morning show.
Hair also landed as prime-time hosts author and New York Times columnist Charles Blow and Mark Lamont Hill, a Temple University professor who learned TV by being a liberal foil for conservative stalwart Bill O’Reilly on Fox News.
In September, Hair brought on Aisha Mills, a Democratic political strategist whose pushback at conservative commentator Eric Bolling during a BBC segment last year led him to storm out of his camera shot.
Established TV news organizations have made an effort to improve diversity, especially after the 2020 death of George Floyd heightened the discussion of long-standing issues in the Black community such as social justice, law enforcement and racism. But that doesn’t mean issues facing the Black community are always addressed.
“It’s deceptive because you see there are a lot of people on the air who are African American,” said media strategist and political commentator Lauren Victoria Burke. “The problem is there are a lot of conversations that are not happening on those channels that are happening on BNC and ‘#RolandMartinUnfiltered’ on a deeper level.”
BNC’s most prominent hosts have progressive bona fides. When they are critical of President Joe Biden, it’s almost always for not delivering on his campaign promises to the Black community.
Hair wants the network to highlight achievements as well as the challenges facing BNC’s target audience. “We feature Black and brown people doing things in their community that you won’t necessarily see on the mainstream networks,” he said.
In a recent interview, the Pakistan-born Khan said he generally finds cable news too polarizing. He also said he had no desire to become a media mogul. But, as the first nonwhite owner of an NFL franchise, he believes in BNC’s concept.
“This is something important that really needs to be done,” said Khan, who is is looking for a strategic partner to help fund the channel’s expansion while maintaining its identity.
“We have to maintain some level of independence,” Hair said. “The most important currency to the Black audience is authenticity.”
BNC executives say they are mindful of the shift to digital platforms. The network already has a free streaming channel, BNC GO. It also has done outreach to journalism programs at historically black colleges and universities, offering internships and raising awareness of BNC among younger consumers who tend to watch online.
Martin also said Black media ownership matters to his audience. “One of my fears I’ve always had is that 50 years from now African Americans will be asking someone else to tell their stories,” he said.
While BNC is not Blackowned, Hair believes the network’s commitment to the Black community will be apparent to viewers.
“Ownership is meaningful, and Shad Khan is a person of color who understands the experience and challenges that minorities face in the U.S. and around the world,” Hair said. “His belief in our mission and support has allowed us to hire more than 250 Black journalists and production personnel over the last year, which I’m confident stands as an all-time high for any network.”