Black Entertainment Television

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"BET" redirects here. For other uses, see BET (disambiguation).
BET
BET logo
Launched January 25, 1980
Owned by BET Networks (Viacom)
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
Country United States
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Sister channel(s) BET J, BET Gospel, & BET Hip-Hop
Website www.bet.com
Availability
Satellite
Bell ExpressVu (Canada) Channel 576
DirecTV (USA) Channel 329
Dish Network (USA) Channel 124
Star Choice (Canada) Channel 582
Sky Digital (UK) Channel 209
Cable
Available on most cable systems Check local listings

Black Entertainment Television is an American cable network based in Washington, D.C. targeted toward young blacks and urban audiences in the United States. The network is commonly referred to as B.E.T. and most of its programming comprises hip-hop and R&B music videos as well as religious programming, urban-oriented movies and series. BET was founded in 1980 by Robert L. Johnson.

Contents

[edit] Programming

[edit] Entertainment

On weekdays and Saturdays, BET focuses mainly on urban music programming with shows like 106 & Park and Rap City, while also airing sitcoms such as The Wayans Bros., The Jamie Foxx Show, Girlfriends, and The Parkers and now Malcolm & Eddie. Dramas including Soul Food and The Wire air Sunday nights and early mornings and the stand-up comedy program called Comic View airs throughout the week. BET has recently introduced reality programs like College Hill, collegiate sporting events, and various movies and specials. BET also created a short-lived animated comedy series called Hey Monie!, after partnering up with The Oxygen Network.

On Sundays, BET carries gospel music and other religious programming for the greater part of the day such as The Bobby Jones Gospel Hour, Video Gospel, and Lift Every Voice. Religious programming also airs in the early morning hours every day from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST.

[edit] News

BET Tonight was relaunched as a daily newscast, BET Nightly News with Jacque Reid, which began in 1999 as an extension of its news coverage. BET's news coverage became a part of the network in October 1986. After the nightly newscast was removed from the lineup in the summer of 2005, it returned in October 2005 delivering news updates on BET throughout the day and, in 2006, as a Sunday afternoon news hour. Currently as of January 7, 2008, BET has undergone a political conflict with popular show The Boondocks. BET threatened litigation if the shows 14th and 15th episodes of the second season were aired due to references to BET.[citation needed]

[edit] Specials

BET airs a number of specials, including awards shows, fashion shows, and music specials. The BET Awards honors African American entertainers, athletes and actors. It is usually BET's highest rated show of the year. The BET Hip Hop Awards is BET's largest music awards show, recognizing hip hop performers, producers and music video directors. Celebration of Gospel is an annual show featuring performances by the brightest stars in gospel and R&B, and television’s #1 religious/gospel telecast. Rip The Runway, a collision of hip hop and fashion is the network's annual fashion show. Spring Bling airs during spring break each year; a show dedicated to the goings on of spring breakers. In 2008, BET launched a new awards show, The BET Honors, which recognizes the lives and accomplishments of distinguished members of the African American Community.

[edit] Criticism

Many prominent media critics, including Public Enemy rapper Chuck D,[1] journalist George Curry,[2] writer Keith Boykin,[3] comic book creator Christopher Priest,[4] filmmaker Spike Lee[5] and cartoonist Aaron McGruder (who, in addition to numerous critical references throughout his series, The Boondocks, made a particular episode criticizing the channel), have protested BET's programming and actions. The channel has been criticized by members of the African-American community who feel that the channel perpetuates harmful black stereotypes by primarily airing hip-hop videos that often have misogynistic, materialistic, and/or violent themes.[6] As a result, BET heavily censors suggestive content from the videos that it airs, often with entire verses removed from certain rap videos. Detractors also point out the irony they see in the network's choice to show strong religious (primarily Christian) programming. Not long ago, people began referring to the acronym BET as standing for "Black Exploitation Television."[7] Many critics consider BET to be a modern-day "minstrel show". BET is currently owned and operated by Viacom, which is led by Philippe Dauman, a white person.

BET has been criticized by some Christian evangelicals not only for its music and programming content, but for its morning religious lineup. Each morning, BET broadcasts evangelical TV shows, and hosts include Robert Tilton, Don Stewart, and Peter Popoff, all of whom have been criticized, proven to be heading fraud ministries, and who have had run-ins with the law. In Popoff's case, his ministry's tax-exempt status was recently revoked in Canada; also, skeptic scientist James Randi notoriously debunked Popoff on The Tonight Show in 1988.[8]

Protests against BET, for the above reasons, have taken place.[9] The most recent campaign against the stereotypes on BET is called the "Enough is Enough Campaign".[10]

[edit] Sister network

The spin off channel BET J, originally called BET Jazz, is available in 28 million homes on DirecTV, Verizon FiOS TV as well as other digital cable providers. Programs include My Two Cents with Keith Boykin, Bryonn Bain, Crystal McCreary Anthony and Staceyann Chin, The Best Shorts hosted by Abiola Abrams, Living the Life of Marley about Ky-Mani Marley, My Model is Better Than Your Model with Eva Pigford and The Turn On hosted by Charlotte Burley. This channel is meant to appeal to an older, more sophisticated viewership, and aims to be the answer to the BET criticism with positive, adult programming.

[edit] Competitors

BET's success, and the controversy over its content, has spawned a few smaller competitors aiming toward the African-American market. Although some like NUE TV (New Urban Entertainment Television) and Black Family Channel (formerly MBC) had little success, others like TV One have thrived and succeeded, mostly by eschewing BET's music-based programming for more family-oriented fare. However these networks are mostly watched by older African-Americans and BET continues to be mostly watched by the youth. A possible new arrival to Internet TV and broadcasting, The African American Channel, is making an attempt to enter the picture. Broadcasting and Cable magazine pointed out that The African American Channel could become a competitor of BET and others such as Black Family Channel and TV One in the not so distant future. There was an article in September 2007 that touched on this a bit (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6478750.html).

[edit] International

[edit] BET UK

Main article: BET UK

BET International Inc was given a license to broadcast in the United Kingdom in May 2007 by Ofcom. BET UK will is the first international version of the channel. The channel launched on Wednesday 27th February 2008 and is currently on Sky Digital Channel 209. BET UK shows a mix of content from the main BET channel and locally produced shows.

[edit] Canada

BET became available in Canada in October of 1997 on most cable and satellite carriers. The Canadian feed is the same as the American feed with the only exceptions being movies and sitcoms. Most sitcoms and movies are replaced with music videos in a similar format to the daytime show BET Now with the exception being that there are limited commercial breaks and the BET bug doesn't appear in the bottom right corner. The majority of music videos being aired in place of movies and sitcoms are ones that were released during the summer of 2006.

[edit] Syndicated programs

[edit] Original BET shows

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ BET 2001 ; THE FISHTANK OF FOOLS. publicenemy.com (2001-03-30). Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
  2. ^ Viacom's BET Turns into ET. georgecurry.com (2002-12-10). Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
  3. ^ Keith Boykin (2002-12-18). All Hail Bob Johnson. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
  4. ^ Christopher J. Priest (2001-02). the ostracized negro. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
  5. ^ Zap2it - TV news - Spike Lee Dismisses BET
  6. ^ My Criticisms of Bob Johnson « ClydeOnline
  7. ^ http://www.emergingminds.org/magazine/content/item/1426
  8. ^ Randi, James (1989). The Faith Healers. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-535-0 page 142. 
  9. ^ Protesting Demeaning Images in Media - New York Times
  10. ^ Enough Is Enough Campaign

[edit] External links