Byron Allen’s company planning to buy Black News Channel

The Black News Channel, which filed for bankruptcy protection a few months ago and laid off most of its employees, is close to being purchased by Byron Allen’s media group Entertainment Studio Networks for $11 million, according to CableFax.

Allen was the only bidder for the assets set by the U.S. Bankruptcy

Court for the Northern District of Florida. The Black News Channel was headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, until operations largely shut down in March. Majority stakeholder and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan had invested more than $100 million into BNC, but audience and revenue failed to meet the company’s hefty cost structure.

The deal has been finalized and officially announced.

Allen, who is based in Los Angeles, owns a production company, TV stations and several cable networks, most notably Atlanta-based Weather Channel, which he purchased in 2018 for $300 million.

Allen spoke with CableFax about the purchase, saying the network failed in part because cable carriers like Comcast, Charter and Verizon refused to give Black News Channel any “subfees,” which are given to more popular cable channels like TBS, ESPN and USA Network. New cable networks don’t usually receive such money until they generate enough audience. The Black News Channel’s ratings were tiny, though they did pick up during the Derek Chauvin trial.

“If you really want something to succeed and you don’t want to find it in bankruptcy, and they’re pink slipping 300 Black journalists, yeah, there should have been some subfees,” Allen told CableFax.

He also was disappointed that the ad community failed to bolster the network. Non-direct response ad dollars, he said, were less than $2 million for its last 12 months of operation.